It was only July yet my mother had procured her outfit for church on Christmas morning and would be swaddled in soft green fabric.  Preparations for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ had begun – five months in advance. In the Caribbean, or at least my Caribbean, Christmas is not a season solely spent reclining with friends and family. No, it’s frenetic, saddled with food and housework. In my family, planning (or plotting) begins on Boxing Day.  My sisters and I, ably assisted by the quiet acquiescence of our father, would convince our “Hostess with the Mostest” mother that putting on both breakfast and lunch was a bit of a stretch.

Don’t get me wrong, breakfast is heavenly. My family congregates in the kitchen, carving the baked ham, sampling slivers along the way; sautéing frizzled salt fish and spinach; beating eggs; blending juices; and slicing coconut bread and pudding (homemade, not store-bought, if you please!). Then there’s the delightful banter and laughter with our guests. It’s just that after they leave, their invite for the following year in tow, we’re sequestered to the kitchen for lunch preparations – rice with pigeon peas and salt meat, chicken in place of turkey, stuffing, baked pork, jug jug (made of corn, salted meat and loads of green peas), and an array of vegetables and salads. We invariably spend most of the day in the kitchen-cum-sauna, a pull especially after attending the 5 a.m. Christmas service.

I’m sure the pre-dawn Church service is faithfully observed by many throughout the region. The cool morning makes for a fantastic start to Christmas Day. Alternatively some attend midnight mass on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere – strains of the organ, melodic singing, and the faint smell of age and incense exhaled by the building – lends to one’s reflection on the significance of Christ’s birth.

After an early morning service many Barbadians, my family included (before the age of breakfast hosting), would make their way to Queen’s Park in Bridgetown. On Christmas Day this large, open space teams with hundreds of visitors strolling across the green. They enjoy Christmas songs infused with a stately Caribbean rhythm by the Royal Barbados Police Force Band, and their children suck contentedly on sno cones and other sweets. People watching is another activity, encouraged by the wide range of fashions on display – haute couture, elegant, or downright outlandish!

Getting ready
There are many signs of Christmas’ approach in the Barbados. You’ll hear many a truck on the roads delivering the latest appliances, in many cases, on Christmas Eve. You’ll also see curtains, which were doing a perfectly good job in earlier months, tossed to one side and replaced by their heavier, more colourful cousins, again on Christmas Eve. And let’s not forget the smell of paint dashed against the sides of our homes. But this last minute rush is not unique to Barbados. In St Vincent and the Grenadines Denece Pompey’s family “always does last minute Christmas cleaning and decorating on Christmas Eve. Some people think that’s crazy and too stressful, but personally I think its fun and I look forward to it. The best part is the smell of the Christmas salt ham cooking on the stove, and, no matter how late it is, staying up and getting a taste before I go to sleep.”

Her family also loves the country’s Nine Mornings festival, which celebrates Christ’s birth. Deon, Denece’s sister, explains: “From December 15th to the 24th at 4 a.m. people come together in communities and just have fun. There are impromptu contests for prizes as well as showcases of local talent. It’s also tradition to eat oranges there, with the festival usually going till 7 a.m.”

A great combo
In Trinidad and Tobago I’m told that, for some, festivities kick into high gear after Christmas Day. Rhuelle Davidson from Tobago “waits until Boxing Day and thereafter to Parang”. By ‘Parang’ she does not mean singing from house to house but ‘eating from house to house!’

One of Rhuelle’s best Parang experiences was in 2007. “From Boxing Day till New Years Day my sisters and I and a couple of other friends were visiting friends from 4 p.m. till midnight. Every afternoon my stomach was heavy with food and goodies. One time I ate so much that I had to unbutton my top shirt. I was so stuffed that I couldn’t move for a while. Last Christmas a friend told one of the hosts not to put the snacks by me because there would be nothing left for anyone else to eat!”

In Guyana, Liesl Harewood boasts, “there really is nothing like Christmas there. The black cake, the pepperpot with home-made bread, the garlic pork. And it really isn’t just about the food. For years, the entire family would congregate at my grandmother’s house in Georgetown for breakfast, lunch and a day of ole talk. The children would be testing their new gifts and there were sure to be some tears of disappointment as some were ‘mashed up’ that same day! Boxing Day continued at an uncle’s house on a farm in Timerhi, so the festivities moved from town to the relaxing countryside.”

There’s nothing quite like a Caribbean Christmas. Late night or early morning church services to celebrate Christ; jugs of sorrel or jug jug; and laughter, liming and singing with friends and family. So what if we wilt a little in the kitchen heat?