It’s about to be Christmas and I am buzzing with excitement. The
holidays bring out the best in me with my liver going for a personal best every
time.
Christmas time is a special season and when I was growing up the Sales
House advert which tried to capture the ideal of Christmas in Africa seemed pretty
accurate. Everyone dressed to the nines; one or two roosters giving the
ultimate sacrifice; the Christmas buses packed to the rafters, and the word ‘bonus’
softening even Ebenezer Scrooge’s heart and opening his wallet.
As a child Christmas was about new clothes, walking around the neighborhood
and stuffing one’s face, and if you were lucky there were fire crackers going
off left, right and centre. Like all children from our generation TV played an
important role in my upbringing. So it was inevitable that my definition and
experience of Christmas was going to clash with the whole western version of
Christmas i.e. no snow, no reindeers, no overweight white old man with a penchant
for chimneys and breaking and entry. Despite my reservations I still believed
in Christmas and wondered if it would ever snow here and how Father Christmas
would deal with the heat in that outfit.
As I got older and more mature (which doesn’t always follow) I found
Jesus in Christmas and the spiritual side of Christmas became significant.
Sadly age came with knowledge and I soon found out that Jesus wasn’t even born
in December and the picture of Christmas the world was selling was distorted to
say the least. Actually, it would seem Christmas as a whole was a machination
of capitalism and creative marketing divisions the world over. It wasn’t
steeped in fact or tradition. This loss of faith and general distrust of the
whole season carried on into my early twenties where I found the joy of the
holidays being with family and celebrating extensively whilst improving Delta Beverages’
sales. I would spare some time to celebrate the birth of the Saviour of Mankind
without focusing on the inaccuracies shoved down our throats by the media. At
the back of my mind and in my heart I liked the Father Christmas/Santa Clause
thing and figured it was tribute to a Saint and the fables that came with it
had to be indulged or, at worst, tolerated. Sadly my holiday fervor came crashing
down when I discovered that Father Christmas, or at least his famous image was
a creation of Coca-Cola. Well, sort of.
Santa Clause as we see him is based on a famous saint whose generosity and benevolence
was renowned, but over the years his character has evolved with his most
significant make over being in the 1920’s when Don Draper in a bid to improve the
sale of Coca-Cola during winter used
Father Christmas to promote Coca-Cola.
Through the extensive campaigns and the evident success of Coca-Cola their depiction of Santa has become the most accepted and
recognized. As for the colours, they say it’s mere coincidence and nothing
else. I wonder if that’s true.
So as I look forward to the holidays I don’t doubt their worth and
importance. I just wonder if capitalism and all its trappings have not hijacked
an important time, and if they have, how do we as a people not lose its essence
and value to mankind’s growth? So as you revel in all that is Christmas and
trip over tradition you don’t understand, pause for a moment to find what
Christmas means to you and make it count.
See all you single ladies under
the mistletoe! That’s if I can find any – hope the fake stuff counts!
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