Christmas? Bah, humbug... mostly!

Jamille Broome writes a weekly column for the Newsday. 

No tree. No lights. No painting. No new furniture. And most definitely none of that annoying soca-parang that I have been hearing since I was two-months-old.

I’m sorry, but I doh want no brush, I doh eat pork, and I don’t know how or why we overlook the trauma that Leroy had to endure when his mother abandoned the family on Christmas morning to attend a parang function. You may call me Rude-olph the reindeer everyone loves to hate, or maybe some of you are thinking: Who’s this Grinch? I can’t even blame you and I don’t take offence because I really couldn’t care any less about the commercial gimmickry of the season.

And if you think I’m just a miserable sourpuss you may be correct, but many others also support my view. In fact, a man much older and wiser than me, Ebenezer Scrooge himself, once said that Christmas is a “poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December.”

Nevertheless, despite all my negativity regarding certain aspects of the holidays, I still love Christmas because of the spirit of the season, which is the overwhelming outpouring of generosity not seen throughout the year. During Christmas, the word we hear the most is not “merry,” “Santa,” or even — unfortunately — “Jesus”; it’s “gift.” And I don’t mean those lame gifts the three Wise Men carried for baby Jesus; who carries gold, frankincense and myrrh for a baby!?

Anyway, at Christmas time, everyone is out looking for a gift for at least one person, and in recent times, “gift” has been largely associated with “charity,” which is my favourite part of it all.

This is important because I think the society is a somewhat selfish one, although Christmas causes hearts to soften and wallets to open. I am of this opinion because of an experience I had earlier this year; and I want to share it with all of you simply to inspire you to do some good this season.

Earlier this year whilst driving up Edward Street in Port-of-Spain, I glanced across Queen Street to see a schoolchild hobbling down St Vincent Street. I was concerned because I thought he was injured, so when I got to the Police Administration Building, I turned onto Sackville Street and turned down St Vincent Street to meet up with this child in order to find out what was wrong.

With all the traffic at that time of the afternoon, the boy had already hobbled across Independence Square, and was about to enter the bus terminal located opposite the Eric Williams Financial Complex.

When I pulled alongside him, I asked what was wrong and he showed me that the entire sole of his right sneaker was hanging on by the last millimetre of thread or glue or whatever adhesive was used. This meant that in order to walk, he had to lift his entire foot up and then place it back down in a way that prevented his bare feet from touching the pavement, although he was wearing socks.

I moved some files from my front passenger seat and told him to get in so we could go get a pair of sneakers. On our way, he told me that the sneaker came apart during the lunch break, and after school he had walked up from his school located on South Quay to his aunt’s place of work on upper Richmond Street to see if she could have helped him with fixing the shoe, but she was unable to. He then had to walk back down to catch the bus to San Fernando where he and his mother had recently moved to from the Beetham. I was flabbergasted and heart-broken that hundreds of my fellow Trinbagonians saw this schoolchild walking through Port-of-Spain with a busted shoe and not a single person offered any type of assistance. I just could not believe it. Mind you, this happened long before the hurricanes and all the charity everyone suddenly felt the need to give when, as a society, we ignore the people who need help right here at home. So yes, “Bah, humbug” to the commercial crap if we cannot realise the true spirit of the Christmas season. Just as the folks at the Children’s Authority are working hard to make sure that every child is placed with a family this season, we should all be aiming to spread some Christmas cheer to people (especially children) who need it.

Susan Macio got it right, Trini Christmas is the best because of the merriment, food and drinks, but trust me, the real joy comes from that act of charity I just inspired you to perform. Happy Holidays!

Jamille85@msn.com