Creating a magical Christmas

CHRISTMAS is just around the corner, and I know just how to create the perfect Christmas. It’s simple: give in ways like you have never done before. Forget digging deep inside your pockets if you have the money to buy lavish gifts for friends or family who don’t really need them. Instead, dig deep inside yourself and support your community or the less fortunate among us. Give meaningful gifts to friends and family.

I’ll never forget the Christmas when my daughter, Ijanaya, asked her friends to buy books for my Port of Spain Prison library instead of buying a gift for her. She said that would make a meaningful Christmas.

That year, she asked to donate our perfectly good Christmas tree to Port of Spain Prison. She decorated it in the visiting room, and we heard stories of sad people uplifted by that tree when they came to visit relatives in prison. A prison guard told me that people said they could sit and watch that tree all day long. They said it was the most beautiful Christmas tree they had ever seen.

It was a beautiful tree with red, green, blue and amber lights, transparent plastic angels and glittery plastic bulbs. Ijanaya had been deemed the glitter queen since elementary school. I can imagine how that tree must have looked even more beautiful than it was because it sat in such an unimaginable place.

Ijanaya had the idea to give Christmas gifts randomly. Every time we went to the gas station in Maraval, one of our regular attendants always talked about movies, so we bought movie and dinner tickets for his Christmas gift. He was speechless.

She baked sugar cookies, pecan snowballs rolled in powdered sugar, peanut butter cookies topped with Hershey’s Kisses and rum balls for friends and decorated gingerbread dogs for police canine officers. The dogs wore K9 vests made from icing. She delivered her treats on fancy plates that could be kept and used throughout the year.

Find a way to give gifts that really make a difference in someone’s life. A random act of kindness is never forgotten. Find an NGO or a religious organisation that contributes to the community and offer your services or a financial contribution. It is really the best gift you can give yourself.

Remember the gift of books for Christmas – especially Caribbean books. When you buy a book to give to an NGO like Let’s Read or a book to give to a teacher in your child’s class you keep our Caribbean voice alive and help children learn because reading is the foundation of all learning.

Throughout this pandemic, I have seen the joy in students who have had teachers reading to them in their zoom classes. We like to say that children don’t like to read, but many children do love books, but they can’t afford them.

Organise coworkers to buy books for a school library or for a class teacher. A group of people could easily buy a class a set of books. Just check with teachers to get their input.

Organise family members, friends, book club members or co-workers to make hampers or contribute money or items to those religious bodies that organise hampers on a regular basis.

All of this random giving or meaningful giving to schools, NGOs and religious organisations is really quite affordable once you rethink Christmas.

I like to think that my children learned about the perfect Christmas gift when they were small. Every year I bought more and more gifts. There never seemed to be enough gifts I could buy. Then, one March, I asked, “What did you get last Christmas?”

They couldn’t remember a single present. That was the year I scaled back Christmas gifts and bought one meaningful gift they could never forget – a bike, a stereo, a vanity, a swing set – something memorable. That gave me extra money to spread the gift of giving to others.

This pandemic has created great financial and emotional stress for many people so it is more important than ever to look around and see where you can help to make this a special holiday for those who are struggling.

You have the power to create a Christmas that someone will always remember, and in the process of giving you create a memorable Christmas for yourself. There is no feeling that matches community service. It elevates happiness and creates a state of well-being on a whole new level for everyone involved.