Santa is one of the amazing people every young kid would love to meet and greet, especially on Christmas Eve. Well, I used to believe they are humans and sure I’m right, maybe, probably.
One of the significances of Christmas is the Christmas tree, its bright and shiny green colour, beautified with shining glowing balls making it special and awesome. Boxes are been placed beneath it the night before and then permitted to be unveiled on Christmas day. Every member of the family gets to pick a gift box, unwrap and unveil this gift for everyone to see, these practices are mostly done and seen in foreign countries, like the United States of America, little or none happens to be seen in African countries not to mention Nigeria.
This isn’t different for the Ukomoko community, and the family of Jerry Eze was blessed to have one.
It’s Saturday night and Christmas happens to be the following day; Chuks, Jerry’s younger brother walks into his room and pops the question: “Bro Jerry, isn’t Santa coming this Christmas, I’m worried”? Well, his elder brother who himself has also been anticipating Santa’s coming responded but not with full assurance: ” Chuks, don’t worry Santa is on the way, his coming speedily”. They were worried Santa might never come seeing he’s yet to arrive even when it’s already almost Christmas morning. Sadly, Chuks went back to his room and sat on his bed with moving lips as though muttering prayers for Santa to come quickly.
In the previous year, Santa had come earlier at around 6 pm, they were just arriving from the church and behold the gift boxes, all beautifully laid beneath the Christmas tree, with so much excitement Chuks almost wanted to open his gift box but got the serious warning look from Mom, and didn’t go on ahead to do such. Everyone has to wait till the morning!
Morning came, and the whole place was filled with an aura of excitement, each person walked happily and majestically ready to open their gift boxes but Uncle Jude, suggested that each person pick a gift at a time instead of everyone picking at once; the suggestion was carried out, each picked the gift boxes and will feel excitements discovering what they’ve got, the picking was ordered from the oldest to the youngest.
Uncle Max’s family flew in from London every Christmas to come celebrate with us, he’s my mom’s younger brother, Uncle Max normally comes three days to Christmas but this particular year’s own was somewhat different, he had flown in just about 4 am, due to some delay on their flight departure…well that’s a story for another day, thank God he was able to make it to the “Grand opening of the gifts!”, as chuks normally call it.
Everyone opened and was happy, we were once again excited about the privilege to celebrate another Christmas, and then after we wined and dined.
The festive season of Christmas for my family is a good time to enjoy ourselves and to bond with family and friends, this time around Mom organized a party in the compound inviting the neighbours and relatives, it was a blast, everyone ate till full, drinks were enough for everyone, dad had bought them the previous night before, we all ate and drank and everyone is happy.
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And so the above story is told to talk about the significance of bonding in love with family members and friends, this piece was written in February, a month which volumes out love in the air, more so because of the date fourteenth (14th), which marks the valentine’s day.
I think most families are built to share and bond with and in love, the essence of family I would say is to share love! Imagine being alone in this whole wide, cruel and wicked world without your loved ones, eh? That’s probably the beginning of sadness for anyone, even though some people aren’t privileged to have one, yet others have but have lost some and even others have and they are all alive, the importance, roles and significance the family plays in the life of a person cannot be overemphasized; family after God is everything, and if you’ve got one, cherish it with the whole of your heart, cause as the saying goes, you won’t know the importance of what you have until you lost it, cherish them while you can!
That’s my main message from these posts, stay blessed!
Written by Elisha Bamaiyi
