17th December 2011
The ho ho ho’s on you

This is the time of year where you are advised, more than usual, to make sure that your doors (and windows) are securely locked at all times. And that’s whether you’re in or out of the house
It’s the holiday season, and while you need to have money to do your Xmas shopping in town, there are lots of individuals around who do their Xmas shopping at your place, if you let them, and they’re not inclined to pay for whatever goodies they choose to take home with them.
Pelay sings a Christmas song, “Tradition Noel”, which helps to put us in the spirit of things for the season, but one “tradition” which he didn’t put into his song is the one about the fellows who come into your house at this time, in order to give themselves a “Bon Noel.”
Maybe the fault is with our storytellers, who didn’t make it quite clear to the children what the Santa Claus theory is all about.
I imagine that, in the old days, when our people were emerging from slavery, and were feeling oppressed by the white man, a child listening to the story of Santa Claus couldn’t be blamed for getting his facts wrong.
If he looked on all white people as the bad guys, and got the lowdown on some big fat white fella coming down a chimney with a sack into the house in the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping, it would be pretty hard for him to imagine that the guy was there for anything but stealing.
Don’t forget that even though the children were fed those stories, most of the families were too poor to provide any toys for the numerous children living in the house.