It’s Christmas day today. I had all intentions of writing my blog and posting it at the stroke of midnight. But as usual, I got caught up in the Holiday preparation. After spending all Christmas Eve into Christmas Day cleaning, wrapping gifts, and decorating, I was just too tired to visit the computer.

As I got up this morning and began cooking, cleaning again, and more cooking, writing the blog took a bit of a back seat. Christmas is a lot of work, especially if you have kids. But it is work I enjoy. Why? I love Christmas. I love the sights, the sounds and the smells. I especially like the tastes.

There are some foods we only eat at Christmas. We brew Sorrel, a blood red drink made from the Sorrel flower. The aroma fills the room and fills my heart with nostalgia. We make black cake. It is a fruit cake filled with wine and sometimes rum. I soak the dried fruits: raisins, prunes, currents, cherries etc in port wine for a few weeks then bake them into the cake. After the cake is finished, I pour port wine and a tiny bit of CSR, a rum made in St. Kitts, over it.

The smell of cake baking, ham baking, sorrel brewing and ginger beer fills me with memories of a time past. A time when there were no gifting or myths of Santa bringing presents. A time when Christmas and carnival went hand in hand… when people dropped by our home just to have some Sorrel and Black Cake. A time of joy that did not involve the excessive materialism that characterizes Christmas today.

Yes I love Christmas. And as I enjoy my roasted lamb, yam pie, and fried plantains with my sorrel and black cake, I’ll remember all who celebrate the holidays in different ways. So for all who take the time to visit Novel Spaces today, here’s my wish for you:

I wish you a merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous new year!