Houses twinkle and shine

 

This house in Country Road, St Michael has been absolutely eye-catching. At left, the homeowner puts some finishing touches on the display.

THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS have been switched on, and businesses, homes and other establishments across the country are aglow.

 People have gone to great lengths to make sure their places are pleasing to the eye.

Gone are the days when a Christmas tree, a few lights and some tinsel on the inside sufficed. Thousands of colourful lights have been set up in and outside structures in intricate designs and themes in some cases.

Memories of a Bajan Christmas – services, snoring and surprises!

I remember looking forward to Christmas morning at 5:00AM service. The house was always full of the smell of the ham and coconut bread baking, Mummy and Daddy rushing us off to bed by 10, and them staying up to finish all preparations. They would listen to midnight mass on the radio or watch it on tv. We’d have to bathe before we went to bed and lay out all our undies and socks so that when we wake up at 3 AM we would be half ready. We’d get into the Church around 3:45 to make sure we got seats and then I’d spend the next few hours watching that my father did not snore in church!

My highlight apart from the music was watching the sun rise and listenning for the Christmas cock! As a child I thought that he was specially picked for Christmas morning and it was his job to crow at precisely 6 AM.

We’d then visit family members and eat snippits of breakfast all the way home where we’d have our feast!

Before breakfast was digested, we were off again to the family get together for lunch and inevitably there was some relative who’d call from the airport to surprise everyone that they’d made it home for Christmas. We had the tradition of surprise! I love Christmas!

– by Dondonqt

What are your memories of how you spent the Christmas holidays in Barbados? Share them with us! Comment on our discussion forum or email our Digital Editor, Amanda Lynch-Foster at amandalynch@nationnews.com.

Memories of a Bajan Christmas – french polish, hammering and kus-kus perfume

I remember the banging of the hammer as curtains were being hung on Christmas eve night. There was the aroma of varnish or French Polish on the mahogany furniture, very often when you sat on the chairs on Christmas day you got stuck to them.

There is practically a car in every driveway in Bim these days, such was not the case back in the day –  it meant walking to church on Christmas morning for the early service.

Hundreds turn out to carol by candle light

 

The lawns of Ilaro Court were lit up with hundreds who came out for the 14th annual Carols by Candle Light. (picture by Rawle Culbard)

 

 

Undaunted by intermittent showers, a large crowd converged on the grounds of Ilaro Court on Sunday to be part of Carols by Candlelight sponsored by the Rotary Club of Barbados.

The event, now in its 14th year, raises thousands of dollars in order to buy gifts for needy children across the island, says Rotary President Elvin Sealy.

In a brief address, Sealy said that the Evelina Smith Children’s Home located at the St. Philip District Hospital was one of the more recent beneficiaries of the annual fundraiser.

“From your contributions we are able to provide help to those who need it. In April this year we completed the renovation of Evelina Smith Home for challenged children … .

“This renovated facility has vastly improved the living conditions for 17 physically and mentally handicapped children at that institution at a cost of over $100 000 dollars. It is a perfect fit to our theme here Make Dreams Real.”

Sealy also thanked Prime Minister David Thompson and his wife Mara for allowing the use of Ilaro to stage “the biggest fund-raising event on the Rotary Calendar”. 

 

 – by John Sealy

Christmas shopping starting to pick up

 

Storeowners in Bridgetown are optimistic that the season will be good for sales.

While it may not be a “bumper season”, they say sales so far are on par – for most!

With just 11 days to go before Christmas Day, they say the number of shoppers and sales have started to pick up significantly.

Surveying shoppers on Swan Street, Abeds managing director Eddy Abed said he had noticed that fewer people were shopping and the streets weren’t as busy as last year.

But he said he found the average purchase per customer was up from last year.

“We expected from this weekend that we would have seen a significant increase in the traffic and although there are fewer shoppers, they are spending more,” he said.

Over at Cave Shepherd, corporate communications manager Hugh Durant said that unlike two weeks ago when customers were just looking, they were now starting to spend.

No place like Bim for the holidays!

 

Sisters (left to right) Jessie not home since 1978, Wavanie who returns regularly, and Shirley Edwards not home since 1995, are eager to see the changes in Barbados' landscape. (picture by Cherie Pitt)

There is no place like home for the holidays!

The words of one of the world’s most popular Christmas songs became reality on Saturday, as scores of Barbadians roped through the Grantley Adams International Airport to spend their holidays in Bimshire.

 Everyone seemed eager: The student who returned after a hard semester; the old lady who left many years ago; and the couple who spend every Christmas on the island.

“The last time I was here was in 1978 and all I keep hearing is how much things have changed so I am eager to just get going and see what I have missed for all these years,” Jessie Edwards-Thompson, a former Speightstown resident, now living in Kansas, said.

Memories of a Bajan Christmas – Bajan Christmas smells!

Those were the days. We always killed a pig and took orders where we sold almost the whole thing!

Remember the wine and falernum that you took your gallon bottles to buy from a store in High Street? When I was in high school, in town, I was asked to pick it up after school. I was embarrassed in my uniform in the store, but on the school bus, I was queen. I guess lots of parents could only afford a pint and a half bottle. So, you could imagine how it was when I got on with a gallon bottle, heavy as anything, and having that little handle by the neck to carry it by.

That was good port wine. I have been trying for years to find a port tasting like that to no avail.

With the ham, oil skin, (we only had congoleum in the shed roof), pudding and cake, plus the baked pork, man, the house was one mass of smells. It smelled like Christmas!

– by bajans

What are your memories of how you spent the Christmas holidays in Barbados? Share them with us! Comment on our discussion forum or email our Digital Editor, Amanda Lynch-Foster at amandalynch@nationnews.com.

Memories of a Bajan Christmas – sand, scrubbing and sweeties

I remember very well, the weeks leading up to, and just before Christmas.

I can recall the preparations of going to the beach to get the sand for the yard, weeding around the house, washing down the house inside and outside,(I hated that part) scrubbing the floors with whitehead bush or with the skin of an old-wife fish. Then there was seeing Mum go to town to buy cloth to make new curtains, buying artificial flowers made from crepe or plain paper from the sellers in the bus stand and around other areas in Bridgetown, and buying Christmas cards to send to relatives and friends.

As for decorations we could only afford balloons and colourful streamers or picture cards of Father Christmas as we called him in those days – very few of us called him Santa Claus back then. As for toys, we got things like mouth organs, crickets, flutes, wind mills on a stick or very small toy cars; the girls got small dollies, doll babies as they were called at that time.

As for presents, well handkerchiefs, socks, shirts, mostly short pants and maybe shoes not forgetting the comforts, toffees and nuts. I can still hear those hawkers around the bus stand with trays on their heads shouting: “comfort, toffees and nuts, who calling, simma hay.” Oh, for the good old days!!!

– Elliot

What are your memories of how you spent the Christmas holidays in Barbados? Share them with us! Comment on our discussion forum or email our Digital Editor, Amanda Lynch-Foster at amandalynch@nationnews.com.