Greetings everyone 🙌
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Ever since I became sensible as an infant living with my parents, one thing that my parents never missed was buying Christmas clothes for their children. This tradition was so serious that whenever the Christmas season approached, we knew already that a new wardrobe was sure for us.
Many times, it comes in pairs, one to be worn on Christmas day while the other is for New Year's Day. It's very rare to use one clothes for both, no way, otherwise it'll show to the whole world that my parents didn't try enough. This is because the habit of buying clothes for children was somehow competitive among parents in the neighborhood.
Now, we are all grown, and my parents, especially my mom, are still accustomed to this lifestyle. She still goes about buying clothes for the last set of children, who are 'big boys and big girls' now in secondary schools.
These younger siblings, although 'big guys' as they claim, fancy these Christmas clothes so much. They don't wear it on Christmas; they just want to add it to their collection, and my parents are cool with it.
Not only them(my siblings), my parents are grandparents to some little babies in the house, which they tag along with the long-aged Christmas tradition.
I'm not sure it's ever going to stop as long as they're still alive, because once I have my own children, they'll pick it up from there too.😄
Another Christmas tradition in our home, is the type of food we eat during the season
I don't think I have ever spent Christmas in the house without slaughtering chicken.
I grew up to master the habit of compulsory eating of chicken on Christmas day.
There were Christmas years when goats were slaughtered, beef was gifted to us, and the house was filled with these things. On a very standard level, these meats were supposed to serve us all through the period, but what is Christmas without chicken? Lol😄
Chickens were slaughtered to fulfill the tradition.
Another pattern in terms of meals for Christmas is POUNDED YAM.
It's only on Christmas days that my younger female siblings do not complain about making pounded yam with chicken pepper soup or egusi soup. Meet them on ordinary day for them to prepare To pounded yam, they'll give you that bombastic side eye
This is more like a ritual; it's a compulsory meal for breakfast that will last us till whenever the ladies decide to prepare the rice.
Rice?
This is totally unavoidable. It's a big ritual that many Nigerians are keen on.
Even if a bag of rice costs 1 million naira, we will still eat rice on Christmas day.
- Premium generosity.
My dad is a very social person, with many people around him.
During the Christmas season, our compound, a family compound, never gets scanty of people, especially my dad's friends and his family members.
They'll sit, drink, play music, and eat the best part of our food. It sounds funny, but that's just the truth. We've complained a lot for my parents to reduce how they attend to these people, making us not eat the juicy part of the meal, but they couldn't and still can't pull away from that lifestyle.
It's because these people know that whenever they come around, there's always fried meat to chew and alcohol to swallow, so they never leave to their house. Lol😄
Right now, I can no longer complain because I have direct access to the kitchen to eat whatever I like. Mom will only shout but can't spank me.
Also, I see their generous lifestyle as a good habit. Seeing these people around my dad in our house whenever I go home gives me so much joy that I even succumb to their regular billings without complaints.
Thank you for reading.
This is my entry to the Week 91, Edition 02 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community.