Ny­erere Haynes

Christ­mas is just once a year but the mem­o­ries cre­at­ed dur­ing the pe­ri­od can last a life­time.For most Trinida­di­ans it's a time when presents, parang, fam­i­ly, friends and food con­verge.

The an­tic­i­pa­tion of the day it­self builds as hec­tic prepa­ra­tions get un­der­way, and the sound of car­ols like Kel­wyn Hutcheon's Oh How I Wish I Was A Child Again, as well as the smell of fresh­ly paint­ed walls, shut­tle you back to days gone by.

As Christ­mas Day looms clos­er, the fam­i­ly pastelle pro­duc­tion line is as­sem­bled. The search for wild meat rages. Ven­dors sell­ing kitchen tow­els, cur­tain rods and ferns pop­u­late the down­town side­walks. Fam­i­ly and friends from "for­eign" start pil­ing in. The pow­er wash­er emerges. Elec­tric­i­ty bills sky­rock­et due to peo­ple adorn­ing their homes with enough lights to il­lu­mi­nate a large vil­lage.

Jars of fruits soak in al­co­hol for rum cakes and meats are mar­i­nat­ing in spe­cial sea­son­ings. Dusty emp­ty beer bot­tle cas­es, most like­ly from last year's Christ­mas, are res­ur­rect­ed and tak­en to the liqour de­pot for full cas­es of beer, sor­rel Shandy and of course, a bat­tery of al­co­holic bev­er­ages –the strong stuff!

In our home in Paramin, we get up very ear­ly be­cause most times a parang side will be at the door call­ing on us to open up. We keep it sim­ple from there; fam­i­ly, fun, food and friends.T&T Guardian spoke to some of our celebri­ty read­ers about their Christ­mas tra­di­tions and some hap­py or fun­ny Christ­mas mem­o­ries they can fond­ly re­call. Here is what they had to say.

QD Ross­blog­ger, EatAh­FoodTT.com

"I didn't grow up hav­ing Christ­mas trees, etc. I can't re­mem­ber ever hav­ing lights up. I got gifts as a child so I wouldn't feel left out when the oth­er kids got toys, but I knew they came from my par­ents and not San­ta. Christ­mas for me was all about wak­ing up ear­ly on Christ­mas morn­ing to watch my fa­ther (and now help my fa­ther) pre­pare the best meal of the year."

Sher­iff­mu­sic pro­duc­er

"I usu­al­ly paint. Like every­thing. House wall. Rooms. Kitchen. Gallery. My re­ward would be the turkey leg. I'd al­so have to move all the heavy stuff and some­how we would al­ways man­age to fin­ish all the clean­ing and paint­ing on Christ­mas Eve night every year. But the vis­i­tors, the fam­i­ly and friends made the work worth it and bring a vibes for the hol­i­days."

Rem­Bunc­tion­singer and pro­duc­er

"Christ­mas Day is spent with my loved ones... We get to­geth­er at the fam­i­ly home in Bel­mont and spend most of the day just en­joy­ing each oth­er's com­pa­ny. We share out gifts, tell jokes, stuff we face and rem­i­nisce... In be­tween the fes­tiv­i­ties I run away to a cou­ple friends' hous­es for some macafouchette and a lil house parang."

Ke­shav Chan­dra­dath Singh­per­cus­sion­ist and pro­duc­er.

"Pastelles. Al­ways pastelles in the house. And my moth­er usu­al­ly makes a Christ­mas tree out of cre­ative things you wouldn't ex­pect to be able to make a tree, like drift­wood or re­cy­cled stuff and they al­ways look beau­ti­ful."

Joel "Pos­i­tive" Mur­ray,gospel reg­gae Singer

"Christ­mas in To­ba­go is high­ly fam­i­ly fo­cused. Dur­ing this sea­son a lot of rel­a­tives liv­ing abroad come home for the hol­i­days.For the days lead­ing up to Christ­mas, my aun­ties would nor­mal­ly have us (nieces and nephews, young and old) all en­sur­ing that Granny's house and yard is well dec­o­rat­ed.

But de­spite the progress of the decor, aun­ty Moul­da would not fin­ish the house dec­o­ra­tions un­til every­one fell asleep, or va­cat­ed the house. I think in her mind she wants us to still wake up with some lev­el of ex­pectan­cy, and mind you, she nev­er dis­ap­points.

How­ev­er, I thought I would try some­thing new for the hol­i­days. I have been so busy with my sched­ule as a gospel min­is­ter that some­times the qui­et times with my wife is min­imised. Hence, for this Christ­mas, I want to take wifey to the Hy­att, and have some­what of a get­away Christ­mas.

On Christ­mas morn­ing, there is ear­ly morn­ing church ser­vice, then have a ro­man­tic lunch in bed, and just en­joy the sun­set as we re­mem­ber with thanks­giv­ing the good­ness of God in our lives.On Box­ing day we will pick up with the rest of the fam­i­ly where we left off.Much love to you guys read­ing this and have a holy Christ­mas."

De­stra "Queen of Bac­cha­nal" Gar­cia,so­ca star

"In our fam­i­ly, Christ­mas Eve is for the chil­dren. We keep the tra­di­tion of San­ta Claus alive. We leave lots of cook­ies out and since I do that with my daugh­ter Xaiya, you know it's a lot of cook­ies get­ting eat­en!

We give out some gifts ear­ly on Christ­mas Eve, and the kids track San­ta on the iPad. It's a lot of fun, then we get them to go and sleep so that San­ta can drop the presents, we tell them if they're up, San­ta can't drop off the presents.

On Christ­mas Day, my daugh­ter and her sis­ter and her cousins usu­al­ly play to­geth­er. This year my nieces are com­ing over too.

Of course, there is lots of food. My Dad makes bread, Mum­my makes the black cake and my sis­ter makes the sponge cake. My con­tri­bu­tion is usu­al­ly two lasagnes–beef and soya–plus the sal­ads. My fam­i­ly lives close by, so it great to have every­one over. My aunts and un­cles drop in, we spend a lot of time just old talk­ing and en­joy­ing each oth­er's com­pa­ny. For me it's all about fam­i­ly at Christ­mas time!"