RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia

Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

For Sher­ry Alexan­der, Christ­mas is far more than a sea­son of lights and dec­o­ra­tions. It is a call­ing root­ed in love and gen­eros­i­ty. An as­tute busi­ness­woman and the force be­hind Al­lied Fam­i­ly Care and Al­lied Home Cen­tre, Alexan­der has built a rep­u­ta­tion not on­ly for busi­ness ex­cel­lence but al­so for trans­form­ing Christ­mas in­to a shared ex­pe­ri­ence of joy for fam­i­lies, chil­dren, work­ers, and com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Each year, her home on Pen­ny Av­enue, Gulf View, La Ro­maine, be­comes a place of fes­tive won­der, draw­ing vis­i­tors from near and far. With elab­o­rate decor planned months in ad­vance and a tow­er­ing 46-foot Christ­mas tree erect­ed on the east­ern end of the city, Alexan­der’s vi­sion is to spread hope, won­der, and child­like joy—es­pe­cial­ly for those who may nev­er ex­pe­ri­ence it else­where.

Speak­ing to WE, Alexan­der said Christ­mas was the high­light of the year for their en­tire fam­i­ly.

“My love for Christ­mas be­gan in child­hood, but its mean­ing deep­ened as I grew old­er,” she said. “From ear­ly on, Christ­mas rep­re­sent­ed love, to­geth­er­ness, and hope. As life un­fold­ed, the sea­son be­came a re­minder that even in chal­leng­ing times, joy can be cre­at­ed in­ten­tion­al­ly,” she added.

She said her pas­sion for Christ­mas was shaped not by ex­trav­a­gance, but by sim­plic­i­ty. As a child, she re­mem­bers how the sea­son felt mag­i­cal be­cause of fam­i­ly, laugh­ter, and the tra­di­tion of shar­ing every­thing.

“Those ear­ly mem­o­ries shaped how I cel­e­brate to­day,” she ex­plained. “I fo­cus on cre­at­ing mo­ments, not just mem­o­ries, and en­sur­ing that every­one—es­pe­cial­ly chil­dren—feels seen and val­ued.”

It is this phi­los­o­phy that fu­els her now-fa­mous Dis­ney-themed Christ­mas vil­lage at her La Ro­maine home.

“Many chil­dren will nev­er ex­pe­ri­ence Dis­ney,” she said. “My heart has al­ways been to bring that sense of won­der right here to Trinidad. If a child can pass by my home and feel joy, ex­cite­ment, and be­lief, then every light is worth it.”

Plan­ning with pur­pose

But be­hind the mag­ic is care­ful plan­ning, ex­e­cut­ed by her staff. Alexan­der said she be­gins prepar­ing months in ad­vance, vi­su­al­is­ing the emo­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence she wants vis­i­tors to feel. De­spite run­ning suc­cess­ful busi­ness­es, she in­sists that pas­sion makes the process joy­ful rather than bur­den­some.

“When some­thing is dri­ven by love and pur­pose, it nev­er feels like a bur­den,” she said.

That same pur­pose guides how she leads her com­pa­nies. Alexan­der said she clos­es her store, Al­lied Home Cen­tre, from Christ­mas Eve to the end of New Year’s Day, giv­ing every work­er time to rest, re­flect, and be with their fam­i­ly.

“Christ­mas re­in­forces our val­ues of com­pas­sion, care, and fam­i­ly,” she said. “Busi­ness is about peo­ple first—our em­ploy­ees, our clients, our com­mu­ni­ties.”

It’s why cel­e­brat­ing the sea­son with her staff is non-ne­go­tiable. “They are fam­i­ly to us,” she said, adding, “Cel­e­bra­tion builds loy­al­ty, trust, and uni­ty. It’s my way of say­ing to my staff that they mat­ter to us.”

She said at home, Christ­mas car­ries an even deep­er mean­ing. Alexan­der’s hus­band, Si­mon, was born on Christ­mas Day, while their son, Dr Adri­an Alexan­der, was born on New Year’s Day, mak­ing the sea­son a con­tin­u­ous cel­e­bra­tion of life and grat­i­tude.

“We’ve learnt to cel­e­brate each mo­ment in­ten­tion­al­ly,” she said. “Christ­mas for its spir­i­tu­al mean­ing, Si­mon’s birth­day with recog­ni­tion, and the New Year by cel­e­brat­ing Adri­an and new be­gin­nings. It re­minds us that this sea­son is tru­ly about life, love, and uni­ty.”

Giv­ing be­yond the glit­ter

A com­mit­ted phil­an­thropist, Alexan­der sup­ports sev­er­al char­i­ties and com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives, guid­ed by a be­lief that warmth comes not from things but from giv­ing.

“While Christ­mas has be­come com­mer­cialised, we each choose what the sea­son means,” she said. “For me, it’s about gen­eros­i­ty, kind­ness, and mean­ing­ful ex­pe­ri­ences—not ex­cess.”

Her hope is to ex­pand the reach of her Christ­mas ef­forts, touch­ing more chil­dren and fam­i­lies in the years ahead.

As a woman who bal­ances lead­er­ship, moth­er­hood, mar­riage, and ser­vice, Alexan­der said the les­son of Christ­mas has taught her that em­pa­thy is pow­er.

“True lead­er­ship is root­ed in em­pa­thy, and gen­eros­i­ty builds a lega­cy that in­spires oth­ers to con­tin­ue. Grat­i­tude sus­tains suc­cess. But hav­ing a bal­ance is es­sen­tial,” she said.

Send­ing a mes­sage to women across the coun­try, Alexan­der said women should re­alise that they have the pow­er to jug­gle all as­pects of their lives suc­cess­ful­ly if they in­ten­tion­al­ly strike a bal­ance in all re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. “Em­brace joy with­out guilt. Ho­n­our tra­di­tion while cre­at­ing your own, and al­so re­mem­ber that bal­ance is not per­fec­tion—it’s in­ten­tion, so de­spite what every­one says, you can build a ca­reer, nur­ture a fam­i­ly, and still cre­ate mag­ic.”

Alexan­der al­so wants the world to re­mem­ber the sea­son’s true pur­pose of spread­ing love and kind­ness to oth­ers.

As T&T nav­i­gates un­cer­tain times, Alexan­der said her Christ­mas wish is for the na­tion to re­dis­cov­er kind­ness, uni­ty, and hope and re­mem­ber to care for vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies, es­pe­cial­ly the chil­dren who need guid­ance and sup­port.