Another ‘low budget’ Christmas for Nigerians

 

Tomorrow is Christmas, a Christian holiday celebrated worldwide. From the start of the month, the greetings have changed. You’ll hear people say, ‘Season’s greeting’ or ‘Compliment of the Yuletide’ or ‘Merry Christmas in advance’. The time-honoured ‘Father Christmas’ viewing wasn’t missing this year as many schools, churches and media outfits organised Father Christmas Grottos, where children pay a token sum to visit Father Christmas, who also shares gifts with the visitors. Some organisers make it part of their end-of-the-year party with a DJ on hand to dish out good, danceable songs and music to visitors’ delight. Some organisations partner with media outfits that also do live streaming and transmission on their channels, and give visitors a chance to greet their loved ones at home.

Another unique feature of the Christmas season is the carol. There’s no Christmas without carols, where choristers sing in honour of Jesus Christ, whose birth is being celebrated tomorrow, even though some have contested that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25. However, for the majority of Christian faithful, that date has been universally accepted as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, it’s not only churches that organise carols for their members. Even corporate bodies have keyed into the celebration. Songs such as ‘Silent Night’, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Feliz Navidad’, ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ and ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’ are sung at carols. To spice up the carols, there have been several remixes of these popular songs, with some of them done in local dialects.  Many corporate organisations and Christian worship centres are adorned with Christmas decorations in red and green while strobe lights prettify the major streets and offices.

Staple foods at Christmas are rice and chicken. Though other dishes like pounded yams and other swallow foods are also on offer. However, no matter what else you cook, a variety of rice, such as fried rice, coconut rice, jollof rice and white rice must be part of the menu. Beverages such as soda, energy drinks, fruit juice, smoothies, beer, wine and spirits accompany the foods served. The fun of Christmas is in sharing. Some share raw rice with family and friends, while others share cooked meals. Even though it’s fading now, there’s also the culture of exchanging Christmas cards with loved ones. In the spirit of Christmas, there is buying of new clothes and shoes as well as decorating homes with Christmas trees and lights. There’s also the use of firecrackers.

Growing up in the ancient city of Ibadan, I remember with nostalgia the fun of the Christmas season. The visit to Father Christmas grotto at Kingsway Supermarket at Dugbe, where you’re commuted in a small train shuttle from the entrance to the grotto with Father Christmas, purportedly on a visit from Rome, dressed in red and white attire with a long white beard. I remember how we pestered our parents to buy us Christmas toys, such as a plastic pistol with which we engaged in mock combat with our friends and neighbours’ children. I remember the annual ‘pilgrimage’ to the University of Ibadan Zoological Garden and Agodi Gardens for picnics.

That was then. Nowadays, Christmas celebration has lost its shine for many families, no thanks to the rising cost of living and security challenges. This season is the time for family reunions and festivities, such as weddings and funerals. Unfortunately, many who wished to travel couldn’t due to the high cost of transportation. Airfare has hit the roof with one-way tickets on some routes going for as high as N400,000 for an hour flight. Airline operators are cashing out on customers who fear road travel due to the menace of abductions for ransom or for the mere reason of traffic bottlenecks. Take, for instance, the snarl traffic on the Abuja-Lokoja highway, where many travellers had to spend about two days to get out of the gridlock last weekend.

It’s noteworthy that part of the time-honoured custom at Christmas is for the Federal Government to declare Christmas Day, Boxing Day (i.e. December 26) and January 1 of every year as public holidays. That had been done already for this year. Unfortunately, some civil and public servants haven’t been paid their salaries.  For them, this will be a bleak Christmas celebration. Even some private sector workers don’t get paid until the end of the month, and as such, will have to be on a shoestring budget celebrating Christmas unless they have healthy savings. Even for those who have received their salary ahead of Christmas Day, they should spare resources for the post-Christmas and New Year celebrations. Many will jocularly say that January is the longest month of the year, especially for salary earners who have no savings. This is because many have used their lean resources to wine and dine at Christmas.

Parents need to try to have a ‘low budget’ or modest Christmas celebration. It’s not compulsory to buy new clothes and shoes for the children. Dry-clean some of their ‘Sunday best’ and let them wear it to church and picnics. Call a shoe shiner or buy polish and shine their old shoes. If you can’t afford to kill a fowl, buy fish or ponmo. Remember the popular saying that if you don’t earn like the Joneses, don’t spend like them. Teach and train your children to be content with what you can afford to give them, not only at Christmas but always. If you don’t have an urgent and important need to travel, stay back and enjoy Christmas with your family. For those who usually give financial and material support to family and friends at Christmas, do it with moderation and without hassle. If you cannot give this year, there will be another Christmas next year, and you can make it up for your dependents.

For parents who have children in school, remember that schools will resume latest by the second week of January. For many private schools, it’s pay-before-service. So, before indulging in extravagant Christmas celebrations, make sure to have paid your children’s school fees to avoid embarrassment of your wards being sent home. It’s getting to the peak of ‘Detty December’ in Lagos and several states, let’s celebrate in moderation. Even if you can afford to ‘paint the town red’, remember family, friends, orphans and widows who are in dire need. Try to support them financially and materially. Merry Christmas, Nigerians! May we witness a better and more prosperous 2026.

I.G: @jideojong