Christmas in Sweet T&T

Christmas in sweet T&T!  That stirs up images, tastes and sensations of glittery shopping malls, colourful decorations inside and outside of homes, Christmas trees everywhere, rum-soaked black cake, tasty pastelles, sorrel, ponche de crème, carol singing, parang, Christmas calypsos, parties, family gatherings, and much more.  Of course, there’s also the obligatory house-cleaning and putting up of fresh curtains.

The Christmas season seems to be getting longer and longer.  Do we really need to hear carols on the radio in September?  The malls start presenting Christmas wares in September as well, but I guess they have to start reminding people to put aside their money early for gift buying .  I like the sound of Christmas, but four months of carols and parang is a bit much perhaps.  I do love soca parang though.  It’s so nice to understand the  words as it’s sung in English rather than the traditional Spanish of the Venezuelan version. 

Trinis love to party and this is the season for that.   This year I have been very lucky that all my Christmas invites fell on different days.  I am involved in quite a few different activities and each must have a Christmas party, dinner or lime.   What I love about Trinidad is that you are bound to find connections between the different groups wherever you go.   For example, at the end of my recent writing workshop with renowned author, Earl Lovelace, I invited six people to our end-of-course presentations.  I think all my guests found someone else there that they knew, so the lime afterwards with eats, wine., etc., was quite lively and fun.  I still have an office party, a dinner lime and an afternoon soiree to attend.  All this before Christmas itself which will involve a lot of food with family.  And don’t talk about Old Year’s Night!  That’s a whole new level of partying and fireworks to see in the New Year which then goes straight into the carnival season….

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers.  Thank you all for supporting my writing efforts.  I will continue my posts in the New Year though sometimes not on a weekly basis.  I do have some travelling and story-writing and painting to do!  I’m really enjoying writing these articles and  I love getting your comments and feedback.  So keep on responding!