Christmas celebration for me has evolved over the years. What used to be a low key affairs for the Christian community, now transformed into a grand celebration. Originally, Christmas was celebrated largely by Christian communities. Today, Christmas is a "festival for everyone," observed by people across religions, particularly in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata. It has evolved from a quiet, family oriented event into a vibrant public spectacle. The holiday is now heavily commercialized. Malls, shops, and streets are decorated with lights and trees well in advance. Secret Santa" games, office parties, and cake-mixing ceremonies have become popular in corporate workplaces. Bringing people of all religion and caste at a common place. I have been part of many such Christmas celebration, but the one spend in childhood always remains memorable..
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Childhood days are often called the best because they are marked by freedom from adult worries, pure joy in simple things, deep bonds with family and friends, and endless discovery. Mine was not different. Especially when the yuletide season approach. We get our winter break so all the schools remain closed so making most of the time always remain our motto. It was a time of vibrant colors, strong community bonds, delicious homemade food, and shared experiences, with less focus on huge gift exchanges and more on togetherness and cultural traditions. Our preparation for celebration began in advance as soon as the yuletide season approach. We used to live a closed knitted community, and the Christmas time used to be a time to sit together and enjoy local delicious in the warmth of the bonfire. While the parent used to make their own gathering, we kids also learn from them and make up of our own. We used to make our separate party during Christmas.
I remember making up a makeshift mini tent of bed sheets and sarees at a friend's garden. We used to arrange the tent material from our home. We collect fund through county from each of the member and brings snacks like Samosa, plum cake , chocolates for snacks. For the dinner We make our own *litti-chokha in the bonfire. We used to be carefree, so enjoying every occasion was our priority. We are not limited to 1-2 friends, but include all the kids from our block. While the younger one were always get discounts. On some occasion we used to arrange for movie night through rented VCR and tapes. We were not worried of cold, we put up our own blanket inside the tent arrange a small TV and play the movies. Sometimes the adults too join us. We were in a party mood, so no-one stops us. But we make sure to call it a early night by 9PM.
Our celebration does not end their with the Christmas party. After the party, we start preparing for greetings card for the new year wishes. All of us try to make out something of our own. It may be painting, drawing, or any DIY stuffs. We either paste some dried flower on a paper or leaves or paper cutting to comes up with unique card theme. There is always a competition among all of us. As the year end comes to close we use to share them with each other. It was a fantastic piece of time that never go irrelevant in my course of life.
These days, celebration is limited only drinks and party in club. People hardly care about each other well being. I doubt they like go a grand celebration to get off their work pressure. The kids are no more sociable. They just put up a picture on social media and that its. They are done with celebration. They are living in digital era, so they are missing out on being social, like we used to be.
In good faith - Peace!!
