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It’s Christmas time, so here’s to the season ahead!
Let the cheer, spirit and hope of Christmas inspire us to embrace the season, put up decorations and share a little happiness, regardless of our circumstances, writes Simon Kaheru
Simon Kaheru. (File)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Simon Kaheru
This year, we started decorating for Christmas on Sunday, the first day of November. The timing was perfect in all the ways we needed.
As a family, the only challenge was that we did not have one home to host a gathering for all of us to do the decorations, along with the other festivities that come with it.
My little sister pressed the point in many ways, as all the hints and suggestions were aimed at her residence. She was not having it.
Instead, she sent us her own hints, suggestions and various video clips, and a research citation about how setting up your Christmas decorations early makes for a happy home.
Personally, I did not need convincing — I have been known to kick off on October 1.
The scientists are serious about holiday decorations being mood lifters and portraying people as sociable and friendly.
I found one paper dating back to December 1989 in the Journal of Environmental Psychology that confirmed this, with a focus on the sociability of homeowners as portrayed by their Christmas decorations. In another (I only picked up a few quotations), psychologist Dr Deborah Serani told a media house that holiday decorating “does create that neurological shift that can produce happiness... Christmas decorating will spike dopamine, a feel-good hormone.”
Again, I do not need to read the research — I am a whole experiment of my own. Even though I started late this year, I am in a very good place, even more so because of how unhappy so many people around me (us) appear to be these days.
I feel it every time I go on the Internet or open WhatsApp groups: the majority of people there are actively seeking unhappiness.
I shook my head recently at an advertising employee in Uganda who responded to a tweet about a neat tarmac road, one that even had street lighting, with something like: “Yes — but one day it will get potholes and the lights will be stolen, so why are you celebrating?”
If I knew where that fellow lived, I would go and put up a string of tinsel on top of his door.
That is one of my favourite season gifts for special loved ones: a home-made Christmas wreath or garland, crafted by my own hands, with help from other family members and one or two eager dogs.
I enjoy seeing eyes light up when they receive these gifts; that is another way Christmas decorations are the visibility of the warmth and cheer of the season, and all that comes with it, like Pavlov said of his dogs.
It may seem easier and more viable for the well-heeled, as some would say.
Not true. Everybody will smile a bit more when they put decorations up, and so we should encourage them to do so now and start playing the music.
Again, I do not need to read the research — I am a whole experiment of my own. Even though I started late this year, I am in a very good place, even more so because of how unhappy so many people around me (us) appear to be these days.
I feel it every time I go on the Internet or open WhatsApp groups: the majority of people there are actively seeking unhappiness.
I shook my head recently at an advertising employee in Uganda who responded to a tweet about a neat tarmac road, one that even had street lighting, with something like: “Yes — but one day it will get potholes and the lights will be stolen, so why are you celebrating?”
If I knew where that fellow lived, I would go and put up a string of tinsel on top of his door.
That is one of my favourite season gifts for special loved ones: a home-made Christmas wreath or garland, crafted by my own hands, with help from other family members and one or two eager dogs.
I enjoy seeing eyes light up when they receive these gifts; that is another way Christmas decorations are the visibility of the warmth and cheer of the season, and all that comes with it, like Pavlov said of his dogs.
It may seem easier and more viable for the well-heeled, as some would say.
Not true. Everybody will smile a bit more when they put decorations up, and so we should encourage them to do so now and start playing the music.
On the day my decorations started going up, we played Christmas carols as usual.
One of them was that irritating Do they know it’s Christmas, which I have disliked for many years because of its tone, its message and how outdated its meaning is today.
I was even more disturbed because I had to stop what I was doing to go and skip past the nauseating lyrics that go, for instance: “And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time, the greatest gift they’ll get this year is life, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow, Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” Imagine that?
In the year this damn song was released, we celebrated Christmas in Kamwokya, on Kiira Road, and I distinctly recall the decorating we did, the food we ate — including the small, hard bundaazi that people now call “Daddies” — and the hard-to-come-by toys we received as gifts.
All this happened even as a war raged on and fear hovered over our heads, until the season opened up a brief bit of warm sunshine in our hearts and minds.
Even back then, there was no way a serious person could say about Africa that nothing ever grows and no rain or rivers flow, or be believed when they did sing it.
Yet, today, some people position their corner of Africa that way.
And it is those people who need Christmas decorations put up in their homes, their hearts and their minds.
Put up just one piece of tinsel and a bauble or two, however broke you might be. Focus on the cheer, spirit and hope that come with the season, as we have always done when it gets to Christmas time, and smile.
www.skaheru.com @skaheru
One of them was that irritating Do they know it’s Christmas, which I have disliked for many years because of its tone, its message and how outdated its meaning is today.
I was even more disturbed because I had to stop what I was doing to go and skip past the nauseating lyrics that go, for instance: “And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time, the greatest gift they’ll get this year is life, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow, Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” Imagine that?
In the year this damn song was released, we celebrated Christmas in Kamwokya, on Kiira Road, and I distinctly recall the decorating we did, the food we ate — including the small, hard bundaazi that people now call “Daddies” — and the hard-to-come-by toys we received as gifts.
All this happened even as a war raged on and fear hovered over our heads, until the season opened up a brief bit of warm sunshine in our hearts and minds.
Even back then, there was no way a serious person could say about Africa that nothing ever grows and no rain or rivers flow, or be believed when they did sing it.
Yet, today, some people position their corner of Africa that way.
And it is those people who need Christmas decorations put up in their homes, their hearts and their minds.
Put up just one piece of tinsel and a bauble or two, however broke you might be. Focus on the cheer, spirit and hope that come with the season, as we have always done when it gets to Christmas time, and smile.
www.skaheru.com @skaheru