I was introduced to my family’s Christmas traditions very late. This is because I was born long after most of the traditions—the cooking, cleaning, shopping and sharing—were already established by my family without me. Even after I was born, the last of three girls, I did not get to participate in the traditions with the entire family for long, as my parents separated just before I was set to start secondary school.
Before the split, however, once I was old enough to help out around the house, I played my part, such as in the Christmas Eve cleaning.
In my family, Christmas Eve is a hassle. My grandmother and other family members who live abroad tend to make last minute arrivals in Guyana, so almost every year on December 24th, I remember anticipating their arrival, while my mother would prepare cakes, bread, buns and tidy up the home so that the next day we would just eat and relax. Once my sister and I were old enough to use a mop and a broom correctly, we took over the job of cleaning from my mother. This gave her more time to spend the day mixing cake batters and making Pepperpot.
