Once again Thiruvananthapuram is waking up to Christmas , in the deep baritone of Jim Reeves singing evergreen carols, with the heady aroma of cakes baking, the sweet fragrance of scented candles, the deep red of holly berries, the dark green of mistletoe, sparkly snowflakes and twinkling stars across the homes and shops in the city. MetroPlus called on a few citizens to see how they are gearing up for Christmas.
For Preetha Roy, Christmas is a time she sets apart for special friends and family. Being an entrepreneur, she rarely gets time for entertaining, but during the festive season, she invites over close friends for special Christmas delicacies and hors d’oeuvre that she prepares herself.
Preetha keeps an impeccable home, but come December, it is like walking into an enchanted land of roly-poly Santas and racing reindeer and other magical creatures. Her entire house is decked up in a Yuletide theme. Wherever you cast your eyes, you would find Christmas themed decorations and artefacts - right from a majestic Christmas tree in gold tones to Christmas knick-knacks on every available surface, cushion covers and table runners, and a treasured Christmas crockery collection she built up over many years.
Preetha Roy’s home decked up for Christmas
Her friends have contributed generously to her huge collection of Christmas objects and they bring her quaint artefacts from places as Venezuela, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Germany. For Preetha, it is a chance to reminisce over happy moments spent with her good friends.
“It’s such a great feeling when I bring these beautiful things out year after year, as I remember each dear person who brought me these lovely gifts,” she says.
Christmas for the Roy family is never complete sans the Christmas eve carol service by the choir led by Louie at St Theresa of Lisieux church in Vellayambalam. “Whichever corner of world we may be in, we always rush home to Thiruvananthapuram on Christmas eve to listen to Louie’s carol service. This is a tradition we have not broken for the past 25 years!”says Preetha. On December 25, the highlight for her is celebrating Christmas day together as a family with her husband, sons, elderly parents and mother-in-law.
Sisters Divya Pattam and Nisha Sunil also celebrate Christmas with the usual trappings and trimmings. Most of Divya’s time during the season is taken up with organising the special Christmas hampers she gifts to her friends and family. Divya stuffs these beautifully decorated baskets made of cane with yummy Yuletide goodies such as plum cake, a bottle of wine, strawberry preserve, a variety of chocolates and an assortment of cookies like thumb-print cookies, chocolate chip cookies and crescent cookies.
Like everyone we talked to, Nisha also believes strongly in the spirit of giving during the Christmas season and she has imparted these values to her children, Kavya and Ritu.
She creates a Christmas Service Advent Calendar for the 25 days of the festival. The children are given a box filled with slips of paper containing a service they have to carry out for each day. These small services are usually household chores such as watering plants, folding clothes, donating toys to orphanages and other acts of kindness towards neighbours and the elderly. Nisha is proud of the fact that her girls enjoy the gift of giving with the same delight with which they receive Christmas gifts.
Just like homes in the city, business establishments are also getting geared up for the season. In most shops, windows have already got a Christmas makeover in red, white and green, with Santas, reindeer and sleighs and inside too there are Christmas trees with shiny baubles, wreaths of holly, and twinkling stars.
Even though loads of good food is an integral part of celebrating Christmas, the underlying message of the festival is one of solidarity, sharing and giving.
