Traditions of Renewal and Plenty

Loretta (Gilstrap) Adikhai's favorite Christmas memories revolve around her parents' Southern traditions. Above, her family in 1957, when she was a few weeks old; her birthday is Dec. 11! L-R: Glenda (Gilstrap) Thompson, Anthony Gilstrap, Lilla Gilstrap (holding Loretta), and in the background, James Gilstrap, Jr. Courtesy of Loretta Adikhai

Loretta Adhikhai, My fellow December birthday girl, recalls that her mother, who was raised in Texas, did both spring and winter cleaning, the latter of which would take place right before the holidays.

“We would move the furniture out of the way and wax the wooden floors,” she recalls. “We would then run around the house in our socks and help buff the floor. Of course, my dad had the real buffer machine he rented from the store to the actual work but it was great fun thinking that me, my sister, and my three brothers were helping too.”

In a similar spirit of renewal, Adhikhai’s husband William, who is from Nigeria, says that in the villages, many people would paint their houses at Christmas with a type of clay paint white on the top half, grey on the lower half. She says that Christmas in both Nigeria and the southern United States is celebrated as a festival of harvest and plenty, with cooking and baking of specialties like brandy-soaked fruitcake taking place weeks in advance.

"A few weeks before Christmas my mother would decorate our dining table with assorted nuts - pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc. - fresh fruits and hard candies," recalls Adikhai. "The day after Thanksgiving we would start working on the fruitcakes which we would make, wrap in cheesecloth and drench with brandy at least once a week until Christmas. I hated fruitcake but I loved the tradition of going to the store and buying all of the fixings and then being in the kitchen with my mom and sister making the batter and baking the many little fruitcakes. The smell in the house was wonderful. The fruitcake would be served to visiting guests. Additionally, my parents would make homemade egg nog and lots of pies."

For William Adikhai, Christmas in Nigeria was also celebrated as a feast of plenty. His wife Loretta writes:

"A traditional dinner would consist of rice and chicken. Rice is a must have for the Christmas dinner. Many villagers raised chickens but sold them throughout the year. It was only at Christmas time that family members would actually eat one of their own chickens. Beverages with the Christmas meal included homemade libations like native palm wine and gin made by local natives.

The Christmas celebration usually covers almost a period of two weeks, one week before and the week of Christmas. During this period of time you can feel Christmas in the air because every family and all work places are in the mode for celebration. An exchange of gifts takes place just like in the rest of the world. It is a period of time when people living in the cities go back to the countryside - namely, their village - to celebrate Christmas with all kinds of festivities, dancing, food exchange among the families. In the midst of all this, Christians meet their respective religious obligations of attending church services.

Almost everyone puts on their best appearance with new clothes throughout the Christmas period. Various age groups in the rural areas mark the Christmas celebration with dancing and an exhibition of traditional matching clothes. There used to be a joke during the Christmas season that if you are a man looking to
choose a wife do not do so at Christmas time because all of the women are in their best dress and make up.

Kids are mostly interested in clothes as opposed to toys as in the States. However, [when William was a kid] Christmas was the only celebration when kids received new clothes apart from school uniforms. Some poor parents actually sewed new school uniforms as Christmas clothes for their kids. This may sound pathetic but it still happens in some parts of Nigeria during Christmas celebration."