Kenyan Christmas

My balcony door is wide open as it’s so hot, the sky is a brilliant blue, and we’re just 4 days from Christmas. Even after 8 years, this is not exactly the weather that I associate with this festive season. Much more the freezing snowy conditions being experienced in the UK – not that I’ve actually experienced that very much! We had our home group Christmas party just over a week ago, opting for brunch rather than dinner. The location was the pool area of the house of one of our families. It was beautiful. After a glass of Bucks Fizz, sausages, tomatoes, bacon and eggs (30 of them being fried together in a large paella pan!) were cooked outside over gas stoves or on a large barbecue. We rounded off with a gift exchange, gifts being randomly selected with options of stealing those already unwrapped. It was fun! Having had a number of gifts pass through my hands, and done my fair share of stealing (and being stolen from), I wound up with a piece of wood that opens out to reveal a nativity scene within.

There’s not the mad rush in the shops around Christmas time that you get in the UK. I remember standing in a queue to pay at a supermarket in Newark, Nottinghamshire last Christmas Eve with my parents for what must have been about 45 minutes. Today, I popped into the supermarket down the road and queued for all of, oh, 3 minutes!

However, Christmas is getting more commercialized with billboards advertising special Christmas deals. The singing Santas are present at the doors of the supermarkets again, though they’re new ones this year – Santa’s gone completely bald! Elsewhere, there are tall inflatable Santas outside, which vibrate, duck and dive rather alarmingly in the wind! There are nowhere near the number of Christmas lights that you get in the West, though shopping centres are strewn with white lights, and with an increasing number of shopping centres, that’s an increasing number of lights! One nearby has opted for something more Kenyan this year rather than the traditional fir trees, and has quite a number of tastefully decorated baobab trees made out of banana leaves – including some in the parking area.

My own apartment is decked out with quite a number of lights, candles, a tree, and a vase of red and gold baubles. It all looks very nice. I’m leaving that behind tomorrow as I’m off on safari for a few days, and will be in the bush on Christmas Day. I’m interested to find out what will be provided for us of a festive nature – taking some crackers, Christmas music and cookies just in case!