While driving to work on December 1, 2025, which was a Monday, I had my car radio tuned into a popular radio station here in Accra.
And the hosts engineered my write-up for today with their commentaries! What did they do? Well, they played a Christmas carol. Yes, just that.
But wait a minute. That act brought a lot to me, and I will explain further. The Friday before the referenced Monday, I went home knowing so well that it was the month of November.
In fact, I had not thought about returning to work on a Monday to hear comments about Christmas approaching.
So, when I heard the Christmas carol on the radio, with commentaries by the hosts on the approaching festive season, it put me in a reflective mood. Of course, l love Christmas for what it is.
How time flies when you are having fun! It seems like just a few weeks ago that I had to pen down some New Year's resolutions, promising myself and perhaps God, to make 2025 a better year than 2024. Certainly, it wasn’t a few years ago, but rather 11 clear months ago.
Eleven months of ups and downs, tears and joy, happiness and sadness, and above all, resolutions that could not be met, and hopes that never materialised the way I had anticipated. But in all things, we have to give thanks to the one who gives life.
Appreciation is always good. When it dawned on me that another Christmas day was approaching after listening to the radio discussions, and that we were going to mark the festive season “freely”, I thanked God even more.
Just cast your mind back to three or four years ago. How did you observe the festive period?
Perhaps you have forgotten, so let me remind you of the pain, using my article of December 16, 2023, for this column. In 2023, the global economy was still suffering from the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic, which started in 2020, was a big fight; a fight to address health, economic, and social concerns brought about by the threat of the virus.
The scale of the mess was shocking, with far-reaching financial and economic losses much greater than what had been witnessed in recent history.
Suddenly, we were no longer in normal times. We were locked in a pandemic mood throughout that year and locked out of our usual selves and our usual activities, mostly due to the unintended consequences of the strong measures that had to be introduced to address the spread of the virus.
Do you still remember the lockdowns, social distancing, and the wearing of face coverings to control the spread of the virus? I don’t think you have a short memory to forget about the COVID-19 effect and the aftershocks!
With this experience and observation, I titled my December 16, 2023, edition of this column “Christmas: Locked in or locked out?” and explained why there was every reason to be thankful for a “locked out” Christmas.
My bullish sentiments were also influenced by the November 20, 2021, edition of this column, in which, reflecting on past events, I had this question: Will Christmas ever be the same again? In the end, the Christmas period in 2021 was characterised by lots of “uncertainties” around the celebration.
Even though shops were not closed, and we were not “locked in”, there were still concerns that the threatening OMICRON variant of the COVID-19 virus posed enough risk.
But in 2023, we changed gears! All changed. We moved from a low-tempo Christmas to a high one, shifting from a festive season that promoted contactless activities to one that promoted social contact once again.
Churches, bars, nightclubs- you name it- all became full of worshippers, drinkers and ravers. Everyone enjoyed what they wanted to do, freely.
To me, the real COVID tax was the taxing part of the usual things we couldn’t do. It was that stressful.
If you reflect on what the world has been through in the past four years and where we are today, you will have every reason to be thankful.
So I was happy, extremely so, when I heard those bullish comments by the radio hosts on my way to work.
Unfortunately, even without COVID, not everyone will feel bullish about Christmas this year. Some will still be locked out of Christmas one way or another, so as you enjoy this festive cheer, don’t lose sight of the true message of Christmas.
Let us continue with the message of Salvation, Love, Hope, and Peace. This message has been spoken through the decades and generations and attested to in many ways.
That is the spirit of Christmas, which should be our subject of reflection during this festive period.
And as I admonished in the December 23, 2021, edition of this column, you must “understand also that Christmas, and for that matter festive periods, should not provide you with the cover to go into overdrive with your spending”. Embrace someone with true love to ensure that we all have a great Christmas.
botabil@gmail.com
