After two miserable years of isolation, masking, dodging the Corona virus, this Christmas was long in coming and is welcomed with open arms. Even the Grinches and Scrooges grudgingly nod their heads and let Christmas in. Let’s face it, isolation and Christmas are mortal enemies; one can’t function if the other is around.

While the virus doggedly hangs around, we have come to learn to live with it and take whatever precautions we need to take. Learning to live with it has allowed us to take the partial freedom we’ve been granted and get on with life. Because of that, this Christmas will have its time. And the Caribbean folk will make sure of it.

This year Caribbean folk got out the gates early; we couldn’t wait to lime. The parks were filled with picnickers – family, alumni associations lit the barbecues and washed it down with some cold ones. When the season ripened, we hit the road with sequence, feathers, standards, pan, kaiso and plenty winenin’. Some people were even dancing the “COVID JAM”

That is not to say that all was well with the world. With wars everywhere – Africa, Europe, the Middle East – and our children facing another viral threat, hospitals under pressure, we remained vigilant but left room for living. We did the right and the brave thing.

Now that the light looms large in the tunnel, we must thank all the men and women who soldiered on through a rain of virus and death, to attend to the sick, stock our grocery shelves to keep us fed and strong enough to weather the storm. Those who stocked the foodbanks and saw to the nutritional needs of the less fortunate, the EMS attendants who worked long hours to rescue the sick and infirm, we give you a big shout out and our undying gratitude. To those who fight uphill battles to save our environment, and the peace activists, who the world needs more than ever, we say “nuff respect” and urge you to keep the peace flame burning bright.

While we at the Caribbean Camera do our best to stay alive and relevant in an unforgiving newspaper industry, we like the challenge of keeping our community informed and celebrate them at every opportunity. And we enjoy every minute of it.

So here we are. Another Christmas, but a special one. So boil the pepper pot, season the garlic pork, concoct your punch-a-crème, brew the sorrel and ginger beer, and find the banana leaf to wrap the pastels. All to the sounds of Lord Kitchener “Drink a rum”, parang, parang, parang, reggae like dirt, and Nat King Cole bidding us to roast those chestnuts.

Enjoy this very special Christmas. Feed the poor and raise a toast to New Year; a year that can hardly fail to be better than the last. And always remember Charles Dickens’ words about Christmas:

 “It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

And from us: “Have a cool Yule!”