Christmas Tradition

- December 30, 2018

Hello!

How was your Christmas day? Do you even celebrate Christmas?

I come from a family with a Muslim Dad and a Catholic Mom. It means that we mostly celebrate all major holidays from both faiths including Christmas. Truth be told, Christmas is celebrated all over my city of Dakar whether we are Christians or Muslims. Because Christmas has become a commercial holiday where people are forced to buy food to make a feast, and gifts for the kids.

For me, Christmas means family. My Mother always made sure we had a small party at home. She would put her finest china out and we would eat in the dining room. In fact, the only time we used that dining room was for Christmas's eve diner. She also made sure we dressed up, in suits for my brothers and a fancy dress for me. We usually had Chinese rolls, salad as appetizers, roasted chicken in mustard sauce and french fries as entree and Christmas log as desert. After diner, my father would take us to the local photo studio to have a family portrait taken. When he finally bought a camera, we would have photo shoots inside the house. Then if my father was up to it, he would drive us around town to watch the fireworks or see the lights decorating the city center. Sometimes before midnight, we would receive gifts: toys, board games, video games, books in that order, the older we got.

Scarf and Cardigan - Sandaga market

Sequin tank - Thrifted (Wednesday market)

Tiered floral skirt - Colobane market

Shoes - La Folie

Bag - gift

The following day, we would sleep in late, and wake up to cartoons already playing on the television. The first cable television we had in my country, would show cartoons all day long. Therefore we would be stuck in front of it, still in our pajamas, cozy under the blankets. My mother would reheat the leftovers from the previous night for a late lunch. In the afternoon, we would dress up a bit because family would drop by for a visit. It was one of my favorite day of the year.

Nowadays, we still manage to do the same. We still eat diner on Christmas eve, except no one dresses up and we eat in the sitting room where it is cozier. For some reasons, we exchange gifts for New Year's now and not for Christmas. The following day, my kids still watch cartoons on the television while I make a nice brunch (mainly leftovers). Then we all go to my Mother's sisters house where my cousins whipped up a fancy lunch. We stuff ourselves while joking around. It is always fun and simple.

I always dress up to go to my cousins' house for Christmas. This year, I chose a tiered skirt I thrifted in perfect condition at Colobane market three months ago. It is a Mark and Spencer skirt and I found it with the tag still attached. I paired it with a black sequin tank top purchased at the Wednesday thrift market, for peanuts. I added my new rivet cardigan and I was done. The cardigan is in reality a sweater than the clever tailors in Sandaga market turned into an open cardigan. I am not sure why they do that but I am not mad at them because I have been looking for cardigans for weeks at my fave shops with no luck. The markets are really the place to go to score fun things, particularly with street vendors. One day, I will tell you all about the best markets for shopping in my lovely city of Dakar. But back to this Christmas look, I added the red scarf, and I could have gone with matching red heels but I was going for comfort so I chose my black espadrilles. I felt like the dancing woman emoji all day, a little sassy.