Nevermind a better life, what about just Christmas clothes for all?

If I was the president of our country, I would definitely make Christmas clothes and gifts free to every poor child in South Africa. Perhaps the concept of “Christmas clothes” may sound foreign to you. Let me indulge you for a bit.

In the villages and townships, it’s customary that children are bought new clothes before Christmas. The first set of these brand new clothes is to be worn on Christmas day, ideally to a church service, and then kept clean until the big Christmas lunch is had.

This, of course, is applicable to the kids whose parents had saved enough to buy them the “traditional” Christmas clothes. To some, it is going to be a day they don’t even look forward to.

In my recollection of my teenage years, I had nothing but sad Christmas Day memories. The day schools closed signalled the beginning of unhappy days throughout my primary or lower grade schooling.

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After the completion of our exams, the school lunch break interactions would be centred around Christmas clothes; when their parents were taking them to town to buy clothes, how many items they were going to buy, and which new toys are they going to get too.

Me and others would keep quiet, cry inside, die a little inside and only wish we came from families that could afford us the same. Our school uniforms covered our lack. Even though our shorts and shirts were generally worn out, we had uniform nonetheless.

That level of poverty hasn’t been eradicated at all. In fact, it has deepened. More people are out of jobs, more people are without money and that means a lot more people are poorer and will not have a merry Christmas.

For kids, it is not even about the food at all. It is about clothes and gifts. That fills their tummy.

Oprah Winfrey said this about one of her Christmas memories, “I will never forget when I was about 12, and my mother told my siblings and me that we would not be receiving Christmas gifts because there wasn’t enough money. I remember at the time that I felt sad and thought: “What would I say when the other kids asked what I had gotten?” Just when I started to accept that there would not be a Christmas that year, three nuns showed up at our house with gifts for us. There was a turkey, a fruit basket, and some games, and for me, there was a doll.”

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The doll gift was the highlight of her Christmas as a 12 year old.

No matter how much food there may be for this special day in the Christian calendar, for children in our black communities, it is the Christmas clothes plus the fireworks that indicates a perfect Christmas Day celebration.

I know that funds are low for most if not all of us, and I am also not able to partake this year to give to the needy. However, if your cup is running over, let’s try our best to gift the needy.

Christmas clothes, Christmas gifts and fireworks are, and for a long time, will continue to be the greatest fulfilment of this particular day.

Kabelo Chabalala.

Kabelo Chabalala is the founder and chairperson of the Young Men Movement (YMM), an organisation that focuses on the reconstruction of the socialisation of boys to create a new cohort of men.

Email: kabelo03chabalala@gmail.com
Twitter: @KabeloJay
Facebook: Kabelo Chabalala

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