UK resident longs to feel Jamaica-style Christmas again

With Christmas Day just around the corner, Jamaica-born, United Kingdom (UK)-based businesswoman Joan Wilson said each year she longs for her 'childhood days' holiday.

The last time Wilson spent the Yuletide season on her native shores was more than three decades ago, but she said it's only because all her relatives reside overseas. Speaking with THE STAR, she gave recollections of her younger years growing up in Islington, St Mary.

"I miss Jamaica during Christmas time because, growing up, it was never about the money or richness, it was about love. I grew up in the country, so we would look the logs for the fire, and my granny would bake on the wood fire, and it was just so tasty. I would always get a gift. The love was just obvious all over the district of Islington. We were poor but very happy. On Christmas Eve, we would go to Grand Market, and the place was very safe. We would see family that we haven't seen all year and it was just a vibe," she said.

With the majority of her loved ones in the UK, she hopes for a Christmas reunion. But this may not materialise, as they can get cantankerous.

"Spending Christmas in the UK is different from Jamaica because everybody just keep in their quarters. I never see a set of people violent like some of those in my extended family, because dem quarrel every Christmas. That is the time yuh hear whose pickney a jacket, and everything just turn and all type of story come up and yuh hear who never like who," she said, before erupting in a fit of laughter.

That aside, Wilson, who has fostered more than 100 children at her home in Crystal Palace, said she usually shares the Christmas cheer with her husband and children, both the biological one and the ones she fostered.

"My nieces will also be there, but I will not invite the older generation or go deep in the extended family because a problem dat. Although I have called the UK home for most of my life, my Christmas dinner is purely Jamaican. My table isn't complete without curry goat, oxtail, rice and peas, and so on," she said.

Longing to experience the Islington type of Christmas, Wilson said that for 2024, she will be travelling to Jamaica to enjoy the holidays with a few of her closest friends she has made over the year

"I want to prepare lobster and cook rice and peas on a coal stove, and just feel the love that I last felt when I was 19 years old," she said.