Jamaicans are a truly unique breed of people with a predictable set of traditions at Christmas time. When it comes to especially food, music and clothes, Christmas in Jamaica has a very specific feeling and flavour. Here are some of the things that are most distinct in our diG family’s memories of their Jamaican Christmas experience:
1. Foods
- Christmas fruit cake
- Gungo rice and peas
- Sorrel
- Curry goat
- Jerk chicken
- Potato salad
- Soup
2. Music
- Traditional Christmas carols
- Jamaica flavoured carols
- Happy, upbeat songs
- Dancehall tunes
- Disco/’dance’ songs
3. Clothes
- Family from ‘farrin’ in winter wear
- People in their very finest threads
- Weaves aplenty: women in every variation of wig and weave known to man
- Very short party dresses despite the biting cold
- Thigh-high boots despite the searing heat
- Kangol hats
4. Family
- Family from ‘farrin’
- Family from ‘town’
- Family from ‘country’
- Siblings from university
- Cousins from every land known to man
- Baby neices and nephews who are just so adorable
- Annoying aunts and uncles
- Grandpparents
- Favourite aunts and uncles