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Trying to cope in a miserable weather of 5 degrees centigrade at night time and if lucky, some eleven degrees centigrade at day time, the only cheerful thing one does look up to is taking a walk through the shopping malls. Not only is it warm. Almost all the shops are displaying some glitters of the Christmas season. Passing through the miserable weather in far away London at the beginning of November has reminded me that the festive occasion, Christmas, is already in the air. The look and feel of the festive occasion is everywhere. The glitter of displays one sees in shop windows, the bonfires and the fireworks happening all over the place to mark Halloween and Guy Fawkes� Day bring out a lighter feeling - a something to look up to kind of atmosphere. Despite the noisy environment sometimes, I have been thinking to myself, don�t they need something to cheer themselves up as miserable as the weather is. Good old Britain. A home of powerful trade unions, members of the communications workers union have held a series of postal strikes in recent months causing huge delays with millions of mails going undelivered. While all were panicking about Christmas deliveries, the strikes have been called off, they say, until after Christmas. The unions can be very considerate sometimes. And so are some employers. Christmas is over a month away yet the Civil Service Sports Council has given government officials time off for their Christmas shopping tours. The fact is, they do not have to worry about productivity. The tax payer will take care of their salaries. The media is covered with adverts of Christmas bargains. The shops are adorningly decorated. London is damn expensive but those who can afford it are neck deep in the bargains. The X factor in the season has indeed caught up with the Brits for how on earth could thousands of people throng the West end of London in defiance of the cold to watch the Christmas lights in Oxford Street and Regent Street switch on simultaneously for the first time. And not only that. They also stayed on for hours of free concerts in that cold weather all in the name of ushering in the Yuletide. But as I watched on television the Christmas lights switched on at the heart of London with so much fun fair, I cast my mind back to my motherland and wondered how my people are gearing up for the festivities. This year should be it. But is it really? Has the festive fever caught on yet? When I was leaving home, the weather was sweltering with a temperature of 28 to 30 degrees centigrade. There was definitely no sign of the festive occasion. Not even at the airport. Is the Ghana Airports Company awake? At Church however, the other Sunday, the announcements made a casual mention of how many Sundays there were before Christmas. I bet not many people took notice of it. Is it not amazing how time flies? Nearly 365 days have slipped by. We have had our ups and downs but I remember vividly this time last year. We were all gripped with the anxious moments and challenges the 2008 general elections were presenting. We woke up each day with so much anxiety in our hearts. The media did not help us as reportage kept creating dissentions and inflaming passions. We were on tenterhooks hoping that even if our preferred parties did not see the day, at least Ghana will be the winner and we shall all have peace and some quiet to celebrate Christmas. Guess what? Ghana was the toast of the day but Christmas passed us by as we went into round two of the elections. We were not too bothered because as for Christmas, it could be celebrated another year. Come to think of it, this should be a most celebrated Christmas season for all Ghanaians. Why am I saying that? We went close to the edge of the cliff. Anything could have happened from the time the electoral commissioner declared no winner and therefore a second round. The maturity of the Ghanaian held us back from jumping over the cliff. Almost one year on, having proved to the world that we are politically matured, it is time to let down our heads for a good celebration. But can we? Will we? I cannot see any signs of Christmas in our motherland as yet with just forty four days away. The only people who seem to have tasted Christmas a bit early are the Satellites. Yes, they have made us proud and they well deserve the package announced by the President last week. Most juicy indeed. Economically, it looks like things seem to be getting better. The Cedi does not seem to be under much pressure and it makes you wonder whether importers are not bringing in Christmas stocks as is traditionally the case this time of the year. The Cedi�s performance however seems to have a little bearing on affordability and that is where it may get challenging for many families this season. The will is there for a good celebration this year but the wherewithal will be a problem. We are still crawling through the hard times. What may be reassuring somehow is that life even in Britain and America are also not that easy. Things are just as expensive. Food prices are high; the cost of public transportation has shot up. Fuel cost is amazing compared to what we are paying at home. In the midst of all the hardships, Britain has just announced that their Value Added Tax (VAT) is going to go up by another 2%. Yes, times are hard all over but the approach of Yuletide is being felt, economic melt down or not. On occasions like Christmas, I tend to look back a lot drawing comparisons with the period of growing up. Those days, Christmas was indeed a time to look forward to. Apart from the expectant gifts from family and friends, it was a season of good food, lots of drinks and beautiful clothes and shoes. It was that once in a year time when real home reared tasty chicken meals were served. We ate them with that occasional bottle of soft drink that carried the generic name Fanta irrespective of the contents in the bottle. Those good old Christmas atmosphere of years gone by has unfortunately been badly diluted and has become somewhat everyday life for us today. The traditional festive meals are nothing special these days because we eat them every day thanks to the �check-check� overnight fast food kiosks that have lined up every roadside, particularly in Accra and Kumasi. The numerous wayside ever lit �boutiques� are providing assortments of �ready-made� branded clothing and shoes for every day wear. The �Fanta� drinks we were privileged to have then have become part of our daily meals. As for the biscuits, they come in all shapes and sizes, expired or not, they are being pushed down our noses in heavy traffic. The buffet lunches and dinners with danceable music are every week-end happenings if you are a funeral goer. So really, in these hard economic times, maybe we should not even moan about our inability to give our families and friends a good Christmas. Christmas as we have come to know it and observe it is indeed an everyday occurrence. What we should be eager for is satisfaction in our hearts. It is the peace and tranquillity in our nation that we need to hammer on during seasons like Christmas. After all, the true message of Christmas is peace on earth and goodwill to all men and women. So let it be for our beloved Ghana as we go into the Yuletide which is only 44 days away. Written by Vicky Wireko Andoh Email: [email protected]