By Edet Unanaowo
Christmas has always been one of my favourite seasons in the year (except off course for the year I burnt my Christmas clothes out of excitement – I got a memorable hiding from my mom for that). I have always been thrilled by the fanfare, the festiveness, the food, and celebrations that fill the atmosphere during Christmas. Everyone gets caught up in the frenzy somehow. Young, old, men and women, all just get hooked with the Christmas fever when the season arrives.
In my early years, I simply focused on enjoying Christmas and every bit of fun that comes with it. However, as I grew older I began to ponder the actual reason why the yuletide season is one of the most popular and anticipated periods of the year.
Christmas means different things to different people. It represents a season of festivities, holidays, shopping and love. I believe that Christmas represents the essence of love, which is the sincere care mankind will show to fellow each other. Christmas represents that spirit of giving back, in love, irrespective of our differences. The story of Christmas is rooted in the birth of Jesus Christ, who was destined to bring salvation to a distressed and sorrowful world. His birth was a gift from the creator of all things. A gift to liberate and realign man for fellowship with God. This act of God unveils love as his most important attribute. Christmas is the season when love is the seed to sow and the fruit to harvest. It is the season to give and to receive. Above all, it is that time of the year when love is the item on display in our shelves. I think of it as the season in which you unbundle the goodness of your heart to the world. The world is filled with men and women pursuing dreams. Some are discouraged, others believe they will never fulfil their potentials because of the prevailing challenges inherent in our society. Many folks will be looking up, full of expectation, that somehow their dreams will come to fruition this Christmas.
At Heirs Holdings Limited, I like to think that, in some way, we celebrate Christmas every day. Our vision is to see a world where Africa would have attained significant growth, through empowerment and support, from within. This vision is driven by our founder’s love for the continent and has given birth to programs like TEEP that creates opportunities for a thousand entrepreneurs every year. This is what Christmas is all about. It is about giving precious things to society to solve major problems. It is about love for country, family, neighbours and friends. It is about living for yourself and for others. It is about putting a smile on someone’s face and providing support to bring a dream to fruition. It is about sharing a smile with another human being. It is about celebrating the high and low moments of life together. It is about standing together for Africa in Africa to bring our dreams to reality.
This is what Christmas means to me.
Wishing everyone in the Heirs Holdings Group a merry Christmas!
