By Raffique Shah
December 20, 2025
It’s perhaps because those were earlier days and easier times when the population could make do with simple things that gave us pleasure and joy to own. Or it could be that most of the population decades ago were relatively poor. But whatever the reason why we did not enjoy the most expensive fruits, foods and things that cost plenty in general did not matter anyway.
One hundred years after the abolition of slavery, when the Africans who came in bondage had settled among their one-time captor in ways that were inconceivable when the British Lion still roared, and now among the world the beast no longer sported the fearsome jaws that made lesser mortals tremble with fear…those people, along with Indians and other orientals—Chinese…they were pursuing their full freedom, nothing less.
By now our former masters had come around to accepting us as part of the societies, though not quite on an equal basis that our forefathers thought they had won. But I digress.
I was about to plunge into the Christmas celebrations of a time that not many alive in the world today will know or remember. I grew up in a Muslim home that was part of a mixed community that settled in an obscure village where our numbers were not impressive, but where we would live in relative harmony.
Our many festivals will have been accepted by each other as being part of the community, not sectoral, so that one might see Hindus and Muslims at Baptist feasts, and vice versa.
From the time I turned eight or so, I would represent my household at such activity. I got around to learning some of the chants and prayers.
In my village, with Hindus being predominant among Indians, the boys would help build structures that were required for Ramleela or Divali. The Muslims rarely exhibited such extravagance. But when it came to Christmas, the entire village came out. Because, say what you will, Christmas was the grandfather of all religions, however sectoral it was professed to be.
My father, for example, explained to us why we marked Christmas which, after all, was as Christian an occasion as one could find. Pa told us Jesus was recognised in the Qur’an as a prophet. And, while we did not make a big fuss over birthdays of anyone, prophets or pundits, we respected the Christians’ right to celebrate in a lavish way. We did not make it a huge occasion: they were muted, low-keyed.
The biggest spend for any religious festival was, without doubt, Christmas. Everyone, whatever his religion, would at the very least do a general clean-up of his home. Some would buy new furniture and appliances, and the money you spent on eats and drinks for the big day was phenomenal.
Today, with modern technology available to us, political analysts, business executives and like experts track consumer spending from week to week for about a month of the Christmas “season”.
We never spent so lavishly for Eid. Gifting toys outside of Christmas was unheard of. Sales of apples and grapes, among other fruits sold, grown in temperate climates, invariably surpass the sale of locally produced fruits.
The tropical vistas we proudly market to tourists are all but hidden from public view as white flakes and blue lights transform the most prominent features to fit the locales of the birth of the Christ Child.
So, we have found ourselves prisoners of our own devices, the most impactful being the commercialisation of Christmas. If I might put this at a global level, consumers spend globally for Christmas…it must be the biggest of any season in the world. Economies of countries that own the rights to some aspects of Jesus Christ’s importance in religious priorities have worked and continue to capture uneven shares of the Christ Child’s reach.
Of the countries that benefit from the market that means so much to so many, none can claim more of its profits than Israel. Having registered its ownership of the manger in Bethlehem, Israel provides special security for the thousands who visit the birthplace of Jesus. It’s a shrine that is internationally recognised as being of religious significance for pilgrims.
The children of Gaza who have suffered more than anyone else, in keeping the image of the Christ Child, must also be denied its fruits. Israel is bent on excising Gazans from the world.
We should not be surprised if Donald Trump moves to use his self-declared hegemony over the world…all the so-called holy spots from the scriptures. These include Islam’s biggest and most important mosques, most of which lie in the hotspot.
Christmas as we know it is under threat from the Satanic “owners” of what was the most unifying character of the Abrahamic world. Beware.