Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas!

Last Christmas I received an amazing Christmas card. When you open it, a Christmas tree pops out and red and yellow lights start flashing and a voice sings “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas.” For nine months, I kept the luminary and musical properties of this card a secret. I feared mass chaos, shredded paper, screams, shrieks, and sobs. I pictured the card’s torn pieces fluttering into the waiting mouths of goats.

Then I realized, even if the card were destroyed within minutes of my revealing it to the children, this fate would not be any worse than the one of hanging silently on a wall, collecting dust. So one day in September, when Mamadou asks about the reindeer on the cover of the card, I decide to open it. Mamadou loves it. He brings it outside to show Diomboy. Diomboy loves it. And I love that I’m hearing “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas” on a mid-September morning in Africa.

When Gaye is shown the musical card, he responds with, “Ay, the toubab.”

At night, Pateh likes to shove the card close to his face so that he lights up, literally and figuratively, exactly as an American child would walking into a living room containing a fully-decorated Christmas tree. Pateh requests to see the card by referring to the book that goes “hum-hum-hum.”

The adults also like to see the card. It had lasted through several viewings in my compound without harm, so I decided to venture with it to Sinni’s compound. It entertains adults as well as kids! Fama paused braiding someone’s hair to open and close the card. My gold-toothed tokara liked to open and close the card several times in quick succession, but Fatou Sowe liked to pause and forget about it for long periods of time. Every once and awhile a conversation about broken water taps or the shortage of medicine at the hospital would be interrupted by, “…but have a cup of cheer!”

The best response, though, was Isatou Pippi’s. Mamadou, Diomboy, Pateh and I were opening and closing the card one night when I saw someone walking towards our compound. I shut the card and whispered to Mamadou, “Give Isatou the card and say, ‘open it.’ She will not be brave!” I wasn’t sure if Mamadou would understand my intention and follow my instructions. I worried maybe he’d take the card from my hands and open it immediately, or announce beforehand, “Isatou, listen to this!” Luckily, Mamadou understands a prank. He executed it flawlessly and Isatou jumped back in fright. Then we all started laughing, including Isato Pippi, who told me, “I thought it was a mouse.”