My mum Sharlene is Catholic and my dad Sunil is Buddhist, so growing up we got to celebrate the best of everything. We even had two trees – one was the fake tree we’d decorate before hand but on December 23 my father would go out and buy a lovely real tree. My cousins, who always came over on Christmas Eve, would help us decorate. The highlight of our day was the Christmas Eve dinner – my father loves his fried rice and we’d have it with big pieces of chicken, surrounded by eggs sliced in half, you know the whole decorative thing. There were always different kinds of meats and even a macaroni dish.

Shey. Pic by Indika Handuwala

Once dinner was done and everyone’s tummy was full we’d go to midnight mass. My cousins would stay behind and get up to no good. When we came home we’d find they had ransacked our rooms. We would find my shoe hanging on the door or a pair of shorts on the banister.

Basically they’d make a trail of bread crumbs that led to the Christmas tree with the gifts under it. (When we were younger, dad used to pretend he had heard Santa’s sleigh as he dropped off our gifts.) Mom usually serves a little wine, Christmas cake and chicken pies. We eat, drink and open our gifts – this after already stuffing our faces galore at dinner. It’s a long night, but we wake up late on Christmas morning. After a breakfast of kiribath, it is part of our tradition that we go to my grandmother’s place.

My grandmother is an amazing cook – she makes the best love cake ever. She also has this signature meat curry dish and everyone loves her caramel pudding. She passed the recipe on to my older sister, who makes it very well. For me, Christmas is full of warmth and love. Some things have changed in recent years – many of my cousins have married or moved away – but my parents and my two sisters and I still keep the traditions. Five of us, we still exchange gifts, all of that happens.

There’s another tradition, my mom and dad have instilled in us – we keep aside a day to go family shopping.  My dad’s greatest happiness is to be with us, even when we’re shopping for clothes. This time, we were all packed into the dressing room. We’d try on something and go out and show it to him. He would say this is nice, this not so nice. We’re all so busy, it’s a blessing for me to think we can still do this as a family.

People always ask me if I have a favourite carol, but I don’t. The one carol I’ve sung the most though is ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’ We have this great memory from when we were all in school. I remember us getting ready for the carol service at the Holy Family Convent chapel. In the morning we’d have one last practice.

There would be a Christmas breeze, blowing through the church and we could see the tree being decorated by the Prefects. People who know the church at Holy Family Convent will know it has amazing acoustics. I remember everything about school and we have these amazing memories of Christmas that we relive every year as we get closer to Christmas. It’s a really special time of year.