Of warm thoughts…
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English lecturer by day and professional doodler by night, Irushi Tennekoon is our guest columnist this week. Irushi currently lectures at the University of Kelaniya and she also moonlights as a popular freelance artist and children’s book illustrator at Iru’s Dedoodles. This is her taken on the festive season.
Every Christmas my little sister and brother and I would stay up as long as we could to spot Santa. However, for some odd reason we always fell asleep, just before midnight and woke up just after, not sure how that happened. But when we did wake up, it was magical! Everything we had written in our letters would be there in a little pillow case, near our bed because we used to share a room back then. They were little things, like a set of paint or a box of crayons, but it made our whole year!
My favourite Christmas was one spent with my grand mum ages ago in our holiday home in Nuwara Eliya. My folks couldn’t make it, and my sister and I were old enough to know that they were really Santa for all these years. But my brother was still expecting his gifts. He had specified to Santa that he would be in Nuwara Eliya and not in Nawala, where we stayed, that year. So we got a little Christmas tree decorated near the fireplace (it still works, Christmas in that house is the best!) and when malli was asleep we filled all our pillow cases with gifts, left it under the tree and made a sooty mess near the fireplace. He woke up to the Christmas he expected! This year will be the first Christmas without my grand mum though, so that’s going to be really different.
Despite myself not being a Christian, celebrating Christmas has always been a huge deal in my family. I think this is what a lot of people’s childhoods were like. On Christmas Day we jazz things up a bit by going for a full on, no umami spared Chinese spread-something we’ve done for as long as I can remember. This is followed by sticky Christmas cake and brandy butter for dessert-yum!
Whenever I think about the season I find myself humming Winter Wonderland, and I like imagining that it’s a white Christmas even though it’s so hot and sticky here in Sri Lanka. I’ve never actually experienced winter though, only what I’ve seen in movies so I’d love to spend a Christmas somewhere cold-but not too cold!
I still love everything about Christmas…the lights, the Christmas songs on the radio and just that vibe in the air. All those old cartoons they’ve been playing on repeat the last two decades, sitting down and spending time at home. It really is magic! Also, I’ve started a new tradition making Christmas cards. In the weeks drawing close to December I sit down and spend lots of time drawing and painting and thinking of new characters and new ways of drawing old characters and print lots of each for people to buy and send to their loved ones.
It’s nice to be able to do what I love to make people happy even in a little way this season.
Irushi with her grand mum and family
Irushi (R)with mum and sister