Christmas Workers

Happy holidays. Not for most women who do everything, including Christmas dinner.

They are not on Face or Instagram. They don’t know what Twitter is. They don’t know how to ‘selfie’ themselves. It’s a matter of time. They don’t have it because they’ve started preparing for the Christmas dinner.

Christmas women are not vocal. They keep things to themselves. They are not movie stars, so they cannot claim mental illness. But they think about Christmas dinner and the world. They wonder how time has stood still for them, when everything else around them changes.

They can’t talk to kids and grandchildren because they are scared of them. Some cultures allow kids to shout at parents and intimidate them on the regular. Christmas women accept their fate and write the grocery list. They usually don’t have outside jobs, so they try and stretch whatever money they get from house members.

Although they love aroma from the oven and pots, they despair when they think house members won’t notice. They’ll take a piece of snap beans or leg of chicken while thumbing their phones. Christmas women stopped trying to make small talk, when phones became part of the family. It irritates house members.

Christmas women dutifully collect the dishes and wash them. They don’t use the dishwasher. What’s the point of washing dishes before putting them in the machine? I might as well wash them.

They used to get hurt at the hit and run Christmas traffic. Cars pull in on Christmas Day, eat and the inevitable statement: Sorry have to run. Christmas women always wonder what kids run to, since everything is closed for the holidays.

Christmas women, the silent majority.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.