Santa, sunstroke and Skypes: A Canadian's COVID Christmas in South Africa

This First Person article is the experience of Chris Jaworski, a Canadian living in South Africa. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

One look inside the shopping mall will tell you: Santa's coming to town. 

Plastic icicles replete with LED lights sparkle from the ceiling, fir trees with baubles bedecking every corner, and shops going into festive overdrive, tempting shoppers with incredible yuletide sales. The holidays are truly upon us!

But when I go outside, the sun beats down relentlessly in 30 C heat. Like the last five Decembers, I'm in Johannesburg, South Africa — a far cry from the snow-packed Christmases of my youth in Canada.

And this year, like the last, Christmas is flavoured with the presence of an unwelcome guest in the form of COVID.

In late November this year, my good luck ran out and I caught it. 

Although, I actually consider my good luck is still holding, because I've long since had my double vaccination, I received excellent support from my doctor, and my symptoms — a sore throat, dry cough and fatigue — were relatively mild.

Honestly, I felt worse back when I had swine flu in Ottawa in 2010. However, I can only speak for myself, as COVID affects us all differently.

The other good news is that I have since recovered fully. 

Now despite the new variant omicron and the concerns that come with it, I'm looking forward to unwinding this Christmas, even though it will vastly differ from the Christmases I knew growing up in Ottawa. 

Canadian Christmases with our family have always been stereotypically 'Christmasy': big family get-togethers, frigid snowy days, early sunsets, and stick-to-your-ribs food. 

To me, Christmas followed a set pattern that was as iron-clad as the seasons themselves: my dad's side of the family on Christmas Day and my mom's side of the family for Boxing Day. The food was delicious, rich, and heavy, the weather predictably cold, and the eggnog was endless. It was a special time of year. 

I moved to South Africa in 2015 to be with my then-girlfriend and now-wife, Tayla. South African Christmas, I learned in my first year here, feels more like a rollicking mid-summer party than a revered mid-winter ritual. 

South Africans take full advantage of the sun — slicking themselves with sunscreen and setting up their charcoal-laden braais (barbecues) on garden patios. 

Christmas Day lunches at my in-laws are full of grilled lamb chops, boerewors (sausage), and steaks with generous sides of pap (corn meal), chakalaka (tomato relish) and salads. 

The only gammon (ham) or turkey you'll find us eating are cold cuts after cooling off in the pool. 

Christmas in South Africa may feel a little more subdued than usual this year, due to the global surge in cases and to the continuing enforcement of masks and social distancing. Luckily, since it's summer here, gatherings are largely held outside by default. 

But South Africans have proven time and again to be a resilient bunch, and according to our local news, there's early data suggesting COVID's spread is slowing in Johannesburg.

New country, new traditions

Since moving, my Christmas Day now follows a new tradition — around the early afternoon, we video-call my family. We are clad in bathing suits and our third coating of sunscreen, but my parents and siblings are kitted out in their warm onesies, staving off the early morning chill. 

My mom bemoans her inability to send us presents (the South African postal system is unpredictable to say the least!) and we get a moment to catch up, even though my family is seven hours behind.

Every year it's a strange, melancholic feeling. For the first 25 years of my life, Christmas was a time of year that was inextricably linked to certain feelings, expectations and people — my family. 

Christmas is still about my family, but it has evolved — it's not just about the family I have in Canada, but also the one that I made here. 

Even though my old memories of Christmas aren't what I experience now, there is a beautiful blending of the old and new.

While there is a part of me that misses the cold nights and Christmas stereotypes you see on TV, in truth, I couldn't be happier with the weird, jarring incongruence of my South African celebration. 

Perhaps these past two years have been less predictable than those before, but I still have hope. 

I hope that we can work together to keep COVID at bay. 

I hope that the indomitable South African spirit holds firm through this wave. 

I hope that those back in Canada remain safe, so I can see my family and stand beside my best friend for his wedding in Toronto next year. 

After all, what is Christmas but a collection of our hopes for the year to come?

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