One of the glorious events that has captured and attracted the minds of many people, both Christians and non- Christians, is Christmas which signifies the birth of Christ who descended from his Father in heaven to this earth to suffer and save men and women in the world.

There are some non-Christians who even celebrate Christmas in a special way more than Christians themselves. This is good because it shows that irrespective of our religious beliefs, there is always the need to recognise that there is someone who came unto the world to save mankind.

REFLECT ON CHRIST

Christmas is a period to reflect on Christ not just about His birth but about His entire life on this earth and how He preached the good news to turn away people from their sinful life in order to live good lives and to bring quality life as deserved by all men and women created in the image of God.

Throughout the world, people celebrate Christmas in various ways. Indeed, Christmas serves as an occasion in which people send messages of joy to friends and relations every­where.

NORM OF CELEBRATION

Apart from church services, people cele­brate the occasion with their families as well as friends or even non-friends in the neighbourhood. This has become the norm of celebration in the world.

As part of the celebration, a lot of attention is focused on the preparation of special meals for visi­tors who may come and visit us at home. Sometimes, friends and relations visit places of interest such as the beaches and other interesting sites as part of their excursion to various parts of the country.

While it becomes necessary for certain people to embark upon travelling expedition, inside or outside the country, many a time, people prefer to spend Christmas in their home country or towns. Whatever it is, some high expenditure is incurred as a result of travel or visits to places of interest.

SPECIAL MEALS

At the same time, it is interesting to note that spe­cial meals are prepared to serve visitors and to make them happy.

This is not to say that it is only during Christmas that special preparations are made and expenses incurred to make people happy and to let them feel special during this occasion.

TOUGH TIMES

With the COVID and the Russia-Ukraine war, many parts of the world have been greatly infected with problems that have made people uncomfortable par­ticularly with regard to our social and economic life.

Parents are finding it very difficult to finance the health needs of their family members as well as their own children. In other words, economic life has become very difficult, tough and unbearable in the world today.

There are many people who find it very difficult to make ends meet. They include people in both devel­oped and developing countries.

DEVELOPED WORLD

In the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France and other parts of the developed world, life is not easy and there are times when commodities considered precious are rationed among consumers.

It is also important to note that people sometimes travel long distances to buy fuel so as to be able to move their vehicles to places that they may need to go. In Mexico for example, we are told that people drive all the way to border areas with the US to buy fuel at cheaper prices.

What this means is that all over the world, things have become unbearable. There are many people who even think that probably the events of today signify the end of the world even though this may not be the case because in times past, many similar difficult situations had been encountered.

GERMAN EXPERIENCE

During the 1st and the 2nd World Wars for exam­ple, the entire globe at the time experienced terrible growth. One country that suffered terribly during the 2nd world war was Germany. In Germany at that time, inflation was far higher than what is being ex­perienced in Ghana today.

The money in Germany lost its value to the extent that people had to carry huge sums of money in their bags to be able to buy certain products including basic ne­cessities. It was simply very difficult to even come across basic needs of life so condi­tions at that period became more difficult than is being experienced in Ghana and many other African countries including the very terrible economic conditions being encountered in certain parts of the world.

LIMITED FINANCIAL RESOURCES

When these conditions emerge, it becomes neces­sary for every person to keep his or her financial resources well and put them to the best economic use. In other words, needless things ought to be overlooked by way of expen­diture. It is only essential products, including basic medicines that ought to be bought whenever necessary.

It is often said that we have every opportunity to do whatever we like in this world yet only the essential and needful ought to be undertaken by way of expenditure. If this is done, it will go a long way to help reserve our limited financial resources so that we can survive the present financial con­ditions and overcome the challenges we are facing today.

This is achievable. If this is the case, then we need to work rigidly and assiduously towards achieving this goal to make life better for us all.

MEASURED EXPENDITURE

In view of the economic difficul­ties being encountered in the coun­try, other African countries and also the rest of the world, it has become necessary for every person to become very circumspect when it comes to expenditure on goods and services so as to be able to preserve some finan­cial resources for the family.

Measured expenditure is what is needed today. Unmeasured expendi­ture in times of plenty or abundance should be made to wait until we see great improvement in our economic conditions.

What is important in these diffi­cult times, is to avoid unnecessary expenditure and only undertake ex­penditures that are necessary. Some of the expenditures that are neces­sary are those we cannot do without such as medicine, food and shelter as well as clothing.

PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE

When it comes to basic medicine, we cannot look on when people are sick so we will have to cough out money to cater for those who are sick.

Medical care is expensive so it is important for us to practise preven­tive healthcare.

Preventive healthcare is where we make special efforts to prevent sicknesses from coming our way in order to stay healthy throughout the period. If we observe basic personal hygiene and keep our surroundings clean, we can be healthy and prevent diseases from attacking us. Choked gutters ought to be desilted. Again, the water we drink must also be clean so that infection of diseases cannot be possible in our lives.

Other preventive health measures ought to be observed so that we will not throw away money on diseases that can be prevented.

HEALTHY BALANCED DIET

One other way of staying healthy is by having enough rest at all times and also eating good food. Eating good food does not necessarily mean eating expensive food. What it means is that we need to go by healthy balanced diet such as gari, beans and fried plantain and some of our delicious local meals that are not expensive.

It is some of these local meals that help us to stay healthy. We also need to avoid excessive sugar, salt, and fat and oil. If we are able to keep away from these things, we will stay healthy and avoid using the little money we have for medical care.

AVOID EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL INTAKE

Again, it is important to avoid any other thing that can make us sick such as excessive intake of alco­hol. Excessive alcohol may result in destroying certain organs in the body such as the kidney, the heart and other internal organs.

It is generally known that we need to meet our basic necessities of life. These basic necessities are food, clothing and shelter.

With regard to food, the point has already been made that we need not necessarily eat expensive foods that may not even be healthy. Rather, what we need is healthy balanced food to make us strong and healthy, keeping us away from falling sick.

LOOK DECENT

In the case of clothing, we need to be content with what we already have. We must avoid the purchase of expensive clothing in order to impress upon friends and neighbours during this Xmas season. The important thing is to look decent in your clothes but not to buy expensive clothes to mark the occasion.

Another basic necessity of life is shelter. We must learn to live in sim­ple houses and put in simple furniture and other items that may be needed in the house.

MODERATION

Cars are good because they serve useful purpose but we need to go in for simple ones that do not consume too much fuel especially at this time when fuel prices are very expensive all over the world. Here in Ghana, it is not very easy to buy fuel regularly for our vehicles.

For this reason, when it becomes necessary, we may need to park our vehicles whenever necessary and walk some distances in our neigh­bourhood. We may have to join public transport such as buses and other commercial vehicles so that our cost of living can be minimised.

These are measures that can be taken by ourselves, without any com­pulsion, so as to be able to save some money for ourselves.

We need to do all these to make our Christmas celebration more meaningful to show to the world that we make judicious use of the little resources we have to make ourselves happy. This is how we can celebrate Christmas in a simple way.

Email address/whatsApp number of author:

Pradmat201@gmail.com (0553318911

By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako