Gold Gad longs for family at Christmas

For many growing up, Christmas has made such a lasting impact on their lives that even as adults, they would do anything to recapture the moment of their youth.

Recording artiste Gold Gad said that he would love to have his family and friends together for one more Christmas, as the season was special for him growing up.

"I grew up in a place called Golden River [near Above Rocks, St Catherine]. The first Christmas I can remember when I was very, very small, the place never had any form of electricity but we never missed it. We grew up with few neighbours who were our family," he recalled.

He said during Christmas time, relatives, including those living overseas, gathered to spend the holidays.

"We always a look out fi the barrel fi come. We always sit down and wait on Christmas to come because you know Christmas time a di right time when everything shub out and every family a fawud," he fondly reminisced. "My mother always do some big cooking, some big family dinner. We get the ham them and the nice something them weh we nuh get every day."

He said that since age 10, he has not had a Christmas that felt 'real' to him. The family moved to another home in the area.

"Everything break up, everybody gone dem ways. My sisters were gone. Some live in foreign, so we never do that big thing again. Really from then, Christmas has changed. We nuh really have that real Christmas from that time till now," he said.

Gold Gad got his big break two years ago but the global pandemic hit, putting a damper on the kind of Christmas celebration that he has been looking forward to.

"Yuh know the whole flight restrictions. We do link-up when we get the time but nothing like when I was eight or seven," he said. "So yeah, it kinda sucks when you fi think of it. We grow up close and inna that kind a fashion where you know is a family time where we always a look out fi the big link-up day vibes and presents. Yeah, times change."

But he is confident that when they do get together again, it "is going to be the same joy and the same love".

This Christmas, he plans to go back to Golden River to spend a few days and with some travel restrictions lifted, he is hopeful that his sisters will be able to visit.

In the coming year, he plans to tour Europe. An album is also in the making.