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What our leaders and celebrities are doing this holiday seasonLast year, then president-elect of the United States Barack Obama took himself, his family and a few friends off to a well-deserved Christmas break at a $30-million retreat in Hawaii. This Christmas, Obama has weightier things on his festive plate. For one, he would like Santa to bring him news that his controversial healthcare bill has been passed by the US Senate.
Closer to home, South African icon Nelson Mandela is known for hosting charitable Christmas parties in his rural home village of Qunu in the Transkei, at which he and wife, Graça Machel, hand out gifts to thousands of needy children. For Madiba, the rest of the festive period is usually family time.
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is also known for a sumptuous bash or two over the festive season, and this year will be no different.
But it is the more spiritual side of things that matters to her as she quotes singer Johnny Mathis, saying, “Christmas is a feeling in your heart” that cannot be found on a tree or in a package, but comes with the connections made with those around us.
South African President Jacob Zuma usually returns home to his rural retreat in Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal over the festive period, where he hosts an annual Christmas party that keeps the village talking for months thereafter.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie takes her son, Maddox – and now an extended family that includes more kids and husband, Brad Pitt – off to a different part of the world every Christmas.
But gifts, parties and festive tables aside, the annual festive season means many different things to different people. For some, it is indeed a time to feast. Others use it as a time of reflection, or an opportunity for recharging their batteries. Some stay at home with close family, others jet off to exotic holiday destinations.
This year, however, the effects of the global recession may put a damper on some plans.
We caught up with a very busy former president FW de Klerk at the 10th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Berlin, Germany and asked him what he would be doing this festive period.
“We will be spending Christmas with my children and my wife Elita’s children at our home in Fresnaye this year,” he said. “It will be a traditional Christmas for us, with a big family lunch. And on New Year’s Eve, we will enjoy a nice braai.”
De Klerk believes the festive period to be a time for family and friends, but also a time to reflect upon the past year, and a time to relax. Looking back at 2009, he says the low point was the death of his brother, Willem, a well-known former newspaper editor, academic and theologian.
“I am also very concerned about the increasing racism in our national politics,” he says.
“The high points of the year, however, include the increasing success of the FW de Klerk Foundation and its Centre for Constitutional Rights; and my international foundation, the Global Leadership Foundation.
“Our success on the cricket and rugby fields this past year stood out, as well as South Africa’s successful preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup,” he added.
On the other side of the world, former opposition leader and now South Africa’s new ambassador to Argentina, Tony Leon, is in the process of coming to grips with his new job, a new country and a new language as he reflects on the festive season.
“Being a brand new ambassador in Argentina marks this festive season out as somewhat different. Normally, we would either be at home in Newlands entertaining visitors from Gauteng, or else away on some island. This year, we will be in Buenos Aires entertaining visiting South Africans,” he says.
“I will use the Christmas break to catch up on my Spanish homework, which my day job in the embassy precludes me from completing!”
Over the Christmas period, Leon and his family “and whoever else is still staying in our Buenos Aires apartment at that time” will most likely be travelling to the cooler climes of the Argentinean South, visiting places such as Bariloche and El Calafate, “two of the many places in this enormous and varied land I have yet to visit”, he says.
Leon says a high point of the year was his appointment as ambassador, but adds a philosophical note of caution when he quotes Leo Tolstoy: “Sometimes the leaves enchant us more than the branches.”
“In other words,” he explains, “there is a lot of bureaucracy and detail and statistics gathering to accompany the honour. Still, it was an unusual, graceful gesture of President Zuma to the opposition.
“The year’s low point for me was my entirely voluntary and necessary decision to leave Parliament. I don’t miss the institution, but I do miss the camaraderie of the Democratic Alliance benches,” he says.
One of Leon’s erstwhile fellow opposition warriors, leader of the Independent Democrats (ID) Patricia de Lille, says this time of the year is meant for rest and quality time with her family. Her staff says she desperately needs rest more than anything else after a hectic election year.
De Lille plans to stay at home with her family and, very importantly, her dogs in Cape Town for the entire period, as during the year she spends 80% of her time travelling.
Christmas Day will be spent at home, while New Year’s Day will include a picnic “somewhere nice”.
As an international music star, the festive period has since 1994 always meant work for Arno Carstens, being on the road and gigging. Two years ago, he and his wife, Melanie, broke the mould and took the month off, relaxing in Betty’s Bay and going on a memorable mountain hike at dawn on New Year’s Day. And that is what they have been trying to do ever since.
At Christmas, they always try to spend a few days with both his and her family in Worcester. “It’s a lot of fun. Both our families are pros at letting their hair down and getting into the party spirit. One thing is for sure, I always overeat during the festive season. My mom is an awesome cook,” says Carstens.
As for this year, he still has not made up his mind, but the Worcester family gathering, the Betty’s Bay beach chill and a visit from an old friend from Australia are all on the cards.
On Christmas Eve, there will be a family braai and at midnight, presents will be handed out by one of the family dressed up as Santa Claus – a family tradition.
However, after an incident in 2007 involving a gold G-string bikini, Carstens has been banned permanently by the family from doing the honours as Santa...
He says the past year has been “incredible”, with trips to Europe and the US and completing his third solo album, which he describes as “a journey of extremes”.
From music to checking on how the State’s books are balanced, Auditor-General Terence Nombembe says that for him, the festive season is a time to rest, reflect and recharge for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the new year.
For him and his family, it is important to spend quality time together to make up for all the time lost because of busy schedules during the year. This year, that quality time will be spent visiting the extended family at his childhood base in the Eastern Cape, and also touring other parts of the country.
Christmas will mean a family meal, and New Year’s Day will have him on a beach somewhere dipping his toes into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
As to what kind of a year it has been, Nombembe says that “judging by the quality of dialogue with staff in the Auditor-General of SA, and government leadership towards clean audits, it has been a very good year, indeed”.
Former Manchester United, England and Kaizer Chiefs soccer star, Gary Bailey believes it is important to make up with one’s children for the work stress and the time lost during the year.
“I write a letter to each of my kids, explaining how much they mean to me and how they have grown in the past year – I read to each one individually and reaffirm how incredibly important to me they are – and I’ve yet to keep a dry eye when reading each letter,” he says.
“But what a wonderful feeling of closeness you get afterwards, and a sense that the children know that they are absolutely loved and that your work is necessary, but not more important than them.”
Also, he says, spend time with the kids doing something they want to do. “Hanging out with your mates at the pub is not a fun afternoon out for children!”
For Professor Henry Bredekamp, chief executive officer of Cape Town’s Iziko Museums, his children and wife, Florence, also come first this time of the year, although he has to still find a balance with unavoidable work commitments.
Early in December, he will be hosting President Zuma and the members of the Fifa executive committee on Robben Island as a prelude to the final World Cup draw.
Later in the month, he will be attending an international meeting of museum directors in the Philippines. But Christmas will be spent with his family at home in Bellville before leaving for a short holiday at Goudini Spa over the New Year.
Bredekamp sums up his view of this time of the year, saying that “for many a true Christian believer, it’s a time of great joy and spiritual inspiration while others may feel lonely and depressed.”
For Jay Naidoo, the former trade union leader once also known as “Mr RDP” in the government of Mandela, and now a businessperson and chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the festive period is definitely a time for family and self-reflection.
“It’s a time to wind down, reflect on the past year and spend time connecting back to the family and self. To let go especially of the ego and look for the humility in one’s soul,” he says.
“I am 100% there for my family. We cook, play games, watch movies, read books, go shopping and meet friends.”
This year, Naidoo will enjoy a white Christmas in Canada with wife Lucie’s family, skiing cross country, engaging in snow fights, and making “a gigantic Christmas snowman”.
“Christmas Eve is the time for having a delicious meal, opening presents and having lots of eggnog. Christmas Day is for immediate family. Boxing Day is for dinner with Lucie’s father, Pierre, and her stepmother,” he says.
“The week over New Year, we go to the wonderful fairyland with snow, mountains and forests where Lucie’s mom, Loulou, lives near Mont Mégantic – about three hours out of Montreal.”
Looking back, Naidoo says it has been a very productive year with time to reflect on his life, write a book and spend time with the most important part of his life, “my wife, Lucie, and my beautiful kids: Shanti, Kami and Leandre”.
“It was also the year for me in which I returned full time to the passion in my life – development activism,” he adds.
For Kallie Kriel, the former teacher, trade unionist and civil liberties activist who heads AfriForum – the civil initiative established by the Solidarity trade union – says that he will be doing three things over the festive season: rest, rest and rest.
On a more serious note, he views the period as time for stocktaking and evaluation, not only over the affairs of the country and the role of AfriForum in having a positive influence on them but also over his personal life.
“All the rushing during the year causes one to not always think of the things in one’s life that should be priority, namely one’s family and one’s spiritual life,” he says.
He usually spends this time with his family, but still keeps his ear close to the ground regarding national affairs. This year Kriel, his wife and four children will be visiting his parents in the Northern Cape.
He say he has mixed feelings about the past year, as the strong growth in AfriForum’s membership also meant that things were deteriorating in South Africa, as more people saw the need for an organisation that could help establish social balance.
Nonetheless, says Kriel, high points include the successes of South Africa’s sportsmen and women, as well as those of his own organisation, AfriForum. ▲
Stef Terblanche
