Andrew Wildes, Sunday Gleaner Writer

There are two things that 11-year-old Nehrue Frame wants for Christmas. One is a bicycle. He has wanted a bicycle since he first learnt to ride at age nine and it seems he already has useful intentions for it.

"Sometimes when me going to shop the sun too hot and sometimes when mi grandmother want me to go somewhere far mi can use it to go," Nehrue says.

The second thing he wants, more than anything, is to visit his mother in St Martin. Nehrue's father is dead and his mother has been working in St Martin since he was two. He says that although his mother comes home sometimes and sends photographs of herself so he can "see how she looks", he misses her. But Mom won't be home for Christmas this year.

Extraordinary

That is all Nehrue wants for Christmas. He knows, though, that unless something extraordinary happens, probably a visit from Santa Claus, he won't receive any of those gifts this Christmas. When The Sunday Gleaner spoke to him, he was peddling packages of shower curtains on downtown Kingston's bustling streets to help out his grandmother who sells kitchen towels. Nehrue will be selling throughout the Christmas season and he understands that his grandmother doesn't have the money to buy him much.

Nehrue, however, does not expect Christmas to be dismal. Though he will have to work sometimes, he expects to go to church, and to be treated by his cousins, who usually buy him food and share jokes.

Distraught

Mi go to grand market night, mi and mi cousin dem play and we get present - like the remote-control car dem," Nehrue says very excitedly.

Nehrue's story is not peculiar. It seems every boy in the central Kingston community of Allman Town wants a bicycle for Christmas and most have already figured that their parents will not be able to afford it. Micholas Myles is one such child. He says he wants a bicycle for Christmas because many of his friends have one, and he feels left out.

"Mi modda say when she get money she a go buy one, and up to now she nuh get it," a distraught Micholas discloses.

For eight-year-old Jordane McKenzie, Christmas is a time to spend with his father. Jordan lives with his mother, grandmother and aunt in Bull Bay, but is spending time with his father in Allman Town until January when school resumes. Jordan also wants a bicycle, but beyond that he is looking forward to dressing up and visiting Emancipation Park when Christmas comes.

Harsh situations

Allman Town and Southside are two communities in central Kingston that have been plagued with violence throughout 2008 and children have grown accustomed to harsh situations. There is now peace in the communities and 13-year-old Sherice Robinson, who lives in Southside, is looking forward to Christmas. To Sherice, Christmas is the time when she dresses up and goes to Pizza Hut, various treats and uptown Kingston. She says that her fondest memories of Christmas were from two years ago.

"Mi did get cake, mi mother did buy mi clothes and we did go out," she says reminiscently. She hopes to get cake this year again, but admits Christmas is always special to her because her birthday is in the same time; she will be 14 a day before Christmas Day.

So, what does Sherice want for Christmas this year? A pair of Creative Recreation sneakers and she has been pleading her case, both to Jesus and Santa Claus. She has wanted the shoes since she was 10 years old, but knows classes resume in January and, therefore, her mother won't have the money. Sherice's mother is a janitor, and her father died when she was a child. Her father's absence, she says makes Christmas especially hard because he had died on Boxing Day.

andrew.wildes@gleanerjm.com.