Chaka Demus still has the Christmas spirit

Smitten by the Yuletide season, veteran deejay Chaka Demus is bringing Christmas cheer with his single titled ' A Christmas Time'.

The entertainer was in an upbeat mood when he spoke with THE WEEKEND STAR about the holiday season.

"Yea man, this a di time when foreigners fly in and out and we a use up the white rum and the pepper light dem on the house. Mi just put all of this in a song and do the music video, so those who don't know will get a taste of how we Jamaicans enjoy ourselves at this time of the year," he said.

A Christmas Time is a reggae spin-off of Nat King Cole's A Christmas Song. Chaka Demus said he knows that the holidays spirit is dampened by the passage of Hurricane Melissa and the devastation it left, in especially Western Jamaica, but he expressed hope the song will bring cheer to people's moods.

"We should give away love all the time, but especially this season, we should give away love for free. Despite everything that the country is enduring, I just want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and I hope that this song will just let people forget about their problems for a minute and just start skank," he said.

Though he loves the Yuletide season, Chaka Demus said that as a child, there were no gift-wrapped presents under the trees at his home in Waterhouse, St Andrew. However, his parents found special ways to put smiles on his and his siblings' faces.

"Bwoy, as a little youth it never nice and mi never get nutten to make mi feel really dat happy. Mi mada and mi fada never have it and mi member one little time mi fada buy a little water gun for mi and mi little bredda and we use to take turns to play with it. So sometimes mi bredda would take it and go 'pie pie pie' and then mi take it and do the same," the entertainer said.

"We did too poor to bake cake and no three or four meat pot never good as we parents were just too poor. They did what they could with what they had though. They grow us good and as a yute mi did happy still. Sometimes as a youth yuh see others with things and we may feel a little way, but we had to learn to satisfy with wha we had," Chaka Demus added.

This Wednesday, Christmas Eve, the deejay said he will be joining his loved ones at a get-together.

"Even as a big man mi love Christmas and mi like to see when the kids them happy. Mi like the family togetherness and dem just a relax and I eat food. It make mi feel happy. Right now mi and mi wife deh here a prepare a Christmas ting eno and mi excited about it. It's definitely the best time of the year. Mi just ago have a get-together at home and just hold a vibes" he said.