‘Carols by Candlelight’ organisers met Mr. George Apap who this year was entrusted with the exhibition which will be held at the Priory’s foyer on the events dates. Below please find Mr. Apap’s childhood memories which are kept alive in his drawings.
“I grew up in the Village of Xagħra in Gozo. When I was young the streets and the open fields were our playground. So many memories of football matches where our school bags served us a goalposts ou our way back from school. So many memories especially at Christmastime.
In my household, Christmas was the event of the year. We all had a role to perfrom: my brothers used to build a very large crib, starting quite early, around mid-November, the younger ones, me included would collect little stones from the alley next door to build, with the help of some clay rubble walls to border the fields in the crib. The girls would cut stars from silver paper to paste them on the paper sky, my mother would bake cakes and my father would keep us all happy by playing Christmas Carols on the piano in the living room.
I also remember the little card board box my father had in which he kept his Christmas Cards. Old Christmas Cards, they were beautiful. I used to sneak this box into my bed and enchant myself into a fantasy world with images of snow caped the mountains, smiling Father Christmas, choirs of children singing carols and Baby Jesus in a manger full of shraw. Some of this cards used to open up and give a 3D effect, many of them came from Italy or Gemany.
Those old cards in my father’s card board box are the main inspiration to my present collection of Christmas Cards”. (G. Apap)
