Mombasa lights up ahead as residents prepare for annual festivities

The coastal city of Mombasa sparkles with merriment as festive jingles and carols fill the air with joy and anticipation.

Lights flicker and dazzle with an array of decorations-Mini string lights, wide-angle LED mini lights, large-bulb lights, and animated, and colour-changing lights adorn the streets and key buildings, including favored shopping malls.

December’s festive journey has undeniably begun.

At Travellers Beach Hotel, elated visitors, families, and friends are immersed in delightful Christmas traditions – the joyful cake mixing ceremony and the mesmerizing lighting of the Christmas tree.

Here, revelers seem to cast aside the tales of the ongoing El Nino rains and economic challenges.
As the setting sun bathes the coastal city in golden rays, the hotel’s entertainment crew begins a heartwarming musical performance, met with enthusiastic applause from arriving guests.

Mombasa Deputy Governor Francis Thoya, speaking at the function, hails Mombasa as a unique tourist destination, where global visitors find peace and merriment.

“To have visitors coming repeatedly means there’s something unique offered here. Thank you to international tourists for choosing Mombasa. The scheduled and chartered flights directly from Europe are significant for regional tourism,” Thoya stated in his official speech.

He acknowledges Kenya’s competition with destinations like Zanzibar and emphasizes improving the tourism product through eco-tourism and innovation.

Cake mixing ceremony

The festivities commence with a vibrant cake mixing ceremony. Families and friends gather, don aprons, and share laughter blending colorful ingredients, filling the atmosphere with the sweet aroma of fruits, nuts, and spices.

The cake mixing tradition, dating back to the 17th century, symbolizing unity and hard work, involves soaking the mixture in alcoholic blends for days. The final mixture is then divided for Christmas Fruit Cakes.

Once an intimate family affair, hotels now organize community cake mixing ceremonies, open to all.
From the cake mixing, the focus automatically shifts to lighting the Christmas tree, transforming Mombasa into a winter wonderland.

Behold the majestic Christmas tree adorned with shimmering lights and ornaments. As the sun bids farewell, excitement builds.

The community gathers, and with a collective countdown, the switch is flipped, illuminating the night with a dazzling array of colors.

The glow from the Christmas lights dances in the eyes of the young and old alike, creating a magical ambiance that warms the soul.

Christmas in Mombasa is poetic and truly special, offering holidaymakers unrivaled joy, togetherness, and magical moments to unwind after a year of busyness.

The arrival of visitors signifies an economic turnaround for beach operators who endured a spell of harsh economic times in the last few years after their trade was badly struck by Covid-19 crisis.

Indefinite closure of beaches and cancellation of social gatherings would automatically render all beach operators jobless. For Lucky Kahindi, one of the dealers of swimming floaters at Jomo Kenyatta Public Beach popularly known as Pirates, it is the moment he has been anxiously waiting to make a kill.

“I come here every morning and clean my working space and thereafter I head to the area where we normally stay on standby to wait for visitors. Once we receive visitors we take them to our office where we show them a changing room for them to change into swimming gear.

We also show the visitors where to place their luggage safely and later hand them the tubes or floaters,” explains Kahindi adding that most of the visitors in recent times are local tourists.