For a woman like Mrs Sharon Akpenyi, she would no doubt make an impression on whosoever she comes across especially the younger ones. As she has chosen to be Mama Noel , a female version of Santa Claus.

Mrs. Akpenyi, a former writer with TSM Magazine, said she had always been inclined towards the artistic, thus it's not suprising that she developed her own version of Santa Claus.

An indigene of Akwa-Ibom State, but married to a man from Delta State, she attended Command Children School, Kaduna, from where she moved to two other schools in Akwa-Ibom and Imo State respectively for her primary school education. Her secondary school was at Owerri Girls, before she proceeded to University of Jos to study Theatre Arts and later, French at Alliance Francais.

“I have always been an Art person. I am very creative to a fault, permit me to use that expression. And I did a little of music while I was in school.I had a stint with journalism and worked with people like Zik Okafor in TSM Magazine. I even assisted him with the story that won him the award at the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA).

But why did she drop the pen for the garb of Santa Claus, Daily Sun sought to know.
“I did not stop writing. I actually traveled to the United States, then moved to Malaga in Spain where I lived for three years. And all that time, I was into promotions that entailed me moving from office to office for sponsors. This really took much of my time. At a point, my husband was not comfortable with the job, so I stopped. I still stay in Spain with my husband; I am just here to add a little innovation to Christmas in Nigeria”.

Mrs. Akpenyi says, the Mama Noel idea came from her daughter's xmas party in her school but she had to modify what she witnessed at that event.

“Mama Noel is just a female version of Father Christmas. The idea came up last year when I took my daughter to her school's end of the year party and had them costumed in the Mama Noel costume for children. The costume caught the attention of all the children at the party, because it was quite unusual.
“So I said to myself, if people were so used to Father Christmas and it is the same thing over and over, why don't I create a mother Christmas? But again I thought that mother Christmas does not sound too nice to the ear, moreover Santa Claus has a history and mother Christmas has none so people might not really identify with it. So I changed it to Mama Noel. The Spanish call their Father Christmas, Papa Noel so I chose to call it the opposite version, which is Mama Noel.

“We in Mama Noel believe that a new type of diversion should be created for the children. They are used to seeing Father Christmas, so why not a deviation. Moreover, our gift is not something people can pick easily from the market”.

Although, this yuletide is her first outing, and she didn't plan big for the season, she said tales of Mama Noel has been spreading like wildfire.

“This is our first outing. And I don't have any other plan right now. But I believe next year is going to be different and bigger with more sponsors. With time, we can look at other celebrations and holiday so that we can include them into our plan.”