HOW DO WE KNOW CHRISTMAS IS HERE?
It’s the season, but do you feel jolly? This is the time of the year when days are shorter, queues are longer, and trying to get from place to place feels like navigating a submarine through thick ice. With conditions like these, you’d be thinking we were in the middle of the APEC, not December.
Christmas is coming. There’s no shortage of people to remind you of this. Whether it’s the snowand-sleigh-bells songs playing or people making it known over social media that “the most wonderful time of year is here,” you need to be living under a rock to not know what’s coming. It got me asking myself, how do we know Christmas is here? The signs are all there, and here’s how, in my opinion, I know Christmas is here.
Rush Hour, Part 7
As mentioned previously, “the rush” is all upon us. Suddenly, shopping time in the mall requires bringing a ten-foot pole to prod off the people who are also shopping for last-minute gifts. That long line of metal you see that goes on and on? Yes, that’s what I call the picture-perfect definition of the word traffic. It creeps so slow that I can actually text in the car even when I know that is frowned upon in most societies (sorry about that).
I hesitate to equate rush hour itself with Christmas, though. If that were the case, every big mallwide sale would be “Christmas” even if it happened during the summer.
Party Like It’s 2017
Another sign that is hard to miss, for obvious reasons, are the parties that come up left and right. Come on, you’re really going to tell me that your clothes just shrunk for no reason? We Filipinos will look for any excuse to gorge on lechon and its other incarnations, and the holiday season provides a perfect excuse—I mean, reason—to eat as much as they want.
To be fair, seeing relatives from other areas come over has always been something I look forward to. Still, I hesitate to equate parties solely with Christmastime. A conversation with a workmate, though (“It’s Christmas na! Parties! Gifts! Eating! Relaxation!”), made me wonder if she was feeling the Christmas break or Christmas itself.
I’ll do it for love… I mean Christmas
This is one of those things that put a smile on my face—and not a lot of things do that. It’s when my workmates decide to forego their team’s Christmas party so the budget could be used to buy something nice for the security guard and janitor in the office. It’s when a group of people I know decide to throw a surprise pre-Christmas party and “adopt” some young adults who have to work during Christmas week and cannot afford to go home. It’s when volunteers sacrifice time and sleep to prepare for their church’s Christmas Sunday to make it extra special.
I feel Christmas is here when we embrace its core value of giving until it hurts. Exchanging gifts is easier in comparison; we’re trading our gift budget with another person’s gift budget. But giving time and effort for someone or something and you’re not sure if you’ll get rewarded or not? Doesn’t that resonate with the heart of Christianity?
How do we know Christmas is here? When the spirit of selflessness comes. And then continues on for the rest of the year. That’s Christmas. With everything the Lord has given us, let’s go the extra mile and not limit our acts of kindness to only one month.
For my act of kindness, I’ll save my relatives the extra poundage and calories by eating as much food as I can during our gatherings. I deserve a pat on the back for that idea ( just kidding).