Happy Holi-games!
And just like that, we are in the thick of the holiday season—the time for parties, people and pent-up rage at how everything in Cebu is getting more and more hectic. Ironically, we are more stressed than ever at a time when we are supposed to find the greatest joy meeting friends and relatives who come over maybe once a year. I’m no guru trying to espouse how to keep inner peace; the holiday rush has made me lose my cool and say words that cannot be printed here. What I am going to offer is one question that may change our mindset about this season:
Do you want to play a game?
So it’s not as Saw-dramatic and creepy as I expected. I had to try. Kidding aside, the longhaul car rides that this season…gifted…me with has allowed me to cook up a few ideas to ease the tension that we might all be feeling. These aren’t patented games, so please don’t knock my door over complaining how your friend bent the rules to secure victory. We’re not playing Dungeons and Dragons here.
Christmas Carol Contest
How do you know it’s Christmas? It’s when He Who Must Not Be Named starts flooding the airwaves with “ideas of a perfect Christmas” and “Christmas (being) in our hearts.” So why not turn this into a fun activity? From now until the year ends, try to see how many Christmas songs you and your friends can count. Final tally is on the eve of Dec. 31, when the person with the least number of songs counted is the loser. As punishment, that person must blast— what else?—Europe’s The Final Countdown* for the last 30 minutes of 2018. Annoyed (and angry) neighbors must be promptly ignored by the loser making rapturous faces while mouthing off the lyrics. (*Momoland’s Bboom Bboom also counts as a substitute song.)
Speed Waiting
The holiday equivalent of speed dating. Since most of us carpool or take public transportation, the goal here is to have some semblance of human interaction. For the duration of the car trip, do not look at your mobile phone and instead try to strike a conversation with the person(s) next to you. The winner of this contest is the one who goes the longest without glancing at his or her mobile phone while managing to engage the person next to him or her. Contestants have from now (the publication of this article) to the end of 2018 to complete the task. The winner gets an agreed-upon treat by the contestants (a mountain of ice cream, a house and lot, possession of the losers’ souls).
If you are driving alone, you have no business looking at your mobile phone anyway, shame on you. Keep driving and listening to He Who Must Not Be Named like a good boy or girl.
Cheat Treat Count
Who has not heard (or used) the statement “it’s the holidays, I can eat whatever I want?” Yeah, all of us are guilty of it one way or another. But this game takes it up one level—we get to gauge just how guilty each one of us is. From now until the end of the year, count the number of times your friends use the “holiday” statement (or variations of it) to gorge on whatever they want. Now, a treat every now and then is okay; it’s when the treats start resembling Epic Meal Time and Man vs. Food that you start counting. The loser is the person with the most number of “holiday” statements, who then has to enroll in a ym (or whatever “itness” variant) for the irst quarter of 2019 to sweat off all the treats he or she has incurred (much to the glee and Schadenfreude of the rest).
As these are all just fun ideas, I won’t be responsible for any broken friendships (or limbs) for those who decide to participate. It’s just a means for us to loosen up during the holidays. After all, what we feel is ultimately our choice to make. When Cebu throws us traffic, it is up to us to pout or turn that traffic into a creepy getting-toknow-your-seatmate game.
(I’m thinking that’s how the “life gives you lemons” quote is supposed to go.)