CHIT REODICA’S CHRISTMAS VILLAGE BRINGS OUT THE CHILD IN EVERYONE
The country’s first female Health secretary admits that sharing the happiness makes her happy, too
Christmas is the favorite time of the year for former Health Secretary Carmencita “Chit” Reodica and others who have seen her Christmas village at home.
For Reodica’s relatives, friends and colleagues, a visit to her Christmas village has become a holiday tradition. Her heart is filled with joy that she brings happiness to people who have seen it.
“Christmas is really about giving, rather than receiving,” said Reodica, who has spent more than half her life as a public health worker and government administrator.
In 1996, then President Fidel Ramos named her Health Secretary, the first woman to hold the portfolio.
“I don’t want people to forget why we are celebrating Christmas in the first place,” she said.
A nearly life-size Nativity set in her garden greets visitors as soon as they enter the wrought-iron gate. Years ago, children from a nursery school in the village where Reodica lives would visit her house every Christmas.
“I’d bring them to the Nativity set and tell them that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus,” she recalled.
It was also the birth of her el- dest grandchild, Mariah, 23 years ago that got Reodica hooked on decorating her home.
Mariah was a three-monthold baby when Reodica went to the United States in 1994 as an official of the Department of Health (DOH) to promote the Doctors to the Barrios program of then Health Secretary Juan Flavier.
The first-time grandmother was so excited that she bought a 10-foot Christmas tree in Los Angeles. Ornaments included Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh holiday decor.
Extra special
As the years passed, two other granddaughters came, Aaliyah and Tamia. Reodica made sure Christmas was extra special for them.
Her collection of Christmas decor also grew, enough to make an entire Christmas village. From the living room beside the Christmas tree, she moved the village to an adjacent receiving area.
Relatives, friends and colleagues would gift her with Yuletide ornaments to add to her Christmas village and her Santa House, which occupies the lanai.
New friends Ballsy Aquino-Cruz and Viel Aquino-Dee recently visited her home and added a few items.
She also realized that preparing for Christmas was actually for herself, and not just her granddaughters: “I feel like a child again whenever I set up the village.”
There’s also an inexplicable gladness, she said, whenever she sees each visitor truly apprecia- tive of the magic. But she admitted that her favorite time of the year also makes her nostalgic.
Her affiliation with several organizations proves that she remains busy as ever, however.
Her weeks are filled with board meetings for the Children’s Hour Foundation, Gerry Roxas Foundation, Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma Foundation, The Philippine Red Cross Rizal Chapter, and the alumnae association of St. Theresa’s College Quezon City, her alma mater.