The Colors and the Lights

Many people think that Christmas is just too commercial nowadays. At times I’d think that way, too. But as the merry  season moves in closer and closer, my disillusioned view gets lost in the general excitement of the world.

In difficult times such as what we’re having now, it’s all too common for people to find something wrong with everything. They’d say, for instance, that store decorations and Christmas trees in shopping areas are just a trick of business. In a way, they’re right.

However, at this very moment I personally don’t think of the twinkling lights and bright colors that we see all around as purely commercialism. I won’t argue with people who stick to their negative ideas. It’s too bad that there are some people whose first thought of Christmas is money, but it’s not like that for the rest of us.

If a store spends money to decorate its windows so customers would be enticed to come in, there certainly is commerce involved in it. But it doesn’t ruin my concept of Christmas. If I pay five pesos more for a pair of socks from one of the good stores that spend much in decorating its windows, I’m okay with that arrangement. I actually hope that their effort proves to be good for their business, as it is for my Christmas spirit.

I stay away from places that pretend to save me money by looking drab. The truth, perhaps, is that they are not willing to spend for decorations because there’s no guarantee that they will get their investment back. The 10 or 20 pesos savings I’d make in these stores won’t buy me a bit of the good feelings I have in the well-decorated stores.

Christmas turns a worn-down year into glitters and bright colors, and makes the world spirited and jolly. But, if you think about it, it’s us who makes it so. Christmas is such a beautiful and happy time because that’s the way most of us want it to be. 

I don’t mind the dense crowds of people at the stores. Everybody is hurrying to buy something for family and friends, because he or she loves them and want to please them. That’s how one communicates his or her own desire to be loved and pleased in return.

Up along the city’s Osmeña Boulevard, the giant lighted Christmas tree put up at the Fuente for several weeks every year produces one of the great sights for everyone. It has, for a number of years now, saved me money by not having to take my small nephews and nieces to the movies. The kids like it better watching the Christmas tree at Fuente than going to the malls. 

There is a kind of glory to a lighted Christmas tree, or, for that matter, a colorful Belen (Nativity tableau). It can give you the feeling that everything is not as bad and rotten and corrupt as the news would have it. It renews your faith that people are basically good and are capable of sincerely loving and wishing each other well.

And, the mere thought of having made it through another year, which the sight of Christmas symbols instantly bring to our minds, is something very gratifying, not quite possible any way else.

When I’m looking at a nicely decorated Christmas tree or an elaborately set up Belen, no amount of bad experience can dampen my belief that people are good deep within. If people were so bad, they wouldn’t go through all that trouble – some even resort to desperate measures – just so that they could be one with the rest of the world in the celebrations.

To a great extent, the Christmas tree, the Belen and the other yuletide decorations are symbols of love and faith, not money. They so much delight the senses when they’re all lit up, something that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy. Each one of these symbols is a testimonial of the painstaking efforts of those setting it up, to make their Christmas feel a certain way to them.

The Christmas decorations in our homes do not look like the ones in public places. And they ought not to. For instance, the home Christmas trees and Belens are more the way we look, and they’re different in every home. They reflect the home dwellers’ personalities. If some people are able to read others by way of tea leaves or the lines on the palm of the hands, we can tell a great deal about a family by studying the Christmas decorations being put up around the house.

For one thing, Christmas trees look better when they’re real trees. Ideally, they should be real evergreens. But since we don’t have that kind of tree here, the grown-up stalk of a mature flower of the local maguey looks very nice, often more symmetrical and is easier or much cheaper to obtain.

Nowadays a lot of people are ignoring the Christmas tree tradition, and altogether forgoing with the yearly Christmas decorations. They say putting up a tree or decorating has become impractical amid the difficult times. Besides, they add, Christmas lights have often been the cause of fires.

It’s true that there are some risks involved, aside from the expense. But risks and expenses are factors we have to embrace in this world. We need soap and water for taking a bath, toothbrush and toothpaste for brushing our teeth, and we risk ourselves being hit by a lightning or a speeding car as we go out of the house to go to an important appointment.

We do the costly and risky things because when we think they are necessary to make our life experience beautiful. To me, the colors and the lights are necessary to make our Christmas beautiful.  

No, I don’t think Christmas has really become, or will ever be, too commercial. Every effort, even if taken for a slightly different purpose, ultimately contributes to the overall Christmas spirit. If only all the colorfully decorated Christmas trees and Belens could be gathered and placed together on a hill, with their lights coming on every evening as it grew dark, the whole world would surely come as one to look at them and marvel at their great beauty.

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