So, what gift(s) did you find under your Christmas tree? Oh, you don’t have a Christmas tree? That’s perfectly okay; we don’t have one, too. But we do have a belen, which has always taken center stage in my family’s Christmas celebration through the years.
Speaking of Christmas trees, an officemate from a former job was very proud of her Christmas tree at home. She was proud of the fact that she would finish her Christmas shopping months before December (truly an early bird) so that when she’d put up her tree at the first sign of Christmas, it would be complete with all her beautifully wrapped gifts to kin and kith under it. But some Christmases ago, she woke up one morning to find all her gifts gone. When all was calm, robbers broke into her house and happily went Christmas shopping underneath her Christmas tree. So much for shopping early to avoid the rush.
What are people receiving and giving this Christmas? If there’s one thing we did not get this Christmas, it is fruitcake, the traditional harbinger of the holiday season. If the fruitcake comes, can Christmas be far behind? Time was when the fruitcake was the most recycled Christmas gift. Some people actually dread receiving fruitcakes. But not my friend Tanya Lara whose eyes glow like Christmas lights when somebody gives her a fruitcake. Please pass the fruitcake to Tanya!
If there’s one other thing we didn’t get this Christmas, it’s one of those scented candles. There was a time when scented candles were the new fruitcake. Oh, well, times have certainly changed.
If there’s one thing we didn’t see a lot of in the supermarkets this Christmas it’s the queso de bola. Remember the time when queso de bola came in really big balls you couldn’t hold them with one hand? “Marca Piña was the best,” says my editor Millet Mananquil, remembering her days of wine and roses, and cheese.
Of course, the local Magnolia cheese ball is a cheesy enough alternative to the Dutch treat, and it’s so much more affordable.
People are buying food to eat and to share with friends.
At Rustan’s Supermarkets Fresh and Shopwise, December 23 was the biggest shopping day of the year, according to Rustan’s Supercenters, Inc.’s Francis Yu. Beef registered quite a meaty sale at 42,000 kilos on this day alone vs. 12,000 average daily. Now, you know where all the beef went. Some 26,000 kilos of pork were sold vs. 4,000 daily average while chicken flew off the shelves at 42,000 kilos vs. 6,000 daily average. On this day, too, people bought 29,000 kilos of ham vs. 2,600 daily average. And yes, would you believe 54,000 balls of quezo de bola disappeared from the cheese section vs. 5,000 daily average?
According to Crickette Tantoco of Rustan’s Supercenters, Inc., people are also buying apples and grapes, beer and wine, eggs, butter, pasta, tomato sauce, Nestle cream, fruit cocktail, soft drinks, and toys. (Of course, parents are now quite choosy when it comes to toys, due to the recent recall of toys made in China, because of their high lead content and choking hazards. Exposure to lead, a heavy metal found in the paint coatings of some toys, can poison vital organs and lead to low IQ and mental retardation among children.)
In department stores, people are buying shoes not just for themselves but also for their loved ones (or solemates?). At the Fila outlet in Glorietta, you’ll read this sign: Buy a sole and feed a soul.” What a soleful Christmas message!
So, how many people were on your Christmas list? If your family is big, and we mean BIG, that could be a kilometric list. But we know of one big (and happy) family who’ve come up with a different gift-giving scheme. Each member of the family is asked to draw a name from a box and whoever you draw will be the person you’ll buy a Christms gift for. Of course, nobody ends up with his/her own name.
So, how are you faring so far during this most stressful season (which really shouldn’t be, if you’ve got your heart in the right place). We got this e-mail from our favorite nutritionist Dr. Jun Respicio of Hawaii:
“Truly, Christmas is only about Christ’s birth and nothing else. I have always emphasized that to my son. So the centerpiece of our decor is the manger and a Christmas tree which my six-year-old Fabian has been requesting since last year. I would buy the cheapest live pine tree ($19.95) and the only decor is a string of lights and silver Christmas balls all recycled from last year. I didn’t want to hide the tree with distracting decor. I just love to bask in the glitter of the twinkling lights. Absolutely no gifts under the tree either. Yesterday, I told my son Christmas is not about giving material gifts. And the Three Kings’ gifts were symbolic of love and prosperity (?). Yes, he also got his tooth out the day before and he was expecting a PlayStation in exchange the following morning he woke up. After some rationalization against it, he finally said he didn’t need it, and he’d rather have love instead. I was more delighted than him. Deep inside was my satisfaction that he felt secure in our presence more than the presents.”
Here’s another e-mail from Cris Nacionales, who writes a rejoinder to our story on recycling.
“Thanks for the wonderful article. Very timely and just the way I’m doing it. My wife has been begging me for a Christmas tree since we got married 10 years ago and I haven’t given up. Other than having a fake tree, I find guilt in buying it and the rest of the lavish decor. I’d rather donate my money to charity or use the budget to buy gifts. That way, I’d make more people happy. And just to celebrate the season, I plan to make use of our battered badminton shuttlecocks (I actually have been collecting them since middle of this year so I can use them this Christmas as decor) for our Christmas tree. Hopefully, I’d be able to assemble it before the 24th.”
Christmas can be the most difficult holiday of the year, according to Patty Fleener. “This day more than any other means ‘family together.’ They are synonymous, and it is at this time we are so acutely aware of the void in our life ... We continually hear Christmas carols, people wishing everyone ‘Merry Christmas’ and so on. Feelings of isolation and lonelinesss can magnify during these times of warmth and cheer.”
So magnified are these feelings of isolation and loneliness that it has been reported that there’s a rise in the number of people seeking professional help — or committing suicide.
In her article, Patty dishes out these “survival” tips from Dr. Calvin Frederick, formerly of the National Institute of Mental Health:
• First, stop putting unreasonable pressure on yourself to be happy during the holidays.
• Seek out people who make you feel better and avoid people who contribute to your depression. (It’s really so sad that some people are prone to SAD or seasonal affective disorde at this merriest time of the year.)
• Make an effort to be more physically active. Research indicates that exercise stimulates the production of endorphins, the mood-elevating chemicals produced by the body.
• Set specific, manageable goals every day — even if they’re as simple as cleaning out your closet or writing a letter.
• Watch your intake of alcohol. While a few drinks may make you feel temporarily euphoric, alcohol is a depressant and often ends up making you feel worse than before.
And most of all, let’s give Christ back to Christmas.
* * *
We’d love to hear from you. E-mail us at ching_alano@yahoo.com.