Of Christmas in September

Photo credit: http://www.theschoolforheroes.com/

I de-mystified Christmas at a very early age - six years old. Unlike my playmates who marvelled at Santa Claus, I ceased to believe he exists after I caught my dad redhandedly filling our hanged socks with local chocolates Christmas Eve 1986. He could no longer talk me out of it so he stopped convincing me Santa asked him to do it for him because there were still a lot of socks he had to fill. Nice try Dad! :)

I developed a weird "tradition" every August 31st. I would be glued to the radio and wait for that first Christmas song to be played on air when the clock strikes past 12 midnight. Don't ask me why I do it, I don't know myself but somehow I never fail to follow my self-imposed tradition. This year it was Aegis' "Christmas Bonus" that welcomed September 1st. Then the DJ greeted his listeners Merry Christmas. Now I'm as Pinoy as bagoong yet I couldn't help but chuckle at how Filipinos earn the top laurels for having the longest Christmas celebration. It was a funny but comforting feeling that despite the rise of pump prices every week or so, despite the fact that some of us couldn't even afford three meals a day, we still manage to remain positive and yes, we start making our list as early as now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mocking my fellowmen but it's just so... so... so Pinoy! And I like that about us. 

But no matter how proud I am of my brown heritage, there are things though that I do not look forward to during the "ber" months. I don't like the traffic jam particularly in China Town where most of us would be heading to buy gifts for our gazillion godchildren (yikes!), the looooong queues in the supermarket which can turn every shopper to a Grinch and  those malls which entice weakwilled shoppers like me to spend just because it's Christmas. Woe to us!

But despite the idiosyncracies of Pinoys especially come September to December we still are undoubtedly among the few nationalities who made it on the list of happiest people. Christmas seems to awaken something inside us that may have slumbered from January to August. There's something in the air that causes us to be more positive, more forgiving, more human.

But please, I don't want to hear that Krismas Tree song by Max Surban!