I really enjoy the company of my two daughters while taking a walk around the block or going out for groceries or just simply 'walking around' without any clear destination in mind. Although we live in the same house, have meals together, watch movies together (which is becoming rare nowadays), moments like these still feel like hanging out with one's friends where you get to talk about things you don't normally discuss everyday.
Yesterday was no exception to this ritual.
While on our way to the mall, I suddenly asked my youngest daughter what would Christmas be like if there were no decorations, no Christmas lights flooding the streets, no loud announcements of sale in every store that we passed by.
"You mean," she asked, "if Christmas was not this commercialized?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Oh, it would be just like any ordinary day here in Manila," she answered matter-of-factly.
Then I found myself sharing with her how Christmas was like in my growing-up years. There were no malls. We didn't even bothered so much about what we were going to wear or what to buy for Christmas. But we also exchanged gifts with each other. Simple gifts actually.
We enjoyed our choir practices, singing carols for the Christmas eve. We mounted cultural presentations and production activities for these events. We had parties, too, which also served as reunion with high school classmates.
Thinking about Christmas spent during those years compared to how it is commonly celebrated nowadays ... made me feel a bit sad. I couldn't help thinking about other families who don't even have enough food to eat, and what Christmas feels like for them.
And so there we were, entering the glass-paneled and Christmas lights-flooded mall, while thinking of new ways on how we are going to spend Christmas ... definitely not the commercialized way it has become nowadays.
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