Christmas

I miss celebrating Christmas in the Philippines. The usual “Pasko na Sinta Ko” (It’s Christmas, my love) and the one from Jose Mari Chan, ‘Christmas in our Hearts” would already start playing around September. You could already feel the exciting Christmas breeze similar as to having butterflies in your stomach which would make you look forward to wearing a sweater and pretend there was snow outside. I remember my family’s routine every year during Christmas Eve.

Since my relatives lived in a compound, cooking would start with kids and adults congregating in the backyard to prepare for some ”halaya” (ube – a kind of purple dessert). It would take three hours to get it to its right consistency but it was all worth the wait especially if eaten with “macapuno” (sweetened coconut strips.) Leche flan, morcon, lumpia, macaroni salad would always be on the menu. My grandma’s sister would always visit us bringing a bilao of sapin sapin and kutsinta – native Filipino delicacies.

Around 6pm, my dad and my uncles would start with their drinking sessions and barbeque. Kids would be the main entertainers by singing Christmas carols, asking money in return, You’d also hear group of kids around the neigbourhood doing their rounds sometimes only having to sing the first line “Ang pasko ay sumapit” until the owner of the house would be forced to give them peso coins. They would have cymbals made up of flattened bottle cups and a tin can with a plastic on top as a drum. From time to time, you’d get the real carolers from the church singing a list of classic Filipino Christmas songs.

Dinner was not served until exactly 12 midnight where we sat down as family to have our Noche Buena, the meal on Christmas Eve. So, we played parlour games – newspaper dance, stop dance, pass the parcel etc Then it was time for the much-awaited event of the night - exchange gifts – monita monito – kris kringle – whatever you call it --- You bring a gift , put a number on it and put it up on a raffle. You pick a number and get the gift with the same number so at the end of the day, everyone gets something! Of course there were your presents from your loads of uncles and aunts, aguinaldo (money) from your Ninangs (godmothers) and (Ninongs) godfathers.

The party and gift-giving would continue the next day. We’d dress up in new clothes and go to the morning mass. The rest of the day was spent going from house to house (apparently they were all related to us) to give our respect, share stories over a meal and be given aguinaldo (if you were a kid!).

At a very early age, I have come to know that Christmas is a time for gift-giving. Now that I have “inaanak” (goddaughters) and a niece of my own, it’s my time share the blessing and make someone else feel that they also a part of the same family.

MALIGAYANG PASKO (Merry Christmas)