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Growing up, especially in the era where I started reading John Green’s Let It Snow novel, I had the admiration of the Christmas season. There was one time when I was probably 15 years old when I dreamed about having our own Flobie Village. Years passed, I still admire the season. Maybe because it’s the gloomy days towards the rest of the year, the rustic contrast of emerald green wreaths and gold Christmas ornaments. Of course the songs! They can easily make one smile. I can vividly remember the first time my mom bought a ready-to-display tree from a local store. We literally carried the Christmas tree while riding on my father’s motorcycle, trying our best not to throw it away while heading home. It wasn’t my favorite tree due to the fact that we did not decorate it at all, I found myself gazing at my late uncle’s tree in the ancestral house. It was the classic evergreen tree with the classic ornaments, the ones where there were plastic snowglobes guised as little Christmas balls, that gold little archangel, and the gold star.
Years passed, my mom bought our very own green tree at last where every year we added some new Christmas ornaments, but since the tree is the classic pine-like tree, we kept it to use the classic Christmas colors too. So every year, it is gold/red, silver/red, or vice versa. Looking back on all of these, it stuck in my mind that all along I always anticipated an exciting Yuletide season. Whether one day I yearned for a Flobie Village but got a snowman’s snowglobe, or purchased a hanging Santa Claus but got a reindeer made out of evergreen pine trees instead, at the end of every time I finished decorating, I was really amused. The atmosphere it gave in the house quickly made it a home.
I have always been a fan of the season. Perhaps the season’s reason, and although I don’t take it as a religious tradition, I think it is a good avenue to talk about that once, it might not be the exact December 25th, the Saviour of the world came— the joy of all nations— Jesus Christ. And with the world watching due to its global relevance, it’s one of the perfect avenues to proclaim that a Savior is born,: that GOD sent HIS Son to save us from HIS wrath. That there is hope. That there is a cure for sin. That there is everlasting life.
Every 31st of August, I always find myself having a hard time processing my emotions since the day after that, it is finally the start of the BER months. I get so excited I cannot name my emotions. Perhaps it is joy, but displaced by cascading feelings of uncertainty ahead. We decorated the house last night, yes, the 31st of August, coz I want that the day we wake up on the first morning of September, as we step into the living room, everyone will know the season is here. Last night tho, I did not find it hard to feel that I was happy.
After finishing the task of decorating a portion of the house, I sat on the couch, feeling the cold breeze, glistening warm white lights in the tree played along my eyes, whilst listening to vintage Christmas songs.
Maybe some things never change. Just as how I was excited with the beauty of the season when I was a child, to knowing the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, to loving snowglobes, and to now, where I am in my mid 20’s (just wow), I am glad some things never change— and this is one of those things. The anticipation of a beautiful cold season ahead which typically starts in the hearts of every Filipino on the first day of September while others wait for December. And you know? It dawned on me that the 25th of December isn’t as exciting as the days before it.
So I am convinced the anticipation is as treasurable as the day itself. And wow, just wow, we got 115 days before that day, so my hope flies with you, reader, that you enjoy every single day with hope, kindness, joy & perhaps this is the right season to get to know your Savior a little more. May the rest of the days sift through your life with a purpose, good intentions & excitement. Even if it is just a cup of hot coffee or a soft, fragrant blanket. Coz again, the world might wait for December, we Filipinos already have the tree placed in the living room. And just as much as we are early to play those holiday songs, so our hearts are already filled with hope moving forward to the end of the year.
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♡
𝒮𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓁𝓎,
𝓚𝓻𝔂𝔃