Sunstar Essay: The gift-givers

Saturday, December 17, 2011

ONE of the nice things in life is gift-giving. You receive something nice and in accepting it, you in turn make the giver feel good twice (even without the actual reciprocation, like giving in return). And so if one were left to choose what to do to express love and good feelings (and get it back in any form in return), it’s to give, especially on Christmas Day. To children, the day is unforgettable on the night the family opens the gifts under the Christmas tree. And the feeling of the givers in the family is like being part of the whole.

There have been incidents during the holidays through the years that made me realize how children accept (without question) the gifts from Santa Claus.

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I used to play Santa Claus to my young siblings—buying the gifts (with my parents’ help, of course), wrapping them up, then putting them under the Christmas tree (this last when the siblings were asleep just before midnight on the day before Christmas). Then one such night, while I was at work as Santa, I caught sight of one of my siblings watching me behind a chair, smiling!

It was his day of discovery.

But the boy never told the rest about what he saw. He left everybody else alone in their own moments of revelation. I found this out when another much younger sibling told me something I didn’t quite know how to handle, just after the unwrapping of the gifts, especially the ones given by Santa. He said the gifts he got from Santa “gamay ra” because the socks we hung at the wall for the gifts couldn’t be any bigger than the size of a small pouch that could hold only chocolates and candies! Not talking to me but to himself, he swore that in the next Christmas, he’d hang a plastic bag.

My lame contribution to the moment of truth was, “Manila man gud ni, bata, mas daghang taga-anan si Santa Claus!”

Santa Claus is how children see the story of one Saint Nicholas, a bishop somewhere in Turkey in the 3rd century who lived his life helping and giving gifts to others, especially to children. These Saint Nicholas stories for children gave way to one about a jolly (folkloric and historical) white-bearded chubby fellow who’d pass by aboard a cart pulled by reindeer, bringing gifts when everybody is asleep.

The other gift-givers are the Three Kings (also called in many parts of the world as Los Tres Magos, the Magi, the Three Wise Men, and Kings from the East). It’s said they were wise men, generally believed to be three (but possibly more) who were following a star that would lead them to the manger where Jesus was born.
They were, perhaps, astrologers, noble men or even kings coming from the world over, who were told of the Birth of the King of the Jews. They followed a star and found the Infant. The Magi brought gifts for the Child—gold, frankincense and myrrh. Some sources say the gifts led to the belief that there were only three men—Melchyor (“king of light”), Casper (“the white one”) and Balthassar (“the lord of treasure”).

Others say the Men were 12 in all.

I was told by an uncle that back in the towns decades ago, the belief was that these foreigners would travel on horseback across town in the middle of the night following the Star and left gifts for the children. This was why the children polished their shoes and washed their socks, left these on the window sill for the Magi to fill with gifts. Some children even prepared empty troughs or mangers where the givers would leave the gifts.

It would be interesting to know how gift-giving is one of the special marks of Christmas, even to non-Christians. And it’s one of the distinctions of celebrations by people throughout the year. If you take away gift-giving, what kind of Christmas for children do you have?

Gift-giving in celebratory days makes us look at ourselves in relation to others, gives us a view of our bonds with them, how we’re faring or how we’ve failed.
Happy giving!

(ecuizon@gmail.com)