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Monday, December 27, 2004
Echaves: Christmas as always
By Lelani P. Echaves
A MOTLEY group claims its membership in the United States is increasing. Their goal? To put an end to Christmas shopping.
Calling itself the Christmas Resistance Movement, it labels Christmas marketing as a scam, because it presumably benefits only the manufacturers, stores and huge corporations, while driving individuals into debt. The movement’s battle cry is “to resist Christmas.”
C’mon now, can anyone really? Resist Christmas? True, we find ways to soft-pedal the shopping. Not because of the movement, but rather the economics. The respectable Social Weather Station reveals that year after year, Filipino households continue their customary Christmas practices, despite economic and political conditions in our country. These practices include giving out food to neighbors, giving presents to godchildren, doing the “simbang gabi,” putting up decorations such as the Christmas tree and/or the “belen,” giving presents to each family member, sending greetings to distant relatives, attending Christmas parties, exchanging gifts with friends, dining out with the family, hosting a family reunion, serving special dishes like ham and “queso de bola,” and buying new clothes for oneself.
As the economy worsens, however, there is a marked cut-down on the practices. But the “simbang gabi,” putting up Christmas decors, sending greetings to relatives, giving out food to neighbors and giving to godchildren continue. No longer a priority is the buying of clothes for oneself, nor the holding of Christmas parties and other activities that require unnecessary expenses.
In our subdivision, for instance, the domestic helpers usually wake up earlier than usual on Christmas Day. That’s so they could sweep away the debris from the firecrackers exploded everywhere on Christmas eve. Even if some houses didn’t in fact explode some, the wind would unfailingly scatter the multicolored debris on all front yards.
Last Christmas eve, there was no such debris. Carolers did not visit as often as before, nor were as insistent about leaving a donation beforehand in the envelope if we wouldn’t be around. What we missed in the subdivision, we found in full abundance in the streets when the traffic lights went red. That’s when we saw grown men, not children, doing a Christmas tune while strumming their guitar, shaking their flattened “tansans,” or tickling their lips with the harmonica. Of course, there would be the familiar mother-and-child pairs knocking on the car’s panes with their tin cans.
Whatever the country’s economy, Christmas shopping is inevitable. But shoppers learn to stretch their peso, despite government inabilities. They learn to be more creative about what to give or where to buy. The “ukay-ukay” or flea markets, once frowned upon, has become almost everyone’s answer to getting more for less. For those avoiding pickpockets so ubiquitous in “tiangges,” rummage sales or garage sales are alternatives. There, shoppers can even inquire who the previous owners of the items were, a clear attempt to determine the value or even cleanliness of the items.
With guests dropping in any minute of the day, either to bring or pick up gifts, the dining table can never have too much of goodies and delicacies. Making their grand appearance only during the Christmas holidays, fruitcakes are always expensive. But ordering them from personal friends can bring down the price remarkably. We avoid the middleman’s profit and the factored-in overhead expenses. Most of all, the ingredients are far from adulterated, and we can get our orders exactly how we want them.
Christmas packaging can be costly, yes. A box and wrapper can easily cost you P80. With some ingenuity, however, we could just get a native basket for P15, and glue securely on the cover some flowerettes, worth P10, and voila! We create one-of-a-kind containers for only P25 each.
Resist Christmas? Perish the thought. Seeing our friends and loved ones’ faces sparkle with delight and happiness feels too good to pass up on. (Lelani88(at)yahoo(dot)com)
(December 27, 2004 issue)
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