Sunday, December 16, 2007 Baybay: Preparing for Christmas By Tita Dulce Festin-Baybay Thats Right!
THAT’S Right, Kidsters! How are you preparing for Christmas? Are you going around the malls during weekends and after school? By next week, we will all go on vacation and expect all the department stores to be really crowded.
Let me share with you my observation. I noticed that we seem to forget the real meaning of Christmas. For Christians, Christmas is the time of hope as seen in the birth of Jesus Christ. If Jesus was not born, we would not have the crucifixion and the resurrection.
In other words, we would not know where we would go after we pass away. But with the birth of God made man in Jesus, we now know what will happen to us if we are good and die good. Yes, we will go to heaven, to paradise.
Knowing this, how will you now prepare for Christmas? Aside from doing the rounds in the malls and buying gifts, prepare for Christmas by doing acts of sharing and caring.
If you already have 20 toys, how about giving two or three to your poor neighborhood playmates? If you have 10 new t-shirts, how about giving one to those who have no Christmas dress?
I met some friends of mine and a week before Christmas, they plan to go to prison and give gifts like toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, towels, sandals and t-shirts to the poor inmates, especially those who have had no visitors for years. Yes, there are prisoners who have already been abandoned by their families. During Christmas, they are alone.
Aside from preparing for Christmas in the material way, we should also prepare in the spiritual way. There is, of course, the “misa de gallo” or early masses that start at 4 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. for nine days starting on the 16th of this month. This is actually fun time, going to Mass for many of our Kidsters who are brave enough to wake up early for nine days. This is also one reason why we are known to have one of the longest Christmas in the world.
So there you are Kidsters! Make preparing for Christmas really fun time.
