IT IS no secret that the Philippines may have the longest Christmas season in the entire world, with it starting on September 1.
By this magical beginning of –ber months, it also signals the department stores and other shopping establishments displaying their Christmas decoration stocks from last year, decorating their glass panes with reindeers, Santa Claus, and empty cartons wrapped in Christmas wrappers to represent gifts.
But aside from this, malls also have a special way of reminding people that about three months from now, it is Christmas time again. Christmas songs will come blaring from the mall speakers joyfully complemented by bells on the background as if Santa’s reindeers are just strolling in the mall along with the shoppers.
Every Filipino might have heard at least once in their life Jose Mari Chan’s songs. As early as the first weeks of August, memes of Jose Mari Chan teasing Filipinos that he will be controlling the mall speakers are appearing in different social media platforms again. Filipinos of all generation will surely get the memes.
As today marks the first day of Filipino Christmas, here are top three Jose Mari Chan Christmas songs that we will sure to hear in malls, public establishments, radios, and online for the next couple of months:
1. Christmas in our hearts
Yes, this is the song where Jose Mari Chan remembers Jesus Christ being born in the manger whenever he sees girls and boys selling lanterns on the street.
This might have been a source of meme and joke to some of the younger people now but one has to have a good understanding and appreciation of Christmas to know that this song is actually beautiful and sad at the same time. It does not only tell us of the things we already know about Christmas, it also reminds us that the real essence of this season is the birth of Jesus Christ, on top of the material gift-giving, merry-making, and partying. This is essential as people tend to forget the real reason behind Christmas celebration as time goes by.
2. Do you hear what I hear?
Still a poignantly sung and arranged song, it seems like a Christmas song for children with interesting characters like the little lamb, shepherd boy, mighty king, and the night wind. The song is set during the time of Jesus Christ’s birth with both the little lamb and the shepherd discovering. A part of the song goes “A Child, A Child shivers in the cold/Let us bring Him silver and gold/Let us bring Him silver and gold/Said the king to the people everywhere/Listen to what I say/Pray for peace, people everywhere!”
3. Perfect Christmas
This one’s a personal favorite. Unlike other Jose Mari Chan’s Christmas songs which depict the real essence of Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ, Perfect Christmas tells us the story of how a Christmas spent with your loved ones is the ideal Christmas.
The chorus of the song goes “I can’t think of a better Christmas/Than my wish coming true/And my wish is that you’d let me spend my whole life with you. My idea of a Perfect Christmas is spending it with you.”
No matter how much Filipinos put this Chinese singer as a star of pre-Christmas memes, they each know in their hearts that Christmas is not complete without the voice of Jose Mari Chan, that no matter how old we are, we will always come back to the Christmases of our childhood with Jose Mari Chan’s voice singing in the background.