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The young ones who are transitioning into adults are wondering why Christmas nowadays seems to be not as fun as when they were kids. They are slowly discovering an age-old secret.
This secret is passed on through generations.
It is quickly discovered by working students, young breadwinners, and new couples who have their first baby.
Here is the secret: We create and recreate Christmas. Yes, it is up to us to make it work every year. If there’s magic involved, it is in our common agreement to celebrate it as grand or as profound as we want it to be.
The bishops, priests and parishes must plan the Simbang Gabi ahead of time. Ditto for sellers of bibingka and puto bumbong, and those who make lanterns and decorations.
The countdown to the “-ber” months do not just happen. The radio and television stations, and advertisers, have to invite Jose Mari Chan. Even Mariah Carey pitches in from the states.
The malls and stores eagerly plan huge sales for the holidays, and the same is true for airlines, buses, and ships, as well as hotels and accommodations.
Workers make and put up the decorations everywhere, often with us taking it for granted. The delivery riders have to make happy, because timely, deliveries.
The balikbayan boxes are often the product of months-long gathering and accumulation of gifts. Whether socks or canned goods, shoes or makeup, soap or some gadget — those took time and a lot of effort to put together. Our OFWs know the deadlines of when to have them shipped in time for Christmas.
Even in our homes, Christmas is made by our parents, often guided by long-held and passed-on traditions: The decors, the menu, the itinerary, the theme of gifts. We may have different positions in the social ladder, but there’s a common effort. A few have it easier, while most people have to work extra hard going into the holidays.
The Simbang Gabi, now popular worldwide wherever there’s a sizeable Filipino community, doesn’t just happen.
Not unless there’s a Filipino priest, or a local priest who had served in any of our islands, it might take bishops a lot of convincing by Filipinos to authorize 8 p.m. or 5 a.m. masses abroad. (Thanks to our kababayans in Italy, the Simbang Gabi at the Vatican and Pope Francis’ presiding of a Simbahan Gabi in 2021 at Saint Peter’s have most surely made it easier to explain elsewhere.)
The “adulting” young folks are discovering the secret that Christmas is not magic and it is something we work hard for. The gifts, the foods, the holidays — is something we make and create as a common national and personal experience.
We don’t tell kids about this because Christmas is mainly for them to enjoy and cherish as the greatest fiesta we could possibly hold.
We may be different in a lot of ways, but we share a certain desire to make children and young people happy this time of the year. We want them to look forward to it, to be as good and kind as possible — virtues we truly hold dear.
Perhaps there is no better way to address so-called childhood regrets than to give today’s kids a memorable holiday and a hopeful future. That’s priceless.
Of course, I did not forget about the Wonder-Infant whose name is in the name of this greatest holiday we work hard for to celebrate. If a God would go down to be a a baby and a child, to be among us and with us, and give us himself as a gift, then it makes Christmas truly merry as a holiday. It gives us hope, lots of doses of it, especially amid the challenges of our own time.
The “once-young” are kids no more. They are becoming the new ninong, ninang, tito, tita, tatay, nanay, lolo and lola. Inspired by the coming of the perpetual baby Infant-King, we retell and relive the hope and excitement for today’s “young ones.” No vicious cycle here, but a virtuous one. There lies the secret.
To dear friends, colleagues, workers, and readers: May you and the kids around you have a merry, blessed, and hope-filled Christmas.