Sixty days to Christmas!

And we thought Christmas came sooner to the Philippines than any other country. Well, we were wrong.

Because, as it turns out, London’s iconic department store, Harrods, welcomes Christmas in July. On YouTube, watch its delightful offerings, baubles and ornaments, jewel-like thingamajigs to distribute throughout the house and not just on the tree.

Last Sunday, we were at Shangri-La Edsa Plaza, Mandaluyong, and Christmas was there to welcome us. Shoppers and diners walked with a spring in their step, even if the mall’s tree – it almost touched the ceiling -- was only half-done, ergo half-naked. But at Rustan’s department store the walls seemed ready to bloom in a burst of red and white, with not a green leaf allowed to peep through.

On our street out here in Quezon City, my neighbor on the opposite side of the road has always been the first to mark the arrival of the season. With his yellow-and-white parol, he is telling us to get our lanterns ready, too. As soon as the sun sets, his parol goes to work, lighting up like a gift of night and advising one and all to do the same.

A few minutes from our city, on Ortigas Ave. there’s a little old shop that has been making and selling lanterns for as long as I can remember. No one that I know has bothered to find out where those lanterns, plain or grand, end up eventually: How many customers patronize his goods all year ‘round, to keep his business going?

The same mystery wraps a bamboo and rattan shop where I bought a dining set, table and chairs, when my kids were kiddies. Is it magic, is it good workmanship, that the table and chairs will soon be old enough to be described as antiques? Their legs do not wobble, the whole set could probably stand another generation’s wear and tear.

Yes, the shop is still there, somewhere on Ramon Magsaysay Blvd., as small and inconspicuous as it has always been, proof that their customers recognize the value of their purchases and will help the owner keep his business going for generations.

How Christmas touches one and all with a smidgen of sentimentality, like Harrods’ faithful.