The dearth of Christmas lights and decorations this past Yuletide Season was so glaring that one could hardly feel the spirit of Christmas in the air. In previous years, decorations were being set up as early as September. But this year, houses that decorated were few and far apart. In our street of about 30 houses, there were only, at most, 6 that did. The same was true with other streets and villages. The long lines at the cashiers' and gift wrapping booths at the malls were nonexistent.

 Christmas Decors
[photo by: John Javellana]

The worldwide economic crunch and the spate of consecutive devastating typhoons and floods that hit the country undoubtedly contributed a lot to the depressing situation. Most had to be contented with just having their families by their side to spend the holidays, devoid of gifts and food to share. I was fortunate enough to spend last Christmas with all my children, our first in so many years, together with the rest of the clan.

Our Christmas celebration was doubly gratifying as one of my high school classmates sent a Santa Claus costume for me to regale the little kids during our gift giving. However, the entertainment was short-lived as one of my nephews' little girl got so scared that she won't stop crying as long as Santa was in sight. Killjoy!!!....ho ho ho ho. Hope that by next Christmas, she would be able to look eye to eye with Santa already....ho ho ho ho