Region: HK

Server: S343 - Blade Dance

UID: 200000098175914

Ho Ho Ho! Tis’ the season to be ……. uh what was the word again?......Joll………. Jollibee?!?! (Fastfood chain in the Philippines, think of McDonald’s but with extra flavor ).

Ahh…… It’s that time of the year again…. a time where we remember and celebrate our relationship and bonds with the people we love. Where do I begin? Hmm…. I guess let’s start at the early months of September or October, where me and my family will start making or buying decorations and ornaments in preparation for Christmas. I know, sounds weird right? To a lot of people, they’ll usually say “Why are you celebrating Christmas on September?” or “It’s not even December yet!” but if you’re where I’m from, it’s completely normal . In my country, We’ll find any excuse to celebrate anything! And Christmas is one of the biggest traditional and important event for us Filipinos. This is due to the fact that the Philippines is highly Christianized back when it was under Spanish rule, then it was highly westernized by the United States when the Philippines became part of the United States back in the year 1898 where the United States overthrew the Spanish rule. So for the people in Philippines, we will usually start Christmas quite early, as early as September! After we have made or bought the decorations and ornaments, we will then proceed to put them on the gate, the outer walls of the second floor of the house, and the garden which will be illuminated by Christmas lights for everyone to see and feel the Christmas spirit! After we finish decorating the outside, we then start decorating the inside of the house. We bring out the Christmas tree from the storage that was bought long ago and clean it up and decorate it, then we *ter the Christmas lights onto the walls.

As months pass and December almost comes, we then go Christmas shopping to buy gifts for various people, whether it be for a business or a personal gift, and wrap them at home afterwards with a special note attached for the recipients. Back in the day, we used to go to a temple where me and other kids, usually my relatives and/or kids of the friends of my parents, play around and sometimes play some games with rewards at hand hosted by the temple. In my school days, we always had a Christmas party in our class every year and we had an exchange gift giving after where beforehand we had picked (without peeking of course!), usually a piece of paper, with a name of a classmate. We called it “bunot-bunot” or “bunutan” which means to pull or draw (imagine like a raffle or something ).

Today, me and my friends would celebrate Christmas usually by going out to a mall and watching a movie and afterwards eat dinner at some restaurant or we would go somewhere exciting and do some fun and incredible activities together like Bowling, Kart Racing, Sky Diving, and/or any other things we would come up with. Meanwhile, my family and I would plan out what food to make for the day and we would all chip in to help either buy the ingredients or help with the cooking, if someone couldn’t help in the making or preparation of the meals, they’d be stuck as the “dishwasher” role (which was me AHAHAHA , but I’ve grown and learned and know how to cook now! ) .

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

~Blitz