Flying Reindeers (January 7, 2008)

Flying Reindeers
By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia

There I was running in circles around our front lawn. The newly trimmed carabao grass brushed my five year old feet with dewdrops on a Christmas night. My eyes were peeled for a bright spark amidst the twinkling stars in the sky. My ears were keen for a sleigh bell jingle amidst the carols of children in the streets. My five year old self was determined to meet that legendary man with poinsettia red clothes, snow white beard and a tummy rounder than his laugh. Those look-a-likes in department stores can’t fool me, I know the real thing. I know he doesn’t need a five hundred peso worth of purchase for me to sit on his lap. Yet, when I found out Santa Claus had long been dead and can’t possibly exist in a toy factory below zero degree, never again did I addressed a single wish list to North Pole.

When I was younger, I thought Christmas was just about that jolly chubby man who likes reindeers. Then the humbug Scrooge came together with his friend the Grinch, both made me realize that it’s about giving and sharing. But, just this Christmas someone told me otherwise. He said, Christmas is a time when shopping malls are flooded, a time when people aimlessly spend their money on costly gifts and glossy wrappers, a time when business seekers rule the streets each having their own gimmick. Consumerism told me that Christmas revolved around him and his best friend Materialism. They crept like thieves into homes of both the rich and the poor increasing the economic gap between them. They slid into every commercial establishment, forcing them to mislabel their packaging of goods, pirate original merchandise, and implore additives to lengthen their product’s shelf life; fooling consumers just to get ahead of one another. Consumerism wasn’t finished, he blurted out how the world is now deafened of children’s carols and would rather watch some television shows starring him. He bragged about how the lanterns gradually lose their shimmer as neighbors compete unto who has the larger or more expensive parol.

Now, you don’t expect me to just stare at him and listen to his crappy non sense yakking. Yes, malls may be flooded with people each contributing to consumerism, but see how their trolleys are filled with would-be presents for their significant others, see how materialism was developed into a virtue of sharing. Yes, business seekers rule the streets competing with each other, but see how their profits for that day would provide each of their own families a noche Buena to remember, see how competition was developed into a virtue of concern. Yes, treachery is in every corner where customers flock, but see how authorities perform their duties of maintaining a fair yuletide season to sellers and buyers alike, see how deceit was developed into a virtue of responsibility. Yes, people may have been under his domain, hypnotized, forced or even slaved, but see how the spirit of Christmas remained alive even after how much it was crushed and pounded into pieces.

I may be too big of a baby to still believe in Santa Claus. But, there are still nights when I circle our front lawn, of course not running anymore, constantly looking at the night sky still hoping that I’ll be seeing some flying reindeers. There are still nights when my five year old self pays a visit telling me that the true essence of Christmas had never changed. I can’t say that I still believe in Santa, but I am not giving up hope to hear some sleigh bells jingle.

New Year is coming, louder than any fireworks painted in the canvass of the sky, telling us that Christmas is over. And so, in comes another eleven months for us to define what our Christmas should be the next time around.

Let consumerism and his friends come, anyway we can’t stop them. Let them enslave the shopping malls, terrorize media, linger in every nook and corner. After all, at the end of the day, it’s just between you and your hope of seeing Santa Claus.

If you ask me, we had an awesome Christmas.

Happy New Year Everyone!