The Colors and the Lights

Some people find something wrong with everything. They’d say, for instance, that store decorations and Christmas trees in shopping centers are just a trick of business. In a way, they’re right.

But as Christmas lights begin to twinkle and merry colors appear everywhere, I become unsure if this is all purely commercialism. It’s too bad that there are people whose immediate thought of Christmas is money, but I don’t think it’s true for the rest of us. Many feel sheer joy about the season, whether or not they have money.

If a store spends money to decorate its windows so customers would be enticed to come in, there certainly is commerce involved in it. But it need not ruin everyone’s concept of Christmas. Many people won’t mind paying five pesos more for an item at a store that spends much in decorating its windows. That’s too little to pay for the merry sight.

Personally, I hope that a store’s effort and expense on Christmas decorations prove to be good for their business, as it is for my Christmas spirit. I stay away from places that pretend to save me money by looking drab. The truth, perhaps, is that they are not willing to spend for decorations because there’s no guarantee that they will get their investment back.

I like the way how Christmas turns a worn-down year into glitters and bright colors, and makes the world so full of life and jolly. But, if I think about it, it’s people that makes Christmas what it is. Christmas is such a beautiful and happy time because that’s the way most of us want it to be. 

The dense crowds at the stores are fine with me. Everybody is hurrying to buy something for family and friends, because he or she loves them and want to please them. That’s how one communicates his or her own desire to be loved and pleased in return.

Up along the city’s Osmeña Boulevard, the giant lighted Christmas tree put up at the Fuente Osmeña circle for several weeks every year is one great sight to behold. It has, for a number of years now, saved me money by not having to take my small nephews and nieces to the shopping malls at Christmas. The kids like it better watching the Christmas tree at Fuente than going anywhere else. 

There is a kind of glory to a lighted Christmas tree, or, for that matter, a colorful Belen (Nativity Scene). A lighted tree can give off a feeling that everything is not as bad and rotten and corrupt as the news would have it. It renews one’s faith that people are basically good and are capable of sincerely loving and wishing each other well.

And, the mere thought of having made it through another year, which the sight of Christmas symbols instantly bring to people’s minds, is something very gratifying, not quite possible any way else.

When I’m looking at a nicely decorated Christmas tree or an elaborately set up Belen, no amount of bad experience can dampen my belief that people are good deep within. If people were so bad, they wouldn’t go through all that trouble – some even resort to desperate measures – just so that they could be one with the rest of the world in the celebrations.

To a good extent, the Christmas tree, the Belen and the other yuletide decorations are symbols of love and faith, not money. They so much delight the senses when they’re all lit up, something that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy. Each one of these symbols is a testimonial of the painstaking efforts of those setting it up, to make their Christmas feel a certain nice way to them.

Unfortunately, considering the fires that had hit the city lately, some people have become reluctant to light up their homes for Christmas. Others think that spending money on Christmas decorations is impractical amid the difficult times. True, there’s risk and cost involved.

But it’s not only at Christmas. We’ll do the costly and risky things anytime, when we think these are necessary to make our experience of life beautiful. To me, the colors and the lights are necessary to make our Christmas bright.