Christmas treats of yore
Christmas is just around the corner. It will be the first time for us in the clan to celebrate it without our mom, but fond memories of her and Christmases in the ‘50s and ‘60s will tide us over the holidays.
I really did not believe in Santa Claus and knew that the gifts came from our parents, particularly mom. She held the purse strings and managed to get us eight kids our presents every year without complaint from anyone (well, maybe some sibling ingitan or two may have happened).
This weekend let’s just indulge in the guilty pleasure of looking back at the gifts from those decades — those we got and those we wished for. Included in this trip down Christmas memory lane are ads from those years, to see how much things have, or have not changed, since then, vis-à-vis yuletide commercialism.
Christmas starts in the home and a Pinoy home during the season is not complete without Christmas lights. Before the advent of LED and all those cheap twinkle lights from China, we used real colored light bulbs. Both PEMCO and Philips made them. They were expensive and were a pain to hang since the bulbs were big and cables had to carry 220 volts, which made them dangerous too.
Christmas goodies were mostly home made. The ad shown with this article is from the Maya range of pre-mix products endorsed by culinary expert of the ‘60s, Nora Daza. Everyone made their own Christmas pastries or produced them in quantity to give away to friends (think fruitcakes).
There were no hi-technology gadgets to lust for in those days. Electrical appliances were the thing to buy for big ticket Christmas gifts. Local manufacturers and assemblers packaged their products in wood cabinets to match modern Filipino living rooms. Some even dressed up their radios as miniature houses (if you could not afford the real home just get a radio shaped like a home.
Other big-ticket item in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were color TVs and electronic organs. Advertisers even had TV shows playing electronic organ music. I remember there was one on Channel 7. (And kids got sent to organ playing music schools too).
Cars too were marketed as the ultimate gift for Christmas. Of course, in those days you could buy a car for P 2,000. A house and lot could also be had for P 50,000 and that would be in a gated subdivision.
One thing about Christmas in the ‘60s was that holiday ads, carols and events started only in late November and lasted till just the start of January. Every decade since the ‘60s has added a week before and after to the celebrations so that today we start in September and end near February!
Back to the ‘60s — for us kids, the places we wanted to be taken too were toy stores like Arcegas or all-around department stores like Aguinaldo’s or Shoemart or PECO. On the way to or from these shopping jaunts we would pass the Ysmael Steel robot dressed as Santa Claus or the Pepsi bottling plant Christmas display in the early ‘60s. This was replaced by the COD mechanical displays (a la Disneyland) in the ‘70s. I believe they’ve revived that display today in Greenhills Shopping Center.
One of the top on every kid’s wish list then was the Pop Car. Made in Japan, these electric-powered miniature cars could be ridden by a child (up to 10 or 11). They were amazingly slow but there was no competition and Uncle Bob marketed these like crazy. (They were too expensive though and only the rich kids got them.)
Christmas in the ‘60s and ‘70s was simpler and more constrained than the crass commercialism that started to creep into the celebrations from the ‘80s onwards. The difference too was that many of the gift products were locally made or manufactured. Traditional aspects of the season were still given much importance, like simbang gabi and visits to grandparents. Christmas Mass was a culminating event on everyone’s lists and Christmas parties were fairly tame affairs with skits and great home-cooked food.
Today, Christmas is a consumer event. The season is too long and filled with western-inspired traditions. Many Filipinos are unable to spend the holidays here since millions now have to find work in countries where they celebrate little of these holidays. The ads push a plethora of products, few of which are made here. Instead of Christmas Mass in the traditional plaza, we celebrate it at the malls so we can head straight for Christmas meals at franchise restaurants or fastfood chains.
We all miss the Christmases of yore. The presents were always bigger (since we were smaller), the food tastier, the warmth of reunions more palpable (now many relatives and friends Skype). As one gets older, we start missing all of these, but we should not. Filipino families always have a good time this season, no matter how battered they are by the economy, government or the environment.
We always end the season with hopes these three will improve the quality of our lives in the coming year. At least that’s what we hope. In the meantime, the malls, mayhem and merriment beckon us 24/7 until well into 2012.
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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.
