Santa Claus is not true. This is what I learned after I caught my father putting gifts inside the Santa socks hanging on my window. I was 8 then, and unlike many of the kids my age, my belief for the Christmas fairies, the elves, the flying reindeer and its master was easily shrugged off.
Since then, Christmas in the family changed. No more socks on the window. I was the youngest, and no one younger than my age in the house can be fooled for a fake Santa climbing on the balcony and crawling to the window like a burglar.
But yesterday, how I wished I still have a Santa to believe in. I was in a mall in Metro Manila while a huge organization is holding a program for kids, more like a gift giving program for out of school kids. They also gathered kids from an orphanage and gave the little kids some sort of an early Christmas party.
Seeing these kids enjoying the Christmas event made me smile. I can't help myself from reminiscing the days of my childhood, when Christmas means eating a lot of food, receiving gifts from relatives and attending Christmas parties while the whole world becomes a theme park of lights. The time when problems are not problems, unlike today, where reality needs action.
Today, the streets still become fantasylands. Actually, more flamboyant than it was before. Bigger lanterns lining the Roxas Boulevard, more Christmas lights than there were before. Malls are more colorful with those huge lanterns hanging on the ceiling and fast sparkling lights that change colors by the second that almost blinds my eye.
Despite the changes, despite all the dis-beliefs and the fake things of Christmas, it still is, and will always be, the most wonderful time of the year, just like what Andy Williams said in one of his songs.
