What Do You Want for Christmas?

What Do You Want For Christmas?

(Babble On, for the Sunstar Davao, Nov. 30, 2007)

It’s that time of the year when you have to start shopping for Christmas gifts for your friends and loved ones. And it’s also that time when you receive gifts from all over.

I used to love getting gifts during the holidays. I remember staying up during Christmas eve, all excited about the gift-wrapped presents lying under the Christmas tree, just begging for me to open them.

As kids, I guess we somehow learned to value material things greatly by events like Christmas. I’m sure your family is no exception. We wind up looking at Christmas as a time to get gifts.

But the best memory I had of Christmas wasn’t of the gifts I received as a kid, but of the experience of giving gifts to my loved ones.

I still remember how I scrimped and saved to be able to buy my mother a necklace from a jewelry store in Insular Hotel (now the Waterfront). I remember handing it to her, her opening the present, and then wearing it proudly in front of me. Of course, I never figured out until much later that Mom wasn’t fond of jewelry, and rarely, if ever, wears any.

I also remember the gigantic seashell I got for my uncle. You could hear the sounds of the ocean, the salesman told me, and young, gullible kid that I was, I immediately bought the thing for an over-inflated price. Later, when my uncle received the gift with what I imagine was an odd-look on his face, I proudly told him what the salesman had told me, and even told him how much it cost. I think I remember hearing him laugh after I told him the price.

It seems the old adage does ring true: it is better to give than to receive. But it may be a good idea to first find out what the receiver WANTS.

So the question that should be on everyone’s lips around the holiday season is: what do you want for Christmas?

One answer made me think. Blogger Devin Reams asked that question of his girlfriend this year, and she gave a brilliant answer. She said, “At this stage of my life, I don’t need more things. I’m at a point where I value experiences over things.”

Today experience seems to be more valuable than material things. As Devin Reams says, “the way I see it, in twenty years I’m not going to think about how nice that jacket looked. Instead, I’ll stop and remember the great time I had.”

One good example of valuing experience over material things would be my own sister. She had one heck of a great time when she celebrated her birthday not by throwing a party for herself, but instead threw a party for pediatric patients (like kids with chronic illness such as cancer) from the Kythe foundation. She got the idea from her friend Princess Yee of Koronadal city, who celebrates her birthdays with parties for the kids from that foundation as well.

I guess it’s no coincidence then that during the holidays there are countless parties and gift-givings, not just for ourselves, but also for the less-privileged in life. It would also explain why I remembered the experience of giving the gifts to my loved ones, rather than the gifts themselves. The experience remains a cherished memory for me, all these years later.

It now also makes sense that friends and family tend to gather together during the holidays. It’s not for the gifts or out of a sense of tradition, but for the sheer joy of the experience. Of being together, and spending time with one another.

It seems that by giving experiences instead of gifts, we are not merely giving a gift to someone, but also ourselves.

This year, if someone asks me what I want for Christmas, I’ll probably ask them to have a cup of coffee with me, or to break bread together, or maybe donate to a good cause like the Kythe Foundation and Pathways to Higher Education. Or better yet, sponsor a Christmas party just like the party my sister had.

So what do you want for Christmas?

(Many thanks to blogger Devin Reams for inspiring this particular column with his post “What’s On Your Holiday Wishlist?”)