OVER THE weekend I was putting my final touches on our holiday decors at home when I overheard my grand nieces and nephews talking excitedly about their monitos and monitas for their respective class Christmas parties. At their young age, they already knew what specific gift they wanted to give to their classmates and at the same time, they were giggling thinking about what they would receive in return. Just the night before, my apuputs had already asked their mothers to cancel any personal or official plan so they can accompany them to the local gift store in our town the next day.
That scene brought me back to my elementary years when our Batang 70’s version of the exchange gifts was one simple affair. There were no price tags, no wish list and no pressure from the highly commercialized activity that it is today.
As we drew the names of our classmates from a box, we were thrilled by the prospect of picking the name of our best friend or our puppy love, and at the same time anxious of getting our class adviser’s name. We never revealed the names we had chosen to anyone in class, because the secrecy and the mystery added so much value to the charm of this simple act of giving and receiving.
Our class Christmas parties were equally modest – no caterers, no elaborate set-ups, no “pasabog” raffle items, and no rented PA lights and sound system. We were dressed in our Sunday’s best for the class gathering that would officially begin our holiday school break. Some of us would even wear shoes for the first time, having been accustomed to wearing slippers the whole year round. Most of us would bring lunch meticulously packed in banana leaves, while a handful of our classmates would bring theirs in some fancy plastic lunch box. We would all sit on the floor, took our lunch together with our class adviser overseeing our grand “salapo,” making sure that everyone was having a sumptuous meal regardless of what they brought to class.
In terms of creativity and innovativeness, the parlor games we played during our time would definitely pale in comparison with the games I have seen on TikTok and Facebook. But the excitement and thrill of winning was simply priceless. We had trip to Jerusalem, statue dance, bring me, and the apple dance or the newspaper dance, where everyone bursts into collective giggles as young boys and girls are paired with their “young love, sweet love.”
We would then move to the grand revelation with our class adviser being the first to present the gift to the lucky member of the class as we all sang “I love my monito yes, I do! I love my monito but I won’t tell you!” In between our acapella singing, laughter would fill our room as we get to know who picked our names. When the last gift is presented, we would then simultaneously open our gifts. I remember how happy I was to receive two boxes of sourball in fourth grade, a box of curly tops in fifth grade, and two bars of Irish spring soap, fresh from the then highly-secured and “exclusive” Clark Air Base, in sixth grade. Yes, those were the gifts I received back then; but to this date I could still feel the excitement that was simply incomparable.
In today’s highly commercialized celebration of Christmas, consumerism often takes center stage. I hope we never lose the chid in us, whose focus is never on the value of the gift but on the thoughtfulness behind it. Let us all go back to our elementary classrooms where the pure joy we felt during our simple exchange gifts was never about receiving expensive items but in our shared act of giving.
To see and feel the season of giving from the eyes of children is simply magical. Let us take our cue from them by taking a few steps back to simplicity. Let us always remind ourselves that the best gifts are never the ones with a hefty price tag or a popular brand, but those that come from a full and sincere heart.
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