“BER”

One of the blessings of living in a multicultural society is that you can learn a lot of new things. One of the pleasant things that I discovered about the Filipino culture is that when the months ending with the letters `ber` come along, they start putting up the Christmas trees and decorations.

Before that I had always been told I was silly to put up my Christmas tree in October. Now I feel totally at ease setting up my Christmas room and know I`m not the only Christmas fanatic.
I have three reasons for the early Christmas decorations and festivities:

· Christmas is my favourite religious celebration
· Life needs to be celebrated – why limit it to just one or two days of Christmas
· Strong families have strong traditions
All my best memories have revolved around Christmas celebrations.
All the strong values and principles I`ve developed have in one way or another to do with Christmas. (We were taught very early in life that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I still remember the first Christmas present I gave to my oldest sister when I was barely six yrs old.)
The Christmas season has also been my busiest time of the year, but it is the most rewarding in terms of my mission and personal fulfilment. Gotta go dig out the decorations for my Christmas room…