Christmas Story

It's Christmas Eve. Christmas always seems to evoke a sentimental feeling in me. I feel for things more, I get teary more easily. Christmas or sentimental type of songs gets me emotional. Why is it so? I still can't really find the answer; maybe it’s the tune of the Christmas song...so touching and so sentimental.

I grew up with the conditioning of a Chinese conservative family where Christmas is kind of unheard of. Maybe it's was then in the early 80s and we were living in a village. I only knew of Christmas after I married and have kids of my own.

I remember the surprise and astonishment it brings to my parents when they saw that I had Christmas tree at home and had presents for them. It was unheard off, coming from a Taoism tradition. And soon it becomes a tradition that I would put up Christmas tree and have Christmas presents for them and the kids. But the gesture is never reciprocal. Is it a Chinese thing or is it just my family thing that my sisters didn't get the idea to buy presents in return? And so it continues with me taking the lead each year. It's not the presents that matter but it's just the joy of giving and receiving. It's the thought that counts and not so much the value of the present.

And amongst friends, it's actually the surprise on what's in the box as Christmas is somehow a time when you actually would buy present that you know your love ones, your family, or your friends will like. I remembered last year, my friend from Perth asked me what is my favorite color. Honestly I told her it's black...thinking that it's probably negligee she's thinking off. And what a big surprise when she bought me a 'humungous black vibrator' in the shape of a penis of course :-). But don't get me wrong here; I still am not quite sure why my friend would think I need this humungous black vibrator though!

Now that the kids are big, I somehow have lost the interest to put up Christmas tree at home. And we moved on to celebrate it as a party with exchanging of presents of course!

Care to share any of your own Christmas story?

Merry Christmas. Wishing each and every one of you and your family a Blessed Christmas.