Christmas In A Bag
By Anabelle Badilla
When I was a kid I used to think that Christmas is as simple as exchanging gifts and hanging socks on the wall. The rest of the details like attending dawn Mass and yawning the whole time and helping my mother prepare the Noche Buena were as unexciting and ordinary as fixing my bed each morning. But one day in my adult life, I found out the real meaning of Christmas.
I was busy wrapping gifts for my family when I got a surprise call from my long lost friend, Alma, Alma and I were so excited to see each other and so eager to share our many stories. We decided to meet down town, take out a Jollibee meal which we both still love all these years, and chat the night away at their house while feasting on our yummy Jolly hamburgers and French fries . We took a jeepney and began exchanging stories non-stop. But after awhile as I was sharing with her how happy I was to have my first salary raise, I noticed that she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. She was staring at the old woman who was sitting across us. She looked really room and malnourished. Her wrinkled and unsmiling face told of the hardships she must have gone through. I thought, “Okay. She’s a poor old lady. Fine, “I mean, I have seen these same faces many times already and I don’t mind them anymore, especially now that I’m with my long lost friend.
Suddenly when we were about to get off, Alma handed our food to the old woman. I didn’t know what to say! I couldn’t wait to get to their home and grab my hamburger. I would have wanted to snatch the bag before she could even hand it to the old woman but when I saw the look in the old lady’s eyes I just froze. Her wrinkled and unsmiling face suddenly lit up as if she had seen an apparition. Her eyes turned misty and she gave us a toothless grin and said, “Thank you.
My sick daughter needs this.”
Deep inside me, something had sparked, I have heard so many definitions of the meaning of Christmas. Definitions which my simple mind couldn’t often comprehend. But this particular evening Christmas stared at me right in the face.