That Time of The Year Again (Christmas Special I)

I love Christmas.

Being a Malaysian, I've had the good fortune to experience many other festivals and celebrations besides my own. And, being a Chinese Malaysian, I get to celebrate two! Awesome.

However, I still, still feel that Christmas is still king, in terms of food, festive mood and overall celebration. The oft-mentioned Christmas mood is infectious, and I have no doubt my fellow Catholics will fell the same. No offense to other religions, races or cultures etc.

Sometimes, however, for some people, Christmas can be...quite a bit of a hassle.

Quite a few people will start moaning when it reaches this holiday season. The main reason? I bet you know: Gift-giving! The long, arduous process of thinking hard what to buy for your long distance nephew's cousin's daughter's uncle's son and hoping that it wouldn't get tossed into the trash can reserved for the "Worst Christmas Present Ever".

Take that, multiplied by about a hundred of uncles, aunts, granddads, grandmums, nephews, nieces, cousins, siblings, in-laws, and you're pretty much looking at very, very long weeks ahead.

Which brings me to...Arthur Christmas.

Terence Wang on... A White Christmas (Christmas Special)

EDIT: By 25 December 2010, Jiawin Ng would have left for Singapore to continue his studies under the ASEAN scholarship. This author wishes him good luck and farewell.
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It is 25 December 2010. Terence Wang looks out of his double storey terrace house, in the suburbs of Hollywood. He opens the window and stretches out his hand. A snowflake lands in his palm, so gently that he wonders whether it is all a dream.

Editor(M.E.): And yes, of course it's a dream. For starters, it's raining, not snowing.
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Sigh.

It's that time of the year again. When I wish raindrops were snow. When I wish my home was located either on the North or South of this blue-and-green(and white) planet. When I wish there was much more of the festive mood that is associated with this time of the year.

But then again, it's Christmas.

And how can one not be happy on Christmas??!!

Fireworks. Signify mood changes, among other things.

Yup, it might not be snowing in this sh*t hole lovely country but I'm staying jolly. And merry. And...

(Starts crying) Oh why, oh why, oh why can't it snow here?? (continues crying...)

Anyway.

First off, the Suburban KID Blog Committee would like to wish all readers, never mind whether you all are Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim, Jewish, even atheist, a very Merry Christmas(Happy Holidays to atheists). And how can you forget the very optimistic New Year? Seriously, he's always in a good mood, even in this recession! Isn't he afraid of getting laid off like 2010??

As I was saying, since it's a season of being grateful, forgiving and generally good, we should probably keep being upset on the none-whiteness of this country just be thankful and make do with what we have.

In fact, our family has already got the Christmas mood going. Look!

The Christmas tree, obviously. I haven't managed to capture the lights well, unfortunately.

"Cute" little stockings

And a very Merry Christmas to you too, Mr-not-so-big-Santa.

Smile.

Ok, so that's about it(apart from a Christmas party and some songs) but the mood's more important, right?

There. I'm contradicting myself again.

One last thing: Since my announcement of this blog reaching a thousand views, views have gone up by...well, frankly I'm not sure, but let's just say, a lot. To let you 'get' the scale of it, this blog reached 1000 views 14 days ago. Now, it's 1552.

So thank you, and have a great Christmas. (looks around) Where's the Christmas spirit on this blog? Editor, change template! Find some Christmas songs! Hurry!

P.S. You might have noticed the new blog template and songs. Well, ok I went traditional this year on the songs, but at least I didn't go for the old "Jingle Bells".

The Christmas Commercialisation Conspiracy (Christmas Special)

The Christmas Commercialisation Conspiracy. Has a nice ring to it, no?


I'm typing this at 1 am, Christmas Day. Most of you are asleep, and my Facebook Chat tells me there's only 13 out of my beloved 249 friends online. But let's get on with it.

Some of my more english proficient friends would have figured out the title, which is about the, err, Christmas Commercialisation Conspiracy. Duh. Just look up the dictionary.

For those that have figured that out, you will be wondering: what's the big deal? The big deal is this, my friends. You see because of Christmas, many big private corporations have been given an opportunity. Christmas Sales. Christmas Specials. Christmas Limited Edition Items. And so on.

You probably are still wondering what is the issue. You will be thinking: Yeah, but so what? This is all good, right? Helps the economy and everything.

Ah, it might help the economy, but it also creates a negative impact, that is, destroying the true spirit of Christmas.

You are now thinking: Wait, wait, that's gone too far. But I'm sorry to say no, unfortunately, it hasn't.

You can see it small things, like Merry Christmas turning to Happy Holidays. Christmas signifying Santa, not Jesus. The dissapearing of the Nativity Scene-you can google that-and more.

And this, is rather sad, and rather worrying. I'm not the only one; ask any priest or church-goer that knows about this. And worse still, this article is not going to do much. All I can do is let you, reader, know, and sincerely ask you to pass this on, or Christmas will just turn into another public holiday.

But seeing its Christmas today, lets forget the tough reality and celebrate Christmas, the REAL way. So: Happy Chrismas everyone. And a Merry New Year.

I got that wrong didn't I?

Terence Wang vows to keep on saying 'Merry Christmas' only.

Disclaimer: This article is for certain readers only. The writer does not take any responsibility for any alleged offences or insults made in the article.