Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Happy Christmas!!

I was driving around town to do some Christmas shopping since I moved into a new place. The days leading up to Christmas was cold and foggy. It was a different kind of White Christmas. The temperature ranged 3 to -3 deg C on average. It was forecast to be milder on the eve and Christmas. Today, the temperature is around 9 deg C.




The streets were packed with last-minute shoppers, a condition I am personally familiar with.


I noticed Christmas in the UK is too commercialised. People can get stressed over the presents that they buy or not. As a result, they can also be easily agitated at this time of the year. Take for example the other day when I was in a store. A lady was trying to squeeze through the crowd with her baby pram. She was excusing herself all the way until she met an agitated shopper who felt he was abruptly interrupted by this lady. I was just standing next to him when he started scolding profanities at her. They ended up scolding each other and soon the volume of their voices increased attracting more onlookers at the aisle.

For me, I slowly inched away from the scene. It's really none of my business. I just wanted to get my own shopping done. It was certainly a tense moment and it was not an exceptional event. Most shoppers did look worn and stressed out.

I thought Christmas was turning commercial in Malaysia until I came here and experience a worse situation. Business papers even say that this is essential, as it "keeps the economy going" and that's good for the country! Maybe it's a hard comparison to Malaysia as we can never achieve the level of business as in here. But I did figure out that Malaysians go after different things. While presents remain part of the celebration, food seems to be a better household topic.


My Christmas food: Brussels sprout, roast meat, red curry chicken (a weird improvisation) and lots of vegetable cooked in olive oil

Bramley apple pie for dessert

Maybe it's a cultural thing, that food is the common topic whether you're a Malay, Chinese or Indian. Even Christmas presents have evolved to suit our local cultures. As I am from a Chinese family, Christmas presents can turn out to be an angpao (red packet with money).

Today, I called my grandmother to wish her Happy Christmas. She told she has an angpao for me. Even though I declined to accept it since I am already a grown up and earning an income, she insisted that I should take the angpao and buy myself a Christmas present that I like.

I belief other races or people have their own interpretations of Christmas presents. J-net for example, once told me that all she wants for Christmas is for her children to come home and see her. Two of her children didn't want to live with her anymore and now that the other housemate and I have left the house, she'll be alone for Christmas. As much as I dread thinking of what she did to me, I do really sympathise her condition.

St James Church; for Christmas Midnight Mass


Inside the church

I have been lucky on celebrating Christmas for two years in this country. Both were meant to be a lonely occasion for me. Somehow, things will just come up. Last year, I was with other students in Cambridge having a party in a Church. This year, I am also alone. In fact, I have the whole house to myself for 10 days until early next year. What's changed this year is that I have gone to church twice to listen to carols and participate in the Christmas Eve and Christmas mass. It was a wonderful and meaningful moment for me. My move to the new place is like a rebirth of staying in Reading. It has brought me to a new level of understanding that Christmas is not only about presents, but also a gift of hope, a hope that's been born to us 2000 years ago.

Happy Christmas everyone!!

2 comments:

feifeipinky said...

*drooling*...ur homecook christmas meal really looks good. ^_^

not nice seeing u being alone for christmas...do hope u can get to celebrate it nxt yr back in m'sia,k.

CP Waterman said...

For consolation you still have the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit.haha
You will have lots of friends by the end of next year.
Have a blessed Christmas season!