MY husband and I almost always host a family reunion Christmas party at our home, especially this year when my Mother is celebrating her first Christmas in America after my Daddy’s passing last July.
Like many other Filipino families in America, this is perhaps our own way of re-creating the big fun gatherings with our extended families that we grew up to in the Philippines. Of course, it will never be the same especially for my family, because none of my siblings are based here in the US, and my Mom still lives in the Philippines. Our family get-togethers here are mostly with cousins and aunts and uncles who live in California.
Nevertheless, we try our best to re-live our family Christmas parties back home. While I prepare a festive spread, almost every attending family brings a dish to the table. This bountiful buffet sustains us through the chilly night with second, or even third trips to the buffet table. And as in most Pinoy gatherings, there will still be food to take home for guests.
Our program starts with a family prayer of thanksgiving, followed by toasting courtesy of my husband’s amazing toastmaster skill. In between glasses of wine, soda and juices and neverending kuwento about what is new about each other (whether present or not in the party), no Filipino gathering is complete without photo-ops, especially during these times of selfies and live status updates on Twitter and Facebook.
My husband has also instituted games during Christmas. We prepare a few presents meant for those who participate con gusto. Each guest signs in and drops his/her name in a fishbowl as they come. During the games portion of the program, my husband picks a name from the fishbowl. The guest either answers a trivia question correctly or leads in the singing of a Christmas carol. The guest then gets a number from another fishbowl that corresponds to the twelve gifts (twelve days of Christmas) we wrapped. He/she, however, does not get to keep the gift, but instead gives it to somebody else at the party. The gift of giving continues for twelve rounds, and so do the Christmas carols and cheers.
This year and moving forward, my husband decided to give away more personal presents to families. We gifted our guests with ornaments that illustrated their pictures, including those family members that have passed. Thank God for Facebook, I get access to their family photo albums where I got to choose the pictures I had Costco made into ornaments for families to hang in their Christmas trees every year.
I hope you also had a very merry Christmas with people you love. Now onto the preparations for the New Year!
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
