HOW I BEAT THE HOLIDAY BLUES

Growing up in Manila, Christmas has always been a big deal. In my home, it started on the first week of November, after the school semester break, with my mom taking boxes out of storage to decorate not only a big tree with fresh pine leaves delivered from Baguio, but also the rest of the house with candy canes, tinsel and mistletoe, and of course, an advent wreath and a belen. Gifts would start coming on the last week of November, ranging from corporate calendars after. We would host Christmas dinners for friends and always took place in our home, with relatives trekking over right before midnight to feast, celebrate and exchange presents. Things changed a bit when we all moved to Australia in 2006. That was our first taste of spending the holidays away from all the traditions we had gotten used to. Suddenly, we were spending Christmas Eve with just the immediate family. My mom kept tradition of having a , albeit a smaller, simpler version and after meeting people and building new friendships there, our traditional big Christmas Eve celebration became our traditional big Christmas day BBQ with the family we had made in Sydney.