My Christmas Duty

It's the time of the year again when I have to pull out some boxes from out of the store room underneath the stairs of this apartment we're living in. It has always been my job to bring it out, assemble the tree in the garage, and hose it down thoroughly, then leave it out there overnight to dry.

Then the last part is spraying it with a disinfectant like Lysol, as the store room was a breeding ground for mice and cockroaches. And you can bet that they've made this tree's box a nice home for them, as evidenced by the hole in one of the corners, and the presence of chewed up paper, cardboard, and other material which they made into nests.

Thankfully, our neighbors next door hired an exterminator a couple of months ago, and since then, we've never seen a single mouse or rat in here. Unbeknownst to them, their pest problem was ours too, and we got an unexpected freebie treatment. I will repay them for it in some way someday.

So, taking the tree out of storage and cleaning it before assembly were my only responsibilities back then. My sister was the one in charge of decorating it. But since she and her son had moved out a year ago, the job of putting up the tree for the holidays became mine. And it's one that I look forward to doing every year.

In Its Unlit Glory

This tree was put up two weeks ago, but was only lit last week as I forgot where I kept the lights. I had to go through the other boxes to look for them. Then I remembered that I had stashed them in a shoe box in my room for better safekeeping. With the lights out of the box, I laid them out on the floor and tested them.

As seen in the first picture, there are three sets of lights colored white, purple, and yellow. I plugged each set into the wall socket by the tree and seeing that it each bulb was lighting up perfectly, I then wound each set around the tree, and each succeeding set plugged into the one that preceded it. With all of them connected in series, I plugged the bottom set, the purple one, into the wall socket to test the connection.

After seeing them light up, blink, and fade, I was satisfied and proceeded to put the boxes back into the store room. There were other decorations in plastic bags in the boxes, but I thought that I already put enough on the tree. I left the lights plugged in to continue testing them and see if they would continue working after a while. Then I went to the kitchen to do my chores. An hour after I plugged it the lights were still working well, so I was satisfied and decided to call it a night.

In the evening of the next day, I plugged it again as it was our usual to light up the tree from six or seven, until everyone had retired to their rooms for the night. I saw that the yellow lights were very dim, as if they weren't receiving enough power. It was plugged into the white set which was unaffected and continued working in their programmed way of blinking and fading.

After touching all the plugs and along the lengths of each set, the yellow lights suddenly brightened up to normal levels and started doing their programmed light show again. All that poking around and unplugging and plugging back seemed to have "fixed" it. The next evening they were dim again, and no amount of prodding and poking could make the set light up normally again, so I decided to remove it from the series. I remembered that we had a multi-colored set stashed somewhere, and

What the Colors of the Lights Mean to Me

There was something about the lights. My sister was the one who bought them, and back then I never gave much thought about her choice of colors. But now that it became my job to put the tree up and everything else, I became introspective about it and my faith. It wasn't just another duty anymore, it made me reflect and reminded me of what the tree meant.

Most of us know about its pagan origins and how the evergreen fir tree had become a part of Christian tradition. The triangular outline of the fir tree is a reference to the Holy Trinity, and its upward pointing branches symbolizes our praise for the Lord. And its evergreen color which it maintains throughout the year, and even in the harshness of winter, represents the everlasting life we will have in Christ.

As I looked at it again while the lights blinked and faded as they were programmed to do, the meaning and symbolism in their colors became evident. I asked my sister if she chose them for any reason at all, and she said no. She just bought them because we needed some replacements for the old set that stopped working. So, what do they mean to me?

The white lights tell of His purity, for He was born without original sin, which is the nature of ordinary mortal man. The purple lights fittingly symbolize His status of royalty, for He is the king of kings. And lastly, the fiery yellow lights represent His passion for us all.

I am not happy with how it looks right now without the yellow lights and the fiery glow they add to the mix. But I don't have time to check its wiring and see if it is something I can fix. It's definitely an easy job for my uncle, the expert electronics engineer of our family who fixes a lot of our stuff. I'll have him look at it before the next Christmas.

Without the "fire", the purplish glow the lights cast on our unlit living room gives off a somewhat somber vibe. A reflection perhaps, of the sad state of the world right now? I can't help but think of it that way.

The past two years of lockdown and the pandemic have been Hell for a lot of us. I've lost many friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and even some relatives. My best friend who lived nearby was not spared. I've known him for twenty six years, and he was like an older brother to me. He died in July of the previous year.

I miss how we would greet each other on Christmas Day in social media or through SMS and many other things. And I never got the chance to say goodbye to them.

Life has never felt so drab and lonely. Grief is a burden one should not carry for so long. It's time for me to accept that they are gone, and move on. There is still so much to live for.

And we have reached the end of this blog. Thank you for reading. Before I close, I'd like to share with you a video of one of my favorite Christmas songs, one that totally encapsulates the meaning of this special day.
Here is a stunning rendition of O Holy Night, by British tenor, Michael Crawford.