Today they put up Christmas lights in our condominium’s lobby. And as I lingered in the lobby tonight on my way out to get coffee, I suddenly remembered my mom and how she shed a tear or two as we passed through rows of lanterns displayed along Ortigas extension a couple of weeks ago.

Christmas lights are evil. (I don’t know why I even thought of putting up those little light bulbs in my room.) They’re among the first indicators that Christmas is near, along with Christmas carols and the much-coveted Starbucks planners. And it’s sad, and torturous, to be reminded of Christmas.

Don’t you just think that Christmas is the saddest holiday ever? Or is it just me?

I think there’s something about it that makes people feel melancholy, inspite of the holiday rush and the shopping frenzy and the colorful wrappers and gifts. One picture of Christmas in my head includes children unwrapping their gifts in slow motion, while an old grey-haired woman sits by the Christmas tree smiling as her grandson opens his gifts. Kids run around with their new toys, couples kiss, mothers serve chicken salad, and little brother is by the phone whispering sweet nothings to the receiver; wrappers and ribbons and *cough* christmas lights are everywhere. And all of these happen at once in slow motion while “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” plays silently in the background.

Get the picture? It’s.. Sad. Like you just want it over and done with, get what I’m saying?

If I wasn’t blogging this thru my mobile phone, this is the part where I google and link back to that study that claims that suicide rates shoot up during the Christmas holidays, and maybe try to make sense out of this feeling I get whenever this time of the year comes by.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Christmas, and I acknowledge it to be the day in the year when we celebrate Christ’s birth, when we remember that salvation came to mankind in the form of the Father’s only Son.

And well, I love that I can spend nights like this with a good book while sipping Toffee Nut Latte, something you can’t do any other time of the year. (I just kinda wish they stop playing all sorts of versions of Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer already.)

It’s just that.. I really think that it’s the most melancholy of all the holidays, Christmas, and I’m kinda wondering if someone else feels the same way too.

Any other human being who feels the same way? Pls. Let me know. Let’s have coffee and be sad together. My treat. I need 5 more Starbucks stickers.

[Posting with my mobile phone]