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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Sunday, September 30, 2007

entry arrow5:53 PM | Early Christmas

Before you ask, "What's that silly Christmas countdown code doing in this blog?" Here's my answer: I'm a Christmas freak.* To be more precise: I'm a Christmas freak many, many weeks before the fact, and then -- around the end of November, somewhere near the season itself -- I lose interest with the so-called Christmas spirit when everybody's just starting to get their Christmas cheer. I used to be worse: I would celebrate Christmas in mid-July, singing carols along with my CD player with the volume turned high. Last Thursday, I was spending the day at home (doing work) while listening to Carly Simon, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Perry Como, The Carpenters, Nat King Cole, Michael Buble, Barbra Streisand, and Mariah Carey do their cover versions of old favorites. The weather was nippy, and it was perfect. The two most popular seem to be "The Christmas Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," two songs that are actually more nostalgic and sad than joyful -- which, of course, begs the question: do we actually love Christmas for its subtle suggestions of sadness, of longing, of having fallen short for its cheerful demands for family-togetherness and giving? It's a celebration for our fondest wishes that seem remote. Maybe that's why the best Christmases in our lives always seem to be in our childhood. We were much too innocent then, easily taken in by the holiday tinsels and the flash of noche buena and fireworks. And then we become adults, and suddenly, Santa's dead.

Merry early Christmas, everybody.

*It's also to remind me I have some serious early shopping to do before it becomes too crazy

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