In my country which is predominantly Catholic and influenced by Catholicism one of the long-awaited special event was the Christmas time where even four months before it happens we can already hear Christmas song over the radio. One hundred days before it they would start the countdown.
Then there were party in whatever group you belong like if you are a student you and your classmates would hold a Christmas party then teachers would held a party of their own. With your family there sometimes a reunion which is a party in itself while if you are a worker of a company you will also have some kind of gathering denoting Christmas time.
So the date of December 25th was not only the sole date of merry-making but also a few weeks before it people just make some kind of festive event whether by just going to the park, Christmas party with friends or co-workers, or gathering with the family or relatives.
Of course in the house there are special foods that my mother makes back in those years where she would prepare spaghetti, buy some bread and cheese and mayonnaise and that special food dessert of cooked purple yam with condensed milk and margarine then a fruit salad is also made during that time plus some softdrink cola is bought too for us to drink. That is just about it, there is no Ham because my mother is not really putting a budget for it, I can only see it in magazines and in the TV.
That was the good part of Christmas because of the food and due to the fact that my mother's birthday was on the 24th of December. The bad part was when it is time to go for our godmothers and godfathers. I only have one godmother and she was happen to be not married and went away abroad when I was eleven years old.
So I would have to get my gift from her sister which is also an unmarried lady. Then we would go for my grandmother's brother's house and stay there waiting for our uncles and aunts to get alone and pay respects and expect to be given a cash gift. I can't remember them giving me gifts but I think I didn't receive one. All I could remember was at least we were able to eat in my grandfather's house and that's it while in the other house I was able to get some cash gifts from some of my Aunts there but the gifts are just relatively small considering it was many years ago when I was just still a boy.
To put it simply I didn't enjoyed much of the customary things that we kids do during Christmas time and it left me frustrated. My brother even had a bad feeling about his godfather which was my father's cousin. So I could just compare my loot to my best friend who are stacking up money because he can go a get some cash gifts from every relative that he goes into during Christmas time plus they have Ham on their table too.
That was my story as a child during Christmas time but at least I had some memory of it to share and reminisce and laugh about because it is just funny for us to almost beg for getting gifts pushing one another just to get the nerve and the heart to approach my Uncles and Aunts, paying respects and expecting something and not getting it anyway so it is just predominantly frustrating for me and also for one of my brothers whose godfather was that of my Father's cousin whom he didn't get any gifts at all in the years that we are going to that houses of the brothers of my Grandmother which we used to go for our hang-out on December 25th.