Gregorio Miguel Pallugna CHRISTMAS over the years has become a little less meaningful to many of us. As much as we want to deny it, that is the truth. As we all become busier with our work, more engrossed with our electronic gadgets, and overwhelmed with material things, we become less concerned about giving meaning to Christmas beyond the gifts and the parties and no one can blame us, really. Media, the world over, has commercialized Christmas so much that it has now become the season of spending! Social media, too, has not helped a lot at all. The ever intensifying silent competition of food porn, outfits of the day, and travel photos have made people a lot more concerned about looking good, looking rich and looking accomplished. Christmas day is now more about taking photos of expensive things and extravagant events. Even the ongoing fight between political armies in the net have taken its toll on all of us. It has gained so much momentum that not even Christmas can stop the bickering and ranting and bashing among netizens. Who cares about the meaning of Christmas when there is so much to talk about the death penalty bill, the war on drugs, the 2017 budget, so on. No one can blame us, really. Thanks to the staggering advancement of technology, our lives have become a speeding bullet. Always in motion, always going fast. We spend most of our waking hours working hard to buy things we do not actually need, and we all think we are going to have a merry Christmas because we get ourselves a new iPhone, or the latest Macbook. Never mind that our OFW relatives cannot come home from abroad, as long as they send us the newest gadgets. That is the standard now of happiness. That’s what the TV and the internet tell us anyway. No one can blame us, really. Year after year, we look forward to this one event that is slowly sinking into the darkness of our very complicated lives. Sometimes, many of us wish that we were kids again, back when Christmas was not yet a season but a feeling. That way, we do away with all the things that do not necessarily make us happy inside. After all, Christmas was never about the things we see on TV or read and post about on the internet. There was no internet then anyway. It was never about looking rich and successful. When we were kids, Christmas was simply about the joy of having the presence of family, the warmth of being remembered and the satisfaction of making the world around you a happier place. This Christmas, let us forget the things media, technology and big business expect from us. Let us forget being grown ups for a short while and relive our childhood. Anyway, it’s Christmas! No one will blame us, really.