Season’s Tinsel and Glitter

When I was growing up in Manila, we did put up some decorations during Christmas. The ornaments were not much – a colorful parol that we hand-made (oftentimes as a school project) hanging outside the window, and a small Belen in the living room, but that was enough to spruce up the holiday mood. We don’t have a Christmas tree, not even a scraggly fake one, though sometimes we had “kumukuti-kutipap” lights. And I don’t mean lights being on and off due to the frequent power outages that we had then.

Now that I moved out of the country, it also became a tradition in our home here in Iowa to decorate for Christmas. This, I believe, decreases the pangs of homesickness for us, while in turn, creates wonderful memories for our children. We even have a real live Christmas tree inside our home that we get from a tree farm each year. And we don’t need to add fake snow, we have lots of the real one. Yes, too much (*sigh*) of the real one .

Here are some of our Christmas decor this year:

“Behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them.” Matthew 2:9

“Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”

“O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.” (We Three Kings of Orient Are)

“It came upon a midnight clear.”

“O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!”

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”

It is easy to get lost in all the tinsel and glitter of the holidays. But let us not forget the real reason for the season.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Isaiah 9:6