A Very Merry Christmas (2009)

While some of my Pinoy friends here are lamenting about how boring their holidays are, I beg to differ as I had a truly merry Christmas. Sometimes things are just a matter of how you think about them. Being away from all the hullabaloo of the holiday season didn’t dampen our celebration. The Christmas spirit is always in our hearts — cheese!
We had our Christmas tree set-up as early as October. When I heard my son singing “Oh Christmas Tree”, I decided to put out our set. My son solely decorated our small tree. We started playing Christmas carols as early as November and I’d been looking for presents that early too.
I went to work on the 24th but I got off an hour earlier. I agreed to meet my husband in Myeongdong for dinner. Alas, I had to wait for them for a half hour despite being only 5 stations away from the area.
At Euljiro1-ga station, there were two Christmas trees where people could hang their messages or wishes written on a paper ornament provided by Seoul Metro. Santa gamely posed for a picture and then she handed me a paper.
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On the right side, a table was set-up with free tea and coffee provided by the Salvation Army.
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Koreans celebrate Christmas with a cake!
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Here’s what I wrote on my paper ornament:
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A group of young folks were playing “Amazing Grace” R&B style and I thought I just had to listen to them.
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A Salvation Army kettle near the escalators to Lotte Department Store.
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And here’s my son who asked us for 1,000 won when he saw an SA kettle. I’d lost count of how many times we’d given on different occasions because of him…
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At 8PM, a band from a Christian church started preparing for a concert at the subway…
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And when we got out of the subway, we saw this group outside in front of Coldstone…
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As mentioned before, Koreans celebrate with a Christmas cake. I didn’t have to buy one since my son decorated one at his day care center. It was delish…
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We had dinner at a pizza joint. Myeongdong was brimming with shoppers, diners and church-goers that night. We were supposed to visit Myeongdong Cathedral but the way to the church was so crowded.
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It felt like Christmas at home in Myeongdong. We would’ve stayed until midnight but my son was sleepy by 1030 PM that we just had to go home. I was with my family to celebrate the holidays and nothing else matters.