it's Christmas time in the city

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Soon after my cold summer Danish adventure, I returned to the humid rainy season in the Philippines. But that weather limitation doesn't stop us Filipinos from pretending that we've got pine trees covered in snow inside our very own homes. 

And the Philippines is known to have the longest Christmas... we typically skip over Halloween, All Saints' and All Souls' Days; we also skip over the various other commemoration days. As soon as September begins, Jose Mari Chan's Christmas in Our Hearts and Christmas carols get played ad infinitum in shopping malls. These songs are stimuli for spending (and thereby endangering my wallet), not far from Pavlov's conditioning.

As I was walking in the mall the weekend when I got back from Denmark, therefore, I found the view I had in front of me incredulous: Christmas trees were already on sale AND IT'S NOT EVEN SEPTEMBER YET! 


And earlier today, I had lunch with Arindam and Matty in a mall in Los Baños. An arch flanked by Nutcrackers and covered with Christmas decor welcomed us at the food court entrance. Christmas has evidently arrived here.


With kids looking forward to the Christmas holidays, I'm sure that they'd be delighted to see this decoration... and the Christmas trees too. To them, and to people who see the Yuletide season as a really good time of the year, Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends is not applicable. 

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