MANILA
There is no holiday bigger than Christmas for us Filipinos. We’re simply crazy about it.
The longest Christmas (I believe Mexico makes the same claim). The happiest holiday. The best time of the year.
All true. As we all know, Christmas carols start wafting in the air the moment the “ber” months come rolling in. In September shopping malls, radio stations, and practically every venue that has a sound system are already playing Christmas songs. As if on cue, “Oh, Holy Night,” “Jingle Bells,” “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus”, and all the other favorites occupy air space by the first “ber” date.
All told, Christmas is one big bash for us Filipinos. And why not, after all we’re the only Catholic nation in Asia.
We start the partying early too. Office Christmas parties, neighborhood street parties, family get-togethers. The barkada go on drinking sessions early and often. Friends who didn’t see one another for the past 11 months suddenly remember the time of year and start calling each other for that once-a-year night of fun.
Working stiffs like us start imagining what we’ll spend our bonuses on, especially if the children have already handed their Christmas wish list. We start checking the booze shelf and start replenishing our supply. The ladies of the house write their long shopping list for noche buena (the traditional Filipino Christmas meal). The kids, as noted above, start to make loud hints about what they expect to receive this Christmas.
Is there any doubt that Christmas is more fun in the Philippines?
But do we all know that Christmas comes with a big price tag? Are we all aware that Christmas costs a lot?
Not only in terms of what every family spends on Christmas. Not only the cost of all the partying. Not only the drinking sessions among friends. Not only the family reunions. Not only the neighborhood block parties and street dances.
Because we Filipinos just love Christmas and we start dreaming of a “white” Christmas even before other countries can celebrate Halloween, we’re already at it pretty early. The early start to the fun means late nights and long drinking bouts. Shopping sprees are the order of the season. We buy not only new clothes for the children but also a lot of other things for everyone else on our gift list.
Of course, the merchants just love it. They just enjoy seeing us all go nuts and go all out and make everyone happy and in a good mood. And why not, it’s Christmas.
But there’s a hidden cost, or at least one that’s not seen by all of us. That’s the drop in productivity among us workers.
The early carousing and celebrating make us all slow down. The nearly daily hangovers, the fatigue from all activities associated with Christmas, the toll of walking all those kilometers of shopping, bargaining and hauling our bagsfull of goodies make us all lose energy and affect our performance at our workplaces. Our bodies slow down and are unable to perform at top efficiency. And often, our minds aren’t focused on our work because we’re constantly dreaming of Christmas, even in the daytime. Just anticipating all the fun saps our energy.
Office bosses know it, the boards of directors know it, the stockholders know it. They can measure the drop in productivity in our offices, factories, stores and all other places of business. Even our teachers slow down, our firefighters, our policemen. Everybody just slows down to a lower rate of performance.
Don’t call me a killjoy. Christmas is fun and it’s not more fun anywhere else than in the Philippines. But there’s a heavy cost to it. I don’t know the peso equivalent in lost productivity or lost revenues, but it’s got to be tremendous.
It would be fun, by the way, to find out what Pope Francis thinks about our overly long Christmas celebration when he visits in January. Could someone please ask his Holiness whether the longest Christmas in all of mankind is a good thing or not?
It’s estimated that lost productivity (and fuel costs) caused by stalled traffic on roads in Metro Manila alone amount to more than P137 billion a year. Maybe some research outfit can come up with a similar study (if there isn’t one already) on how much is lost in labor output here during our long Christmas season, the longest in the whole world.
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Happy Christmas to all Balita Readers, to relatives and friends in Canada, to Publisher and Editor in Chief Tess Cusipag and Family, and everyone who puts together every issue of Balita!
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