I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. But not in the usual way.

For some reason, Christmas seems to be the favourite holiday for most younger people here in Singapore, not just among Christians, but among the heathen as well. Even though a lot of young Chinese like Chinese New Year (thanks to ang pow power), Christmas is special. Only Christmas gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Only Christmas brings you that romantic sense of happiness. Only Christmas makes you feel that misty sense of well-being, that life is still worth living, at least for another year (until the next Christmas).

I think it only has a little to do with the story of Christmas itself, the story of one who was born to save the world in sacrifice. Sure, for Christians it’s a big deal, but non-Christian folk don’t bother about this.

Maybe it’s the music that you start to hear come December. Unlike the jarring cacophonous noises you endure during Chinese New Year (they claim it’s music), the silent nights, where all is calm, and all is bright, where people dream, of white Christmases - the music of Christmas may have a somewhat calming, and possibly sedative effect on many.

Or perhaps it’s also because of the nice cool weather of December which makes you want to ignore the alarm clock feature on your handphone and perhaps you can actually sleep on for once because you have excess leave which you need to clear before the year is over.

Then maybe it’s also because it’s the end of the year where things can wind down a little, and combined with holidays and festivities and the leave you’re clearing (and your boss is clearing and your client is clearing), the stressful work so common here in Singapore can afford to wait for once.

And unlike other holidays, it seems like more people change their MSN nicks to reflect the season. Like this girl whom I noticed put “30 days to go!” for her nick. Then “29 day to go!” (You get the picture.) It was something like “6 more days to go!” before it dawned on me that she was counting down to Christmas. Less interesting and more predictable nicks included “Merry Christmas”, “I [heart] Xmas”, “Christmas is my favourite festival!”, and so on.

Then there’s this guy with “Merry Fucking Xmas”. I didn’t ask him if he meant the second word literally - if he did, then he probably meant the first one literally as well. Otherwise it must be that he wasn’t quite a fan of Christmas, at least this one.

And really I don’t see why that many people should be a fan of Christmas.

Christmas is the time when you have to do your Christmas shopping. And it’s terribly packed at Taka and OG and Robinsons and everywhere else you go and you’re not sure what to buy for your 10 or 20 or 30 friends who are also worried about what to buy for their 10 or 20 or 30 friends and every shop is screaming XMAS SALE!!! but you can’t figure out which one is screaming the truth and good luck to you if you’re working at Taka and OG and Robinsons and everywhere else people go to do their shopping. Ho ho ho.

And then if you’re some popular guy like I am *cough* you’d get invited to so many Christmas parties that you don’t know which one to attend and which one you thus have to miss and thus disappoint or offend some people. Or if you’re like me, you end up deciding to miss all of them and you stay home instead and blog about Christmas.

And while you’re trying to blog your deep insights about Christmas, your trains of thought keep getting derailed by the phone vibrating in your pants (the pocket) because you just got an SMS which tells you to have a merry Christmas but you’re getting cheesed off instead because you’re trying to blog but your trains of thought keep getting derailed…

Where was I?