Where is the Spirit of Christmas?

I remember the times when we were kids and here comes the Chistmas Season. Me and my cousins and some friends gather together as we organize the group and prepare for Christmas caroling around the village. Caroling starts December 16 until Christmas day so we have to make some good preparations because it's gonna last for more than a week. Specially because there were competitors since other groups were also formed by kids in the neighboring villages. After some practice using improvised drums and tambourines, we sing our Christmas Carols from house to house, one after the other. We are proud to see our neighbors smiling as they watch us and listen to our carols. After a song or two, they give us some pennies. Some give us some, some give us pretty good amount. We keep it until the last day of caroling and what ever the amount we come up with, it will be divided among the members of the group. But it doesn't really matter. What matters most is the joy that the season brings to everyone. To me, it's our friendship that become stronger as the spirit of Christmas binds us together.

But nowadays, it's a whole lot different. I just can't believe what i've observed in the couple of years in celebrating this special Holiday. Of all the carolers who came by our house, there were only 3 or 4 kids who come in groups. Most of them do it alone. And most of them don't even have any improvised music instrument to sing their carols. They come in front of our house, one after the other, and without even finishing one song the kid will say "Namamasko Po!" (Merry Christmas!) as he expects for some penny. I have to admit that for some reasons,it is so annoying to see that they really intend to go alone to keep whatever they got for themselves. I tried to talk to some of those kids and i was surprised to learn that they were friends, neighbors and some of them are even cousins. I said to my self - what's happening here?. It's like a syndicate who's robbing you unconsciously using the Holidays as a reason in doing it legally. And they keep on coming every night singing the very same Unfinished Christmas Carol. I can't even remember our group, when we were kids, that we come to the same house more than once for the whole season. Those kids, they are legal robbers! So what used to be a season of Hope and Joy turns out to be a season of Shame and Realization.

I felt so sorry for those kids but we can't blame them. Perhaps they were told to do it that way for a kid to raise his own money to buy something he wish to have for Christmas because his parents cannot afford to buy it for him. We can't blame the government either. Poverty is everywhere whatever the season is. It is the parents' responsibility to teach their kids how to do it properly so as to bring joy to the neighborhood and spread the spirit that the season brings. Happiness is a state of mind. If people could only think the value of the season more than the value of how much they could get from it, we could all have a Very Merry Chistmas for the years and years to come.