Let me tell you about these little furoshiki (cloth-wrapped) gifts, and why I'm doing this in the middle of November. Hint: It's probably because I'm Filipino.
It's no secret that Filipinos love Christmas. Our holiday season starts the moment the "-ber" months roll around (that is, September). This means that each year, we get four months of Christmas countdowns, carols on the radio and in stores, and red-and-green decor everywhere.
If this sounds like a nightmare to you, completely understandable. Not everyone enjoys "All I Want for Christmas" every day for four months. I know a few people whose ears would bleed. And that tune is supposed to entice us to stay in malls and buy more? Mkay.
But Pinoys love Christmas for a simple reason: it's the most wholesome excuse to be in party mode. At this point, really, we'll take any excuse to be festive, gather around a table of food, and marvel at sparkling lights.
Filipino kids typically grow up this way, learning from the start of our lives that the holiday season is wonderful and magical and a treat for everyone. We carry that wide-eyed perspective into adulthood, even though sometimes, as adults, we translate that into booze-fueled disgrace.
But no matter how fucked up we become, I think there's a core innocence in us that glows again just as the Christmas trees start lighting up. An affinity for the simple, the happy, the wholesome. A fondness for the warm-fuzzies.
Which brings me to this little gift exchange I had last week with my closest friends. In the Philippines, it isn't strange at all to give presents this early, but also not super common. We usually reserve the Kris Kringle for the days leading up to December 25th, like a "12 Days of Christmas" thing. But one of my friends is set to relocate soon and might not be in the country for Christmas, so we thought, "Alright, let's get this Christmas thing going now."
I admit: I wrapped these presents in a hurry. But honestly, it's so quick and easy to wrap gifts furoshiki-style -- that is, with reusable cloths.
A bit about furoshiki: It's the name of traditional square-shaped cloths that the Japanese use to wrap things for safekeeping or transport. Because this practice is so beautiful and practical (like many things rooted on Japanese philosophy), people from all over the world have started emulating it. Today, the term furoshiki is pretty much synonymous to the practice of wrapping things with fabric.
For these presents, I cut squares from an old shirt that was no longer fit to donate because it had a hole on one corner. It just happened to be Christmas-red with a festive print on the front!
I put my gift items in a pair of clean, lidded plastic tubs that were lying in wait in my cupboard (Ghosts of Takeout Past). There was a bit of extra space inside, so I stuffed that with cut-up paper bags. Then it was just a matter of enveloping each box with the fabric, and tying it up on top. Three knots apiece, and they were good to go.
The results were so effortlessly pretty. My knots were even kinda messy, but I still liked the look. And my friends did, too.
So that's one gift exchange done. Yes, there's going to be a few more. It's early in the season -- we'll just be ramping up Christmas from here.
See you under the twinkling lights!
h★
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