Christmas is just around the corner and almost everyone has a reason to hold a Christmas party, may it be at school, office, church, neighborhood, etc. Just to have an excuse to have a celebration.
One of the most important thing for this celebration is exchanging gifts, or the monita-monito. This tradition has been around since time immemorial and in this modern technology era, it still being practiced. However, I noticed that although the thought is still there, variations have been applied maybe due to necessity or for practical reasons. Given the present worldwide economic crisis, you couldn’t just let go that easily of your P500 worth of gift. So to make sure that you will be getting what you really want, most people will openly tell to everyone what he wishes to have as a gift. In this scenario, the giver wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of looking for the “perfect gift” which we all know will mostly be not, but will come up with the gift that his monito will surely appreciate.
Let’s take an example from my husband’s office exchange gift tradition. One night he arrived with a brand-new laptop heating pad. I asked if the one that we own is broken, but he told me that it is for his monito because it’s what his monito asked for. For him, he requested his monito for a wireless LAN USB Adapter with access point function so that he can share internet access from anywhere. And this made me wonder why don’t they just buy whatever they want and go away with this tradition once and for all! They use this tradition as an excuse to get the things that they want, which they cannot buy under normal situation. I still remember one of our company exchange gift 6 or 7 years ago. I requested for P200 worth of disposable diapers for my kids. At least I was able to fully realize my money’s worth, not just one of those displays that will accumulate dust overtime. That’s practicality!
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