Christmas is a special day for pine trees, since it's the only time of year that they're allowed inside the house.

Yet, the efforts to cover the trees with colorful lights, silvery balls and other glowing things is as important as the whole meaning of Christmas for some.

You'd be surprised at just how big the pine trees can be in big malls -- usually watched over by guys wearing black and green stockings, whose employer is often clad in a red and white suit and laughs a lot. Even so, there seems to be a consensus of what people should actually do at Christmas, formed by tradition, and quite oddly, the half a dozen Christmas movies played by local TV stations every December throughout the decade.

Most churches and cathedrals are usually filled with people offering prayers in the morning, while devoted Christians often spend the entire day (and night) doing different things as a community -- exchanging gifts and watching their children acting in a nativity scene at school or at church.

Whatever they're doing, it's a Christmas celebration and it's fun.

Christmas movies, called so by many due to the apparent Christmas nuances and time settings, and more often than not containing a number of key factors -- a particular bearded old man who's not just wise but also forgiving, piles of snow everywhere, pine/Christmas trees, and last but not least, things wrapped up in boxes, bound tightly in beautiful ribbon, and put under the tree or stuffed inside giant stockings.

Mellow actresses like Sandra Bullock and heavyweight action icons like Arnold Schwarzenegger grace such movies with similar ideas -- the perfect gift.

It is undeniable that gifts are the next most crucial things at Christmas. Gift-giving, originated from the Western culture of exchanging gifts on special days, is also popular at Christmas -- where the action makes the day typically the largest annual economic stimulus for many nations with the "Christmas Shopping Season" starting on what is referred to the U.S. as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

And gifts can be as abstract as you want at Christmas -- an energy saving nine-watt lightbulb for those wanting a bright Christmas, white paint for the White Christmas geek and even the whole 12 series of old Charles Bronson movies for a Christmas Movie Marathon Special with some friends. And, of course, there are those little kisses under the mistletoe, but let's talk about that some other time.

-- JP/Er Audy Zandri

Popular

Hundreds of kitchens halt services due to 'pause' in free meals funds

Number of forcibly displaced people dips to 118 million: UN

Failed system, fake research