As the world embraces the festive season with bright lights adorning our streets, joyful Christmas music filling our playlists, gifts overflowing from under our tree – we start to feel the Christmas spirit uplift us despite the rush and bustle of getting things done.  It brings us an overflow of goodness and generosity that brings us to think more about how to delight people in our lives and share that feeling of being blessed! Many of us even go beyond our immediate family to share goodness to the communities and people outside our homes who are in need.

For at the heart of Christmas is the greatest gift given to us by God, our Father – Jesus Christ. He walked this world two thousand years ago with a heart of compassion – feeding the hungry, healing the sick and breaking people from the chains of sin. His life teaches us to reach out to those in need and spread hope to others!

At Human Nature, through the years, we’ve kept traditions of Christmas giving – even during the challenging time of the pandemic when we could not be 100% physically present. We’re sure you and your families also have your own too! In fact some of what we will share were inspired by the traditions of others. So let’s keep these wonderful traditions of giving alive so we can help more communities. 

Christmas with our Commonwealth, Quezon City Flagship Store Neighbors
Inspired by our daily breakfast with neighbors at our Commonwealth flagship store and offices where we share simple pan de sal, itlog and kape to the community around us every morning – we thought we would culminate this every Christmas with a joyful Paskuhan. Right at our parking lot at 7am, a few days before Christmas, we would prepare a feast of Christmas cheer. With the help of each department, our employees would prepare food to share, songs and dances to entertain and games for the children. The festivities would end with loot bags to take home for the children and Noche Buena packs for the families.

Although the pandemic halted the celebration itself we continued to distribute Noche Buena packs to the families around us. Thankfully in 2022, we were finally able to continue with a simpler program still with fellowship, sharing of the gospel and families receiving our Christmas pack.

Children’s Joy Foundation
During one of our Christmas Paskuhan, we invited the children from Children’s Joy Foundation to perform for our neighbors. They were a hit not only among our neighbors but also with our employees. Their Christmas carols were always filled to the brim with Christmas cheer and energy. This became the start of our continued partnership and support for them. When we could not have them over during the pandemic, we brought Christmas to them throughout the year. We are happy to once again have them at our Christmas parties this year. It is like having family over once again!

Hope Boxes for Sitio Hemedez
Inspired by a Saddleback Church Christmas tradition, we engage our employees to prepare Hope Boxes for children of families in Sitio Hemedez, Sta. Rosa, Laguna – a community where we have daily feeding for our children from our offices in Laguna. The concept of this tradition is for our employees to fill up one or more boxes with gifts specifically for certain ages – to be given to the children of this community. Our employees lovingly assemble a combination of hygiene kits, clothing, and goodies, aiming to sprinkle joy into the Christmas celebrations of these children. We also extended our giving to 200 families with Noche Buena packs, sharing the love of Christ through the gift of food.

As we reflect on our traditions of Christmas giving and bring the joy of Christ’s birth to others, we’d love to hear about yours. How do you celebrate this special season of giving to communities around you? Your stories and traditions warm our hearts. Share with us at pastoralcare@humanheartnature.com with subject: Our Christmas Tradition of Giving and allow us to share it in our Facebook page so we can Let Love Shine Bright!