Merry Christmas, Sir!

Christmas in the Philippines brings out the, ahem, opportunity to give cash gifts to those who perform services for you.

This is not all bad. It's a chance for those who have to share with those who work hard and still don't have much. But drawing the line is difficult.

Shelly has been advised not to give a gift of cash, lest we become a good source of "loans" down the road, so we've given booze to the male service employees in our lives and shoes to the female service employees in our lives.

Bobby, our driver, got a good bottle of his favorite brandy. The pool cleaner and the gardener each got a bottle of rum. The guards at the village gate got a bottle of rum, too, which I suspect they'll share at their own Christmas party or by splitting up the gifts that neighborhood residents have given them. The housekeepers got shoes. Each of these gifts is worth at least one day's salary. Bobby's is worth close to two days' salary.

The telephone company courier gave us an envelope for his cash gift. The mailman also gave us an envelope for a cash gift. The telephone company courier, when he delivered this month's phone bill, asked me if he could have his "Christmas envelope." The way I look at it, he's not doing us a service; he's doing the telephone company a service, and that's where he should look for his gift.

But then I feel guilty. What's a hundred pesos to me? What's it worth to him? But, we've held the line there.

One guy who did get a cash gift from us this year was Cris, the helpful guy who is seemingly *always* working at the bank after hours, providing security and customer service to those using the ATM. He's there so often that we're on a first name basis now. Cris always stops traffic for me to back the car up, he's always friendly (genuinely, I think) and he studies an English dictionary while at work so he "can learn more difficult words so he can speak with foreigners better."

You can tell it's Christmas time at the grocery store, too. It's nearly impossible to get out of the store right now without one of the ubiquitous baggers carrying your groceries to the car for you. Most of the rest of the year, it's easy enough to bypass them, but right now they're working hard for tips. And at a tip of 15 or 20 pesos (25 to 35 cents), I'm glad to let them carry my purchases for me.

As I said, it's Christmas, the time of giving -- giving cash. It's part of life in the Philippines.

A column by John Mangun in the December 15 Business Mirror says that the Philippine Bureau of Immigration has implemented a new policy "instruct[ing] all immigration supervisors at the airports to refrain from extending holiday greetings to passengers lest this be misconstrued as asking for gifts or money."

"At first glance, this certainly seems like a silly idea," Mangun writes. "What is wrong with a government official welcoming arriving passengers at our international airport with a casual holiday greeting? Most foreign international travelers might even see this lack of greeting as an indication that the Philippines is not as warm and friendly as our reputation leads them to expect. But we all know the truth.

"Christmas is a time in the Philippines when everyone becomes your friend. The security guard that normally considers lifting the gate at the village entrance an inconvenience suddenly runs to accomplish the task. Smiles fill the faces of city employees behind the glass windows at hte office servicing the public. 'Merry Christmas' is not a greeting; it is a reminder of your holiday obligation to give. It is almost as if you are expected to pay for someone wishing that your Christmas is merry.

"The foreigners coming into NAIA do not know that is part of our culture, but we all do. A public employee with a 'Merry Christmas' on their lips usually has their eyes on your wallet."

So with that, Merry Christmas, sir! Merry Christmas, ma'am! I accept both cash and checks.