Puentespina Now Selling Poinsettias At SM City Davao

SM City Davao has made its (indoor) surroundings more "Christmasey" by allowing Puentespina Garden to display differently-colored Poinsettia flowers along its escalator. Anyone taking the escalator just in front of Watsons can feast his eyes on the eye-popping Poinsettias on display.

The Poinsettias are available in different sizes and there is a size for everyone's budget. The 12-cm Poinsettia pot is priced at P75, 15-cm pot at P100 (fancy) or P150 (select), 18-cm pot at P180 (select) or P220 (super select) and the 24-cm pot both available for P300 and P400.

Poinsettias have become a permanent fixture during the Christmas season and it is widely available in Davao City despite the fact that it is a native plant of Mexico. It was introduced to the United States in 1825 by US Ambassador to Mexico Joel Roberts Poinsett (thus the name Poinsettia).

White it has always been called Poinsettia in the Philippines, it is also known as Noche Buena, Pascua and Christmas Star in other countries.

Davao malls all set for X'mas

The various malls and department stores in Davao City are all prepped up for the Holiday Season and each is outdoing the other in terms of their Christmas displays. Talk about commercializing Christmas!

SM City Davao has a nice display of various Christmas trees in all colors. The usual color motif for Christmas trees are red, white, orange and blue. If you want to be different this year, yu an buy the black Christmas balls and otehr blak decorations to math your white Christmas tree right at SM.

Gaisano Mall of Davao reserved their Atrium or activity area for all your Christmas decoration needs and the items are so far cheaper than SM. However, no one can beat the 10% discount offered by JS Citimall on all Christmas decorations so hurry while they still have some wonderful pieces. The JS Citimall display is not as extensive as SM City though.

NCCC Mall has the best Christmas display as they usually have a theme for their decorations so expect similar patterns within the Mall.

That Meralco ad

That Christmas advertisement from Meralco has got me and the not-so-bitter-half into some kind of an argument. I never really gave a serious thought to that advertisement which looked simple enough. The scenario: two neighbors, one neighbor lighting up his Christmas lights in tiem for the Holiday Season to the chagrin of his neighbor who, it appeared, was already prepared to give his neighbor a run for his money---errr---Christmas lights! Neighbor No. 1 looked pitiful when his minimal lights were dwarfed by his neighbor's lights which almost engulfed the whole house! Talk about lighting extragavance!

So what's the point here?

The not-so-bitter-half said it is a bad ad because it shows the Pinoys' crab mentality. Well, yes I said it indeed reflected a bad attitude among Pinoys. Despite our lovable characteristics, we Pinoys are faulted for pulling down our neighbors whenever we see their success overshadowing our own success. I said me because I believe that no one is exempted from this fault!

But come to think of it, I told him. It is easy to say it's a bad ad because it does portray a bad side of the Filipinos. But what if we take it positively and say that it is really good to be jealous of the success of our neighbors--sometimes. Especially if this jealousy pushes us to do more and to achieve more to be at par with the neighbor. Of course, uncontrolled yearning for material things without the cpaability of earning more can be disastrous because it can only lead one to DEBTS!!! But what if you use all your talent to find more work to earn more and to make life better for the family?

Some people become so content and complacent with what they have that they remain poor forever. Is it bad to yearn for things that can make your life better?

Well, that Meralco ad is not so bad after all.