Hafa adai — and happy holidays from wherever you’re listening. For those of us from Guam, this season is as much about memory as it is about celebration. Even as we spread across states and time zones, there’s an invisible thread that pulls us back to the island, to the small rituals we grew up with and the bigger traditions that shaped the rhythm of our December. This week on My Jungle Voices, the three of us — Steve nursing a cold, me on the edge of catching it, and Therese safely out of reach — ended up talking about those rituals we carried, the ones we lost, and the ones that still surprise us when they show up far from home.

Some traditions were loud and unmistakable: Skinner Plaza lit up in full glow, Santa riding through villages on a fire truck tossing candy, midnight Mass that technically justified opening gifts the minute you got home. Others were quieter — novenas that stretched across December, neighbors singing carols with guitars and island shirts, the Santa Niño making the rounds from house to house with a kiss and a donation you didn’t realize your parents had been giving all along. These small rituals stitched the season together, creating a version of Christmas that was unmistakably ours.

And then there were the traditions that revealed themselves only when we left. In Virginia, no one shows up unexpectedly to sing carols on your porch. In Hawaii, carolers still gather outside Obama’s house, but in most mainland neighborhoods, the idea of neighbors walking door to door singing is almost quaint. Even school rituals — like the Santa Maria Kamalen December 8 procession — never translated off-island. What’s ordinary on Guam is extraordinary anywhere else, and sometimes that contrast reminds us of the cultural richness we once took for granted.

But the heart of our conversation wasn’t nostalgia — it was connection. Whether it’s Operation Christmas Drop continuing as a decades-long act of generosity, volunteers bringing gifts to kids in the hospital, or families recreating their own version of home wherever they land, the spirit remains the same. Guam’s Christmas traditions aren’t just practices; they’re ways of looking after each other. And wherever we are now, we carry that instinct with us. If anything, this episode reminded us that the season feels most real when we remember where we came from — and invite others into the warmth of it.