Christmas is just around the corner and it is the season once again to hang colorful bright lights and decorate the Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments. Houses and city streets truly are glamed out once the holiday season’s approach. Bazaars and sales pop up here and there, as this is the peak season for the retail sector as well as the commercial airlines, which will be serving people trying to get home to their families in time for the gathering and gift giving on the 25th.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year again, that even if the weather gets colder, the simple touch of the cool breeze upon one’s skin brings a certain joy in our hearts. Just knowing that you will be surrounded with your loved ones during this holiday is truly the cherry on top of another fantastic and productive year.
Did you know the term “12 days of Christmas” is not really meant to be a countdown until Christmas day? Originally, the season was derived from Yuletide, which runs from December 25 to January 6 (Epiphany/Commemoration of the Three Kings.) So if you’ve finally check off everyone on your list, grab cup of hot choco because we’ve prepared a little something to warm you up. Here’s another list of anime to pump up your Christmas spirit of stories about romance, family, unconditional love and second chances that you should watch before Christmas.
1. Itsudatte My Santa!
(Always My Santa!)
Until when should you keep on serving milk and cookies for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve? Do people just really outgrow the images in our heads that someone will be sent to bring us happiness during Christmas?
Ken Akamatsu created a one-chapter story about a girl named Mai, a Santa-in-training, who came across a boy, named Santa. He hated Christmas and was coincidently born a day before it, his family was never there to celebrate his birthday or this festive season with him. So Mai, who is a student at the Santa Clause Academy, was given a mission to cheer up the lonely boy this year. A mission to make him happy for a day or two that turned out to be a lifetime as they both unexpectedly they fell in love with each other.
Blowing the candles on the cake during your birthdays and opening gifts and eating delicious food during Christmas are only a few things that Santa experienced for the first time with Mai. Now Santa has someone to kiss under the mistletoe and he will always have someone to be with during these kinds of events, events that are truly best spent with your loved ones.
- Episodes: 2
- Aired: Dec. 2005
Official Trailer Not Available
2. Chocotto Sister
Is there really a guideline on how to become a better brother or sister? We all know it is inevitable to fight with them one way or another, whether it’s as small as not sharing your toys or your younger sibling tore a page from your favorite book. Sibling arguments are bound to happen but what’s important is the love and forgiveness. After all your brothers and sisters are your first best friends, they will always be on top of your best buddy list even as an adult, because growing up with each other is something that no one other person can compete with.
I’m sure you have a friend or have met someone who is an only child, didn’t you? Its true, they may get all the love and attention and pretty much all that money can buy but deep down inside sometimes they wish they have someone to play with.
Source: MyAnimeList
This story revolves around Haruma Kawagoe, who wished for a younger sister after his mom suffered a miscarriage followed by a Hysterectomy. Several years later, Santa Clause delivered the sister that he wished for, Santa said it took her a while because making little girls takes a lot more time than making just any regular toy. The little girl came with a manual on how she can be a little sister, since she is looking at the manual many times, Haruma named her Choko (ちょこ), which derives from “Anchoko" (means manual in Japanese).
The story then goes on about family and sibling love, they were so close with each other to the point that she even gets jealous when another girl gets her brother’s attention. Choko may not be blood-related to Haruma and his family, but despite all that, they loved her will all their hearts because she truly an angel sent from above.
- Episodes: 24
- Aired: Jul. 2006 - Dec. 2006
Official Free Episode 1 (Japanese Only)
3. Tokyo Godfathers
The story rotates around the adventure of these three, as it took them one step closer to finding the parents of Kiyoko, meaning “pure heart”. A dramatic twist led them to finding the Sachiko, the mother of the baby, about to jump off the bridge. She told them, that she and her husband were on the verge of separating and thought that maybe by having a baby will bring them back closer. Unfortunately when she became pregnant, the baby that she was carrying died and so in her grief, she decided to steal a baby from the hospital. Sachiko insisted that her husband took the baby away from her without her knowledge and never brought it back home.
In the end, the husband asked for forgiveness and if they could start all over again. Koyoko was returned to the original and longing parents and asked the three to be her godparents; they also decided not to file any charges against Sachiko and her husband.
- Episodes: 1
- Aired: Aug. 2003
Official Trailer
Christmas season is about giving and not receiving and no one in this world will choose anything materialistic over the overwhelming feeling of love. Remember that on Christmas day, we gather to remember how blessed and loved we are, not through those gifts wrapped in decorative papers but through those people whose arms are wrapped around you. Don’t forget to give thanks for the family and friends that are given to us, after all, they are the ones who really make these events unforgettable!