From spending time with one’s family to extending help to his favorite charity. Beyond merrymaking, Filipinos are also bent on making this Yuletide season more meaningful.

abs-cbnNEWS.com asked around to find out how people will make this Christmas a different but memorable one.

I want to help cancer patients, I want to serve them, help them.  Feeling ko kasi napaka-helpless nila. Marami sa kanila my chances pa pero wala silang mgawa kasi wala silang pangtustos sa medication nila. [Kapag ako] yumaman, ang unang beneficiary ko ay ang cancer society. - Joy Kristine Viduya, BPI/MS employee

Gusto kong abutan ng lapis ang lahat ng bata sa pinakaliblib na pook sa Pilipinas, turuan silang gumuhit at sumulat ng pangarap.  - Mon Corpuz, Black Pencil Project co-founder

I would probably make my patients’ day happy, brighten up their day, to make them feel somebody care for them even if they are in a hospital. -  Myra Elvira Rio, nurse, Royal London Hospital

I’m looking forward to a new life kasi this is the first time in 10 years that im spending Christmas with a very special person. - someone I'll be with forever. Mediatrix Cristobal, Philippine News Agency reporter

I'm making my Christmas more meaningful by meeting someone I haven't seen in a long time. – TJ Dimacali, copywriter at a Makati-based ad agency

This is the first Christmas that my family and I will spend without my sister. For the past years, we would just stay in the house and cook a lot of food. Now that my sister is working in the United States as a photographer in a cruise liner, we would do the same here but have less food on the table. -  Paolo Capino, government employee

It would be good to volunteer some time with the less fortunate, in my case abandoned children. Also, we should use the time to reflect on our lives – Alcuin Papa, Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter

Last year, kami lang [ng husband ko], si Aries, ‘yong tita niya 'tsaka [ang anak kong] si Tim ang nag-celebrate dito ng Christmas. Medyo malungkot. Kaya, this year, papapuntahin ko dito si Mama at si ate para at least mas marami kaming mag-celebrate. – Florence Chua, office assistant, DragonBack Capital Limited in Hong Kong