DESPITE his busy schedule, Mo Twister is breezing through the holidays with his sunny attitude intact.--Even if he abhors the thick crowd of holiday shoppers!

''I don't do any Christmas shopping! I'm not a shopper at all! I don't even shop for my birthday,'' Mo grins, then clarifies: ''If I need to get anything for Christmas, I tell my Mom to get it for me. She loves buying gifts for people. I don't like buying shoes and clothes. I'm not a good gift-giver. I don't have the creative mind to buy gifts. I don't normally know what people want and I don't want to ask them.

''But sometimes I want my family or my girlfriend to feel special and gift-giving should come from the heart so I do a little shopping on my own. If it's for my friends and the other DJs at the station, I just buy a lot of something that's usually generic.

''I don't get a lot of birthday and Christmas gifts but I get a lot of gifts within the year. People give me gifts spontaneously--which is better, because if you give gifts during the holidays, it's already expected,'' he reveals.

A glint of mischief and excitement passes Mo's eyes as he talks about Christmas. ''Christmas is the best time of the year! Worldwide, the spirit is definitely there--but there is a big physical difference between Christmases here and abroad. The Christmas trees there are fresh and you can smell them. Here, the Christmas trees are plastic but there's Noche Buena. Here, we go to Simbang Gabi for nine days, but there we only go to Mass on Christmas Day.

''Gift-giving is universal but Filipinos celebrate more even if we have less. Some people are very poor but on Christmas, they shine. If I were an American and I had money, I'd copy the way we celebrate Christmas,'' he ponders on the thought, then continues: ''Filipinos make fewer Christmas movies than Americans. I guess we're not into Christmas movies but we're into the whole Christmas thing! When I hear Christmas songs, I can't help but sing along, too. I dialed 114 (PLDT's information) yesterday and they put me on hold for 30 minutes and I hated that. But they were playing good Christmas songs so I didn't mind waiting. Everything is different in December!''

Christmas is not the only thing that leaves him awe-struck. Interviewing celebrities as a DJ on dwTM occasionally renders him speechless.

''I was 18, turning 19 when I became a DJ so I didn't know the first thing about doing interviews,'' Mo recalls. ''When Will Smith dropped by the station, I was star-struck. I asked him a very stupid question. Will introduced me to his wife and I said, 'So this is your wife, so you guys are married?' Will patted me and said, 'Yeah, you gain a wife when you marry, Mo.' I was so embarrassed.

''Then my next interview was with the band, Rizal Underground. I was so nervous, I almost had a seizure. And again, I asked stupid questions. Then a couple of days later, Janet Jackson showed up at the station. I sounded like an idiot but towards the middle of the interview, Janet and I gelled and I think we had a fairly good conversation.

"Janet is sexy and Michael Jackson's sister but after awhile, I realized that she was very 'human.' We had things in common even if she was famous. From that interview, I gained more confidence and I knew that I could interview anybody after that. I interviewed South Border and Vanna Vanna after that, but I got nervous again when Martin Nievera came by because I knew he was good. I tried to beat Martin in the talking department but I couldn't,'' he sighs.

''Yes, I'm young but I have to be at a level where I have to be the best because I'm competing with people who are either younger or older than me. I can never be a Richard Gomez or a Martin Nievera but at least I can think I can be like them. Dreaming is free!''

Believing in himself made Mo land hosting jobs for ''Points of View,'' ''Cyberkada'' and ''Sabado Live.'' He believes that being ribbed and teased by his family at the dinner table prepared him for the job.

''The dining table is where everything happens in our family! It's in front of the TV, so we can talk, eat and watch TV together. Sometimes, it's not the food that you look forward to but the conversation. If somebody did something dumb that week, then we will talk about it. Nobody has walked out because he got mad. And we also get praised at our dining table. There has to be a balance and that's what makes it great. It's called soul food!

''When I'm with my family, I can still pretend that I'm young, even if I'm 21. That's something that I don't want to lose. Moments with my family are priceless!''