When I was a child living in the Philippines the Christmas season was my favorite time of the year. As you know by now, I was born in the Philippines and my family and I immigrated to America when I was 11 years old. To this day, I still speak Tagalog fluently and I still crave Filipino food regularly. However, at this point in my life, I consider myself as culturally American. In other words, my point-of-view on how things should work has been greatly influenced and shaped by American culture, its thinking, and its traditions. However, there is one thing that the Philippines does the best (in my opinion), and it’s something I truly miss every year around this time ever since my family moved here — the Filipino Christmas season. Frankly, the Filipino Christmas season completely dwarfs the American one in its festivities.
The Filipino Christmas season often starts as early as the month of September. By this time it’s normal to see Christmas decorations popping up in parks, public spaces, shopping malls, and houses across the country. Also, you begin hearing Christmas songs being played on radio and television programs, and the markets and street food vendors start making and selling traditional Filipino Christmas desserts and sweets — like bibingka and puto bumbong. At this point, the majority of Filipinos begin to anticipate and prepare for the celebrations that will happen in the month of December.
By December, the Christmas season is in full swing. Filipino houses are fully decorated with Christmas lights around their peripheries, a decorated Christmas tree with presents under it stands in each living room, and a parol (a Christmas decoration that is unique to the Philippines) is hanging by every front door. At night, groups of kids go house to house in different neighborhoods with their makeshift instruments made out of woods, rocks, and bottle caps to sing Christmas carols for a small amount of money (though not common, the family could choose not to give anything). In workplaces, they often throw Christmas parties where either employees bring home-cooked dishes for everyone else to enjoy, potluck style, or food is catered by the company for its employees to enjoy; and perhaps some gift giving amongst employees takes place.
The first night mass (which takes place at 10:00 pm) starts on the 16th of December and continues every night until the 24th of December (Christmas Eve) — a total of nine night masses. These masses are an event of their own. They take place across the country, and pretty much everyone in the country observes them*. I remember going to them with my family as a child, and I was always in awe of the large number of families who also went to the church for them. In fact, I do not remember a time when my family and I were able to get a spot inside the church for these masses. Like many of the other families, we had to try to hear the mass outside of the church building. My father told me once that this was okay as long as we were still in church grounds and could still hear the priest. Once the mass is over the people and their families exit the church building and its grounds and pour out to the main street, where they all are greeted by street food vendors cooking and selling bibingka and puto bumbong. Many of the families stop to buy and snack on them before heading home — it’s a pretty cool tradition.
Personally, the Christmas season tradition I enjoyed the most is the one that happens on Christmas Eve. Most families wake up early in the morning to start a day that is filled with home cooking. A big feast is prepared all day and well into the night to be enjoyed at midnight — to welcome Christmas Day. Some families, if they can afford it, will spit-roast a whole pig. A fire is started on the ground, and bricks are placed on both sides of it to accommodate the ends of the hefty long bamboo that skewers the pig. The pig is roasted over the fire by a person rotating it regularly. This process takes several hours until the pig is cooked. We call this dish lechon and it’s prepared and cooked for special occasions. Once all of the food has been prepared and midnight is about to come, the food is arranged on a big dining table. The feast happens as soon as the clock hits 12 o’clock. Usually, my family and my uncle’s family would be enjoying the feast at our house. After the feast, the presents can then be opened…
I realized long ago that I can’t ever duplicate the Filipino Christmas of my childhood here in America. However, Kubo Queen and I have made a conscious effort to boil down what Christmas really means to both of us. To us, Christmas is about spending quality time with our families and giving them, not only gifts, but also our time, our attention, and our energy.
This year, we put up a gorgeous Christmas tree decorated with Kubo Queen’s father’s lights and ornaments, which he has owned for about 30 years now! And, of course, Christmas Day was full of fun. Kubo Queen and I prepared a feast for dinner. We cooked asparagus, made dinner rolls from scratch, baked potatoes (loaded with butter, sour cream, and cheese), and roasted some good dry-aged prime rib (see the picture!). Kubo Queen’s parents brought the red wine, and her uncle brought homemade pumpkin pies (we whipped cream from scratch for it). It was a tasty feast. Everyone had a second slice of prime rib!
Of course, we did get some nice presents too. One of my favorite gifts this Christmas was given by Kubo Queen. She got me Julia Child’s two-volume book set Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It’s a truly wonderful gift because I’ve been wanting to learn French cooking for a while now, and Julia Child’s books were my main choice for a resource. Another one was given by her parents. It was a fancy German knife set from Henckels. I was very impressed with both of them. In fact, two days after Christmas I put both of them to use by cooking a recipe from the books — Boeuf Bourguignon. It was delicious! It had a very rich and complexed flavor. I do love home cooking. So I will definitely be using these gifts regularly for years to come. Meanwhile, Kubo Queen also received some great gifts. One of them was a Dutch Oven for artisan bread baking and another was the book Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Just like me, she put them to use right away by baking a wonderful artisan bread (see picture above!).
Anyway, giving and receiving gifts is not as important to me as seeing the people I value happy and healthy. Honestly, to me, the best part of any important occasion is cooking a feast and having people around to enjoy it with me. This is something that Kubo Queen and I will be doing for Christmas for many years to come.
* The Philippines is approximately 90 percent Christians, and 80 percent of those are Catholics. It is the third largest Catholic nation after Brazil and Mexico.
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