Christmas In The Philippines

@Cherryann01

We centered Jesus  on this celebration,

The midnight mass or Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo is one of the practices, caroling house to house, karaoke, Christmas parties We do sometimes outside with neighbours, we are excited in exchange it's so much fun.

We love diffrent kind of kakanin ( rice cake) on the table it made from glutinous rice. like  bibingka, Suman, puto and more

Macaroni salad, filipino spaghetti.

We have filipino communities for those working abroad.. but its not same like in the Philippines.

Home is  where our heart is. There's no place like home.  Ph🇵🇭

@Cherryann01
We centered Jesus on this celebration,
The midnight mass or Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo is one of the practices, caroling house to house, karaoke, Christmas parties We do sometimes outside with neighbours, we are excited in exchange it's so much fun.
We love diffrent kind of kakanin ( rice cake) on the table it made from glutinous rice. like bibingka, Suman, puto and more
Macaroni salad, filipino spaghetti.
We have filipino communities for those working abroad.. but its not same like in the Philippines.
Home is where our heart is. There's no place like home. Ph🇵🇭
-@Mary Jean villarin

Awh that sounds really good. We also do the Carol singing here in England,

@Cherryann01

The Philippines has the longest celebration and festivities of the Christmas Holidays in the world.

as soon as it turns September 1st, it's game on for Christmas! For Foreigners (such as myself),  especially those who might be Canadian (again, me), will likely get rather annoyed and tired with the christmas music already by November.  seriously, your senses are bombarded with it here as early as September.

In Canada, it's a serious faux pas to see or hear anything to do with Christmas before November.   

so, i recommend having high quality earbuds plugged in to your phone - blasting whatever might of your prference to drown out the christmas tunes at the Restos, Malls, and Banks.

As far as festivities are concerned,  you can expect companies and large corporations to throw large Christmas parties as early as late november and they are no joke. i would wager that just about any business has a substantial large marketing and event budget  dedicated to Christmas party more than any other team building budget or even marketing budget for that matter.

As the official Holidays draw near,  most of the masses are travelling in and out of the provinces for at least a week to celebrate the christmas festivities with their families and friends. December is arguable the busiest, chaotic and unpredictable month for travelling as the sheer volume of passengers for buses, trains and taxis overwhelm the available service providers.  always plan in advance, leave early, and have a contingency plan when shit hits the fan when it comes to travel times and means of travel.

Families and Friends alike celebrate christmas in many different ways - not always at home. its not uncommon for very large gatherings to take place at reputable high-end restaurants with reservations made days if not weeks in advance. Foods involves range from local, cultural cuisines to western cuisines, including fast food blow outs, and as long as the orders keep coming, many restaurants do not hesitate to remain open late into the night (as this means more tips for waiting staff,etc.)

New Years here in the Philippines is a sight to behold!  Fireworks events are a plenty, and are always exciting.  Expect a very slow pace of just about everything following the days right after new years. The days prior to Christmas offer a plethora of fast and upbeat pace of life as everyone has adapted the anticipated thrills of christmas - you wont find or come into contact with someone who doesnt have a pleasant or cheery demeanor during this time of the year.

Saw a news show that started the countdown of days until Christmas in September.  I was taken to be Santa by some children who had never seen a 5'10" 200lb old white guy before.  That was in a store in October.  Usually the exchange rate pesos to dollars goes down in December, best to do any exchanges by late October.  We got plenty of carolers, including a trumpet player.  Our family has big parties every month, in December the excuse is Christmas rather than birthdays or anniversaries.

I have no religion so we don't do anything involving a church but we do a lot of giving. This is the 3rd Christmas that we've had a crew here working on projects and we always have a party for them on the 24th. We cook a lot of food, have some games and karaoke then give them all a P1,000 Christmas bonus.

Last year we bagged up a lot of candy but we had some left over, possibly due to Covid restrictions. This year we bought about P4,000 worth of candy at Prince and bagged up 200 bags. That was gone the first evening the carolers began singing at our gate which was the 16th I believe. We went back to Prince and bought almost P7,000 worth of candy and the nephews and nieces bagged up 500 gift bags of candy. My wife said we are not giving out any more candy until Christmas morning. I looked at the huge amount of candy and suggested we give some out early reminding her what happened last year. She said not one bag until Christmas morning and we will not have any left over.

This morning around 8am I put on my Santa costume, my wife and 2 year son donned their elf outfits and we started handing out the bags of candy at the gate. It was gone is less than an hour. So that was 700 bags of candy in a very short time. My wife said next year we will have 1,000 bags prepared.

Moon Dog, what you do is honorable. I hope it does not offend you if when I say have a brown person don a Santa suit next time. We need to uplift the brown man's ego. The Spaniards had done enough damage for 333 years.

@Jackson4 We will probably do just as you suggest. We actually talked about her father posing as Santa this year. He has a perfect Santa belly, I have to use a pillow. It was tentatively planned for tatay to wear the suit but I ended up in the suit once again. Next year I will make it known that I'm retiring as Santa and it's tatay's turn. It would probably put the younger ones more at ease. We bought the costume years ago for use in the US and it ended up in a balikbayan box.

@Jackson4 We will probably do just as you suggest. We actually talked about her father posing as Santa this year. He has a perfect Santa belly, I have to use a pillow. It was tentatively planned for tatay to wear the suit but I ended up in the suit once again. Next year I will make it known that I'm retiring as Santa and it's tatay's turn. It would probably put the younger ones more at ease. We bought the costume years ago for use in the US and it ended up in a balikbayan box.
-@Moon Dog

Maybe he will do his best to get rid of his Santa Belly by next Christmas and tell you that you look better with a pillow stuffed down your shirt.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All !