Christmas in The Philippines + The Christmas Star
🌟 MALIGAYANG PASKO! 🌟The Philippines is near and dear to my heart because that is where my parents and extended family are from!
Did you know that the Philippines is the only Asian nation where Christianity (mostly Catholic) is the main religion?! 🙌
The Filipinos are a very special group of peeps … between the natives, other Austronesian immigrants, Spanish and American occupations, Chinese capitalists, etc., we’ve got a hodge-podge mash-up of blood, history, and culture. And our Christmas customs naturally reflect that!
Christmas is actually a HUGE deal in The Philippines, that you start to see signs of Christmas as early as September!
Like Mexicans, Filipinos start officially celebrating Christmas on December 16. But while Mexicans have their Las Posadas procession, Filipinos attend early morning mass (Simbang Gabi) for those 9 days. On Christmas Eve, a pageant is held where one couple reenacts Joseph and Mary’s search for shelter. They are joined by the people inside each home that they stop at and the group grows as they make their way to the final destination – the church (many of them carrying parols to light the way).
Christmas Eve is a big deal, when we party all night long until Christmas morning (one of my fondest memories of the Christmas season!). There is typically a midnight mass followed by an open house style feast known as Noche Buena which includes roasted pig, ham, fruit salad, a variety of sweet rice cakes and so. much. more. The merry making and celebrating continue until January 6th.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS AS A FILIPINO-AMERICAN
Even though I grew up here in the United States, my extended family still celebrated much in the same way as those in the Mother Country. Extended family from all over Southern California (where I’m from) would congregate at the designated host house for the year on Christmas Eve (it rotated annually between all the different extended family).
At the hour most American children would head to bed so that Santa could do his rounds, we would just be getting our party started (food, music, games, etc.)! For many years as a young child, we’d head to Simbang Gabi at our local church (I grew up Catholic). Then we’d head back to the host house, open our presents, and continue partying until the wee hours of the morning.
While most American children would be getting out of bed to celebrate their Christmas mornings, our family would “power nap” so that we could get up in the afternoon for more partying. Oftentimes, we’d head out in the afternoon/evening of Christmas Day to all go see a movie in the theaters.
When my own little nuclear family isn’t traveling to celebrate Christmas in CA, we still honor the Christmas Eve-through-Christmas Morning tradition in our home! Right at midnight (the Simbang Gabi practice fell to the wayside as we became adults, plus some of us are no longer Catholic), we will hop on a Zoom call with my side of the family and exchange Christmas greetings. And when we aren’t traveling, our kids get to open up their gifts from extended family either late Christmas Eve (their presents from us is given to them on Saint Nicholas Day) or right after they we hop off the Zoom call with them.
Even though my kids are half Filipino, Christmas the Filipino way is – hands down – their favorite, and has given them their most treasured memories of Christmas! 🙂
BOOKS TO READ
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All About the Philippines is an awesome book for kids to learn about the country, its history, its people, and its culture! It’s packed with all kinds of stories, songs, crafts, and games for readers to enjoy.
A Star for Jesus is such a sweet book where littles will discover the story of the Christmas star and how it led the wise men to Jesus, plus why stars can remind us of Jesus’ birth all year long!
CHRISTMAS CRAFT
A universal Christmas icon found all over the country is the Filipino parol. Meant to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, these star lanterns are traditionally made of bamboo strips and colored paper, and come in all sizes.
Both our Christmas around the world books had instructions for how to create our own parols (we made ours out of straws and parchment paper), but here is a YouTube video you can watch!
What you’ll need for your own parol: