Are you ready for Christmas? You are already one month behind! The Christmas Season in Bacolod City kicked off on September 1 with the first Christmas songs of this new Christmas Season. There are still 110 days left, so you still have plenty of time to celebrate. The Feast of Santo Nino (Christ Child) is most famous in Cebu but many Filipinos in Negros Occidental also celebrate this Festival, which brings to a close the Christmas Season on the 3rd Sunday in January.
This will be my 6th consecutive Christmas in the Bacolod Area and over the past 28 years, I tried to plan my long vacation and trips to the Philippines around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas in the Philippines still brings excitement to me, same as it did when I was a child! Only these days, I am not thinking about all the actual toys I may receive to play with for the next year, as I did as a child but rather, I look forward to spending time my family and getting caught up in the marvelous Filipino celebrations of Christmas. Once you spend one Christmas in the Philippines with family and friends, you will want everyday to be Christmas!
Christmas Is In the Air
I was shopping in SM Supermarket just a few short days ago in Bacolod City. Christmas songs were being played in the store and almost at every turn, Christmas was in the air! Christmas Gift Baskets are already on sale for P500-P2,000. The expensive Christmas Gift Baskets were loaded with imported chocolates, wafers, cookies and many other wonderful goodies! You would spend more than P2,000 if you bought all those items separately and bought the actual basket to pack with the gifts!
The Fiesta Hams and Holiday Hams are ready for display, as are the Queso de Bola, cheese balls. Edam Cheese makes up the Queso de Bola and it is fabulous!
Christmas decorations have been for sale in the Department Stores the last couple of weeks! More and more Filipinos are getting into buying Christmas lights and decorating their homes. Last year, our neighbor would have easily won Best Award for their Christmas lights in most neighborhoods in NE Florida! They went all out! The traditional Christmas decoration, the Parol, which is a star shaped lantern, will also have its place among all the Western style Christmas lights. We have a Parol at our house down at the farm, which is made of capiz shells. Capiz Shells are actually shells from Windowpane Oysters and Panay Island is famous all over the Philippines for their unique capiz shells.
Noche Buena
Food, food and more food! Only snacking until the Main Event on the night of December 24 at the stroke of Midnight, as that is when the table will be set!
What do you have to eat? Of course, all the traditional Filipino dishes, such as lechon, pancit, lumpia, adobo but also ham, fried chicken, BBQ chicken, spaghetti, some have turkey, stuffed fish, macaroni salad, fruit salad and whatever people can afford. I know for sure, the day after New Year, many families in the Philippines start saving for the next Christmas and New Year Celebration!
What do you have to drink? Red wine! Grape juice for the children. These are the traditional drinks in our family on the night of December 24 at the stroke of midnight. Oh, before and after, there will also be beer, brandy, rhum and whiskey.
My son and I will will celebrate our birthdays before Christmas, Thanksgiving is still ahead in November but Christmas is still on the front burner! Christmas is also such a grand celebration for me because I not only celebrate the Reason for the Season, but December 25 is also our Wedding Anniversary! It is always a big day in our family.
Twelve Days of Christmas? No way, Jose! After December 25, we still have 24 more days of Christmas! In 2014-early 2015, we have 140 days of Christmas in the Philippines!
I am really looking forward to spending my first Christmas in the Philippines in 2 years. I was in the Philippines for New Years, that was as close as I came to being there on Christmas Day. We were on Alona Beach in Bohol. Your article had me thinking this morning all the way driving into work about many of the pleasant things I have experienced while in the Philippines. I am sure that Christmas is just one of the many things that will be better in the Philippines.
Thanks.
rjjj,
Get ready for a great time during your first Christmas in the Philippines! I still remember my first one in 1986. The most memorable Christmas for me was in 2003, as my wife and I exchanged our wedding vows on that day!
All the best from the City of Smiles.
~ Gary ~
Christmas and New Years in the Philippines is absolutely sensational to me. It is a “can’t miss” for me. I wish more Americans, where I am from, could experience a “REAL” Christmas. Sure, there is some commercialism surrounding Christmas in the Philippines…but the “spirit” of Christmas seems so much more alive in the Philippines. I absolutely love it!
I have a question about a Christmas present for my girlfriend out there. Are there any stores out there that I can pay in US currency and have them deliver to her in Cagayan De Oro?
Rick,
If you Google *Regalo for the Philippines*, you will find many companies in the USA and in the Philippines which will deliver gifts most anywhere in the Philippines. I have not ever used these companies but I know others who have. Most companies have different ways to pay, including international credit cards and Pay Pal.
~ Gary ~
Thank you. I appreciate your prompt reply.
Hi, guys. This is my first post here. I’m from Ireland, and got married in Marikina in August. My wife is in the process of applying for a visa to join me here in Ireland for a few years, and our idea is to save to retire in the Philippines. She will not be able to join me until after Christmas (assuming she gets her visa) so i will be joining her in Manila for Christmas this year. I’m really looking forward to it, it sounds great over there at Christmas. I’ve been over there a number of times, and I love it. Christmas should be fun……can’t wait…..Cheers all, and God bless.
Ps….great site by the way…thanks.