• Dreaming of a Pinoy Christmas

  Filed under dchs88
  Nov 22
  Dreaming of a Pinoy Christmas

  STILL dreaming of a white Christmas? Unless Pinatubo belches another load, you’re in for a reality check. This is the tropics, we’re smack in the middle of the equatorial belt and we put on sunscreen and skin whiteners to feel decently dressed up.

  Forget about Santa Claus sliding down the chimney. Except in Baguio, we only have smokestacks blighting the landscape, and can you imagine the jolly fat guy shimmying down those ozone busters? He’d be toast. Rudolf and Prancer and Blitzen and Dancer? Ummm, we don’t mean to be a Grinch, but they’d make for fine pulutan the moment they venture out in the open.

  But far from being a Scrooge or a Muggle in these days of seasonal cheer, we’d like to suggest a more homegrown celebration — scaled down, sure, but with all the trimmings, glitter and cholesterol overload of Christmases past. Not to mention uniquely Pinoy as well. So find the familiar in this grab bag of ideas guaranteed not to bust your budget, burst an artery or drive you to Prozac.

  1. Tiangges all over the place (the better to load up on aguinaldos, and don’t forget to haggle!)

  2. The Pampanga parol (or its substitutes, made of capiz, cellophane, papel de Hapon, old newspapers or Dixie cups)

  3. Escayola belen, the bigger the better, with a manger made of sawali and nipa

  4. Bah, ham (bug)! Make it a Majestic, available by the kilo in wet markets

  5. Puto bumbong at tsaa (preferably taken after Misa de Gallo)

  6. Piping hot bibingka with salted eggs and native cheese

  7. Tsokolate eh paired with suman

  8. Potluck family dinner (check what the rest are bringing so you don’t end up with endless bilaos of pancit or three versions of fruit salad)

  9. Queso de bola — if you shirk from the expensive imported versions, they’ve got edible local versions

  10. Misa de Gallo, never mind if they’re sometimes held the midnight before

  11. Damit pamasko: must be new and in na in

  12. Castañas, fresh from the street peddlers’ steaming cauldron of sand

  13. Fruitcake (or its poorer but more appreciated cousins: brownies, food for the gods, carrot cake, lemon squares, chocolate chip cookies, etc.)

  14. Pancit (of all kinds: bihon, Malabon, luglog, habhab, canton, molo, etc.)

  15. Puto (sapin-sapin, maja blanca, with salted eggs and cheese, puto ube, etc.)

  16. Haleya (home-cooked ube, thick and chewy, with a dash of dayap just like Ima used to make)

  17. Leche flan (with burnt caramel on the bottom)

  18. Sinamay angels, rubbing wings with the papier mache Santa and reindeer made of rattan twigs

  19. Christmas tree (green, plastic or white-painted twigs, with complement of wrapped gifts, walang laman ang iba)

  20. Christmas lights: pin lights and rice lights in all colors and shapes, sometimes lighting up the whole house

  21. Carols (live, as in the roving brass band or the parish choir, or canned, as in synchronized with the blinking lights on your Christmas tree)

  22. Street kids jangling tansan tambourines and chanting, “Piso lang po” when your car gets stuck in traffic

  23. Improvised Christmas wreaths (of sinamay, papier mache, resin berries, silk leaves and flowers, walis tingting accents and gold or silver paints)

  24. Balikbayans (relatives, friends, boxes na amoy Amerika pa!)

  25. Tricycle loads of inaanaks clutching the toy of the moment (Harry Potter accessories, Zoids, PowerPuff Girls, etc.)

  By Inquirer News Service

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