I am a big Christmas freak. I like everything about the holiday season, except for the traffic.
My love for Christmas must have stemmed from the fact that I grew up in a home that was a stickler for traditions. Lenten rituals were strictly carried out year after year: meatless Fridays, joining the Good Friday processions in the summer heat and waking up early for the Easter Sunday salubong.
But Christmas entailed no sacrifice. It was for the enjoyment of everyone. The only requirement my parents asked of us was to have fun. What deal could be sweeter than that?
Preparations began in mid-October when my mother would start baking loaves of fruitcakes. Every night, she would dutifully bring out each loaf from the refrigerator and sprinkle sherry brandy on the sweetmeats. Come noche buena, the fruitcakes would be extra moist – accompanied by a strong liquor taste that one time knocked the hell out of one of the helpers who wasn’t used to taking anything with alcohol.
Of course, there were other traditional holiday treats prepared at home that were basically inexpensive and not too elaborate to make: macaroni and fruit salad, beans in syrup and gelatin made from scratch using agar agar seaweeds that were readily available in the wet market.
The Christmas ham, however, was prepared by my mother herself. Every year, my father would always receive from a colleague a gift of jamon de funda – that leg of ham wrapped in brown paper.
My mother would skip work to cook the ham and the process was laborious. She would begin early in the day sawing off the bone from the ham. And then, the long tedious cooking would begin and this involved boiling the whole leg in beer and pineapple juice – with a few leaves of laurel thrown in. That ham was usually big enough to last us till New Year.
Now, for the Christmas decors, work was divided between my mother and father. My father took care of external decorations – like putting up this beautiful white Christmas lantern in Japanese paper or papel de japon, complete with a light bulb inside.
No, that parol row on Gilmore wasn’t there yet. If you wanted to buy Christmas lanterns back then, you went to that place in Quiapo called “ilalim ng tulay.”
But the time came when my father got tired driving to Quiapo to buy lanterns that had to be replaced every so often since those were made of paper – and not of capiz material that the young people know today. Even then, traffic was already horrible in Quiapo and parking was difficult, particularly on Fridays.
The impatient man that he was, my father said goodbye to the parol. He merely surrounded the facade of the house with big colored light bulbs that proved to be all-purpose. Those lights would be turned on every time there was a party at home. Or when there was a religious procession passing in front of our house. But starting December 16, those bulbs would be dusted off and turned on nightly to serve as Christmas lights.
For the house interiors, my mother took charge – starting with the Christmas tree. In the 1970s, it was fashionable to have Christmas trees in foil that came in either gold or silver. A decade later, green plastic leaves began flooding the market.
The downside of the 1980s trees was that these were plastic. But then, those were far easier to maintain because plastic could be washed with soap and water. Filipino homes that wanted dust-free Christmas trees did just that.
Of course, I hankered for real pine trees. However, there was already a log ban even during my childhood so it was fake trees that I had during the Christmases of my youth.
Oh, we also had a belen – with Nativity scene characters fashioned in fine resin. When my sister got married and migrated to Cebu, she brought the belen set with her to her new home. Then her husband became Cebu mayor and he displayed the Nativity scene in his office. I am only assuming that it now adorns the mayor’s office at the Cebu City Hall this Christmas season.
When we moved to a new home – in a subdivision off Katipunan in Quezon City, I took charge of the Christmas decorations. On our first Christmas there, I climbed up the second floor plant box that was planted to yellow lantanas. Hanging up there by hope and prayer, I carefully wrapped the shrub in Tivoli lights that were then still very much in fad.
Satisfied with my work, I plugged the socket and – boom! – the entire house was suddenly enveloped in darkness. I learned to hire professional electricians after that incident.
In that new home, I continued with the tradition of putting up our Christmas tree in the first few years of our stay there. In time, I began experimenting by dismantling the branches and tying these in the banisters of the staircase.
The stairs sure did look bright and colorful – but dangerous. Suddenly, it became an adventure just to go upstairs since the railings in the staircase all but disappeared in Christmas lights and balls.
When I tried out condo living, I occupied the topmost floor of a North Greenhills building. It had a floor to ceiling glass panel that served as the perfect canvas for Christmas decorations.
For a couple of years, I hired the services of Designer Blooms to spruce up the place. That didn’t come cheap. But I considered it a gift to myself since my birthday is in December.
Now that I’m living in a house with a garden again, I am tempted to fill the mango and flame trees with lights. That surely will look beautiful. But not yet. I’m still saving up for it.
But I splurged a bit on the interior this year by hiring a professional team to do the Christmas decors. And so my living room is ablaze with blue and white Christmas lights at night.
I also had new Christmas trimmings added to the old ones this time. But the major pieces are still there – like the oil painting of the Nativity scene that has baby Jesus’ grandparents (Saints Anne and Joachim) hovering by instead of the three magi.
Also brought out from storage is an image of the infant Jesus on a manger that was a gift given to me many years ago by Gloria Romero. I always bring it out for the holiday season without fail and intend to keep doing so perhaps till my last Christmas on this earth.
Editor’s note: The author opened his home to show his Christmas decors this Yuletide season to subscribers of this online site.
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This is Showbiz Episode No.51: Butch Francisco’s Christmastime House Tour
Source: Pinoy Ako News
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