Christmas traditions: Family at the centre of Filipino celebrations

Estela Aguilar Chow says Christmas is the happiest holiday in the Philippines.

Chow is an owner of the Lady Luck Restaurant and Convenience Store in Timmins. Originally from Pangasinan, a province in the Philippines, and she's been in Timmins since 1993.

Christmas for Chow is about family and friends.

"Material things are not that important for me anymore," she said. "I'm just happy my family is healthy."

Christmas preparations in the Philippines start early. As soon as September comes, Christmas songs start playing and all the decorations and lights are out, but people don't get tired of it, Chow said.

“This is the time of the year that people are very busy, preparing for big festivities,” she said. “Christmas is very important there because all the families, friends and neighbours gather. They cook a lot of different food to offer to those who are dropping by.”

People decorate their houses and roofs with lights, so sometimes it seems like houses “are burning with lights,” Chow said.

One of the holiday traditions is creating their own ornaments like lanterns made of bamboo or stars made of capiz shells. As an alternative for a Christmas tree, people will take branches, paint them white and put decorations on the branches. Every household in the Philippines also has statues of Santo Nino and Lady of Manaoag, Chow said.

“When we were growing up, you could create a lantern. You hang it on all the windows you have in your house and you’re happy,” Chow said. “But now, a lot of (decorations) are bought in store.”

In December, when it gets colder, her family would rake all the leaves underneath a mango tree and light a bonfire. That’s one of the fun memories she remembers from when she was a kid.

Decorations in the Philippines stay up until the first week of January, after the Three Kings Day is celebrated.

In Timmins, Chow doesn’t decorate the exterior of her house too early, so people wouldn’t think she’s crazy, she said laughing.

“But inside the house, I do start, a little bit here and there,” she said. “You get lots of peace in you during this holiday. And doing the decorations is always fun for me. It’s not a big job for me.”

On Dec. 24, people in the Philippines go out to visit friends, eat street food or and go to a beach. Then, they attend either the 6 p.m. or the midnight mass. As soon as they get home, they start having a feast. Families usually make a pig roast and place at the centre of a table, surrounded by various dishes and dessert.

After the mass, children and adults can open a few presents and leave opening the rest of the gifts for the following day.

“Christmas in the Philippines is lots of fun. Here, we’re bound to work,” Chow said. “The life there is more relaxed than here … If you need something in Canada, you need to work for it, you don’t wait for something to fall.”

Since moving to Timmins, Chow continued celebrating Christmas the way she was brought up back home. Before the pandemic, the Filipino community would gather and celebrate together. This year, Chow said it will be just her family, including her mom and her sisters with nieces and nephews.

On Christmas, Chow always closes the restaurant to spend time with her family.

"On Christmas, New Year, family should be at the centre. They need to come home and celebrate with us," she said. "But here in Canada, it's hard to demand that because sometimes they work during Christmas or during New Year, so you have to adapt."

It's important for her pass Filipino traditions to her two daughters but Chow said she doesn’t know whether the next generation will celebrate Christmas in a traditional Filipino way.

Another common tradition in the Philippines is believing in Santa Claus, she said.

“Our house didn’t have a chimney but they said, ‘Santa Claus will find a way to come inside the house,’ so I believed that, too,” Chow said. “Then, you put cookies and milk.”

In the Philippines, Christmas is more than just celebrating the birth of Jesus.

"It's a big festivity there. Everyone celebrates that, either you're Christian or of different religion. That's the fun of it there," Chow said.