While most of the world is preparing for Christmas, the Philippines has been at it for months
- - While most of the world is preparing for Christmas, the Philippines has been at it for months
Laura Sharman, CNNDecember 22, 2025 at 1:42 AM
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People shop at a market ahead of Christmas, in Manila, on December 20, 2024. - Lisa Marie David/Reuters
Via Arboleda stepped back to admire the six-foot tree glittering in her living room.
Though the narra trees along Manila’s sidewalks had yet to shed their leaves, she was among many Filipinos already unpacking their Christmas decorations in eager anticipation of December 25.
In September, colorful ornaments began appearing along her commute, lifting her spirits beneath the dark sky of the rainy season.
“We believe the bigger the celebration, the better,” Arboleda, 27, an advertising professional from Manila, told CNN.
The Philippines has the longest Christmas period in the world, with festivities spanning from September to January.
As summer comes to a close, shopping malls are draped in decorations to mark the festive season. The scale of garniture is such that it warrants its own term – Bongga – meaning flamboyant, abundant, spectacular.
A man sells balloons as people attend a pre-dawn mass ahead of Christmas at a church in Las Pinas, Metro Manila, on December 16, 2023. - Jam Sta Rosa/AFP/Getty Images
Children walk past a Christmas-themed house in Manila, on December 21, 2022. - Jam Sta Rosa/AFP/Getty Images
But there is no chance of Western-style festive snowfall, with December temperatures averaging 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in Manila, according to the country’s weather agency Pagasa.
As families gear up for their annual holiday reunions, relatives start coordinating potluck dishes and printing personalized T-shirts for the occasion. Arboleda’s will read “Arboleda Family Reunion 2025.”
For many, the gathering is particularly special. Almost 10 percent of the Philippines’ workforce is employed abroad, drawn by higher salaries and better benefits, according to the International Labour Organization.
These workers send remittances that bolster their families back home, contributing to nine percent of the country’s GDP.
“Some relatives return home once a year for Christmas but for others, it might be once a decade,” Arboleda said. “It’s a big deal, so we get ready to feast and celebrate until our pants won’t fit anymore.”
Typical dishes include caldereta – goat stew with potatoes, carrots, olives and peas – and Filipino spaghetti, an adaptation of Italian Bolognese featuring a tomato sauce that’s sweetened with banana ketchup and brown sugar, then topped with hot dogs.
A family shares a meal during Christmas Eve at the Quezon Memorial Circle, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on December 24, 2023. - Lisa Marie David/Reuters
“Rice will definitely be on the table and dessert is often fruit salad with condensed milk and cream,” Arboleda said.
Karaoke machines are hired for Christmas singalongs.
“Filipinos love to sing,” Arboleda said. “Even aunts and uncles take the microphone after a drink, and younger ones perform for the grandparents and are gifted with money in envelopes.”
Supermarkets and public spaces also play music, particularly Jose Mari Chan’s “Christmas in Our Hearts,” which serves as the nation’s answer to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
By November, Manila’s upscale BGC district puts on a weekly firework display drawing families from across the city to watch the sky light up.
Major brands join the revelry with signature Christmas trees, from Tiffany & Co.’s elegant Tiffany Blue conifer to Surf washing detergent’s cheery pink creation.
Even Pantone finds its way into some family reunions, where all relatives pledge to wear the company’s Color of the Year – for 2025, it’s the indulgent Mocha Mousse.
And at the SM Mall of Asia, the country’s largest shopping center, the celebrations turn theatrical.
People take pictures in front of a Christmas tree as they celebrate Christmas at the Rizal Park in Manila, onDecember 25, 2024. - Lisa Marie David/Reuters
This year’s theme is inspired by the recent cinema release of “Wicked: For Good,” with walkways awash in Glinda’s pink, Elphaba’s green and an Emerald City-inspired Christmas tree.
These themed malls are a defining childhood memory for Michelle Neri, 26, who grew up attending school in Manila, her parents’ hometown.
Neri outdoes Arboleda’s early start to the season, keeping her Christmas tree up year-round in homage to a Filipino family tradition.
“Growing up, my mum kept the decorations up all year and even the stair railings stayed wrapped in garlands,” she told CNN.
“She even kept the tree decorated whereas I take off the ornaments, but my tree stays fluffed and standing.”
Now a tech analyst in California, Neri returned to Manila on a solo trip last November with one mission besides catching up with friends: to visit every mall in its Christmas finery.
“No two malls were the same,” she said, citing themes from bears and ribbons to gingerbread and a tree trimmed in hand-sewn pineapple fiber, the traditional material for the Filipino barong shirt.
“Christmas can’t compare anywhere else,” she said. “It’s like Disneyland.”
Religious roots
Christmas in the Philippines is deeply rooted in Christianity, which commemorates the birth of Jesus on December 25.
According to the country’s 2020 census, almost 80 percent of the population – more than 85 million people – identifies as Roman Catholic.
Holy mass is widely attended on December 24, 25 and 31; and January 1.
Mass on Christmas Eve marks the culmination of Simbang Gabi meaning “night mass,” a nine-day tradition which begins on December 16 with daily pre-dawn services as early as 2.30 a.m.
Catholics attend the first of the nine-day dawn mass known as Misa de Gallo, ahead of Christmas, at the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, in Paranaque, Metro Manila, on December 16, 2023. - Lisa Marie David/Reuters
Catholic Bishop Honesto Ongtioco presides over the first of the nine-day dawn mass known as Misa de Gallo, ahead of Christmas, at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Cubao, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on December 16, 2024. - Lisa Marie David/Reuters
“Small groups of grandmas and grandpas usually attend this,” Arboleda said.
“After the mass, you get to eat unusual but delicious Christmas foods like bibingka rice cakes – served with salted egg – and puto bumbong, a purple sticky rice dessert paired with grated coconut, muscovado sugar and lots of butter.”
Neri and Arboleda embrace both the spiritual and festive sides of the season.
“Filipinos want to celebrate everything,” Neri said. “We’re just happy people.”
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