The Philippines has the longest Christmas season of anywhere in the world. One can start to see decorations and hear the music as early as August although the official kickoff is the "ber" months (i.e., SeptemBER). This year it started later or I am just getting better about ADDing it.
We started decorating for Christmas late (again, relative to where we live). Perfect example: when we were hanging spiderwebs and positioning a headless man in our window for Halloween (our village participates in Trick or Treating woo hoo!!), our neighbor up the street was hanging up his Christmas lights. We started our decorating the day after Thanksgiving because that was the day we picked up our tree from S&R.
S&R ships in Douglas firs from Oregon for the Christmas season which rocks my world because I hate plastic trees. They are just not my thing. I have to have the nice pine smell for Christmas. For P3799 (about $75) I bought a real tree. It smells fantastic!! Admittedly, I am not 100% positive it will stay green until new years but I am optimistic. I went with a friend of mine and we picked out the best tree (read greenest) we could find and I think it looks great. Please note I am not one of those people that decorates trees beautifully. In fact, I have a friend coming over this week to redo the tree because she says it looks cruddy with my hastily bought decorations. In my defense, I impulse bought sale balls, random candy canes, and was assisted in my decorating by my creative team (a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old).
We bought a plain wreath and had a niece decorate it with berries and pine cones for the front door.
The staircase garland looks way cooler in real life because the little presents are lights that light up. Each 9' garland costs P150 (about $3) so life is good there!
Ah, this is my Santa Claus that we have dangling from the lights. It is paper-mache and we got him for the bargain price of P200 (about $4) in Paete, Laguna.
For some reason, people kept warning me against putting lights on my tree. I am not sure why. I am feeding it lots of sugar water and bought the overpriced lights that do not heat up too much. Although everyone told me that if I do not put lights on it, the tree will last longer, I find that akin to the people who put plastic on their couches. Sure, your couch will last forever, but who the fuck wants to sit on it????**Side note--Mike at S&R Congressional is the coolest guy ever!! Not only did he not let us steal a tree that someone had reserved, he tolerated us picking a tree all the way in the back. Best employee ever!!!**
16 comments:
Great tree!! I love the festive Christmas spirit embraced by the Filipino culture! Such a great time of the year!
And, I completely agree about the lights on your tree. Beautiful!!
Ang ganda!!!!
Tunay ba ang tree mo? or is it fake?
I heard that you can get fresh trees there...That they come from Bagiuo....totoo ba?
Read all 2 years of your blogging! Very entertaining and informative!My family and I moved to the Philippines 5 months ago from Florida. Moving to Manila Dec. 5. Keep bloggin...enjoying it!! :)
Give me a shout out! We're new to Manila as of Dec. 5. Have been in San Pablo City for 5 months. Would love to meet some people!
jackiesmithfl@gmail.com
I thought Baguio sell real Pine tree.
San Pablo, Laguna? Jackie?
That place is full of fresh water fish and mussles and are cheap to buy.
It looks so festive, it definitely gets you in that holiday mood. Tara just bought a treet for our place. It's silver and vintage with pink lights and ornaments and garlands, but it's really, really beuatiful as well...
hmm... wonder what the carbon footprint is of your tree? Perhaps a plastic tree is a 'greener' idea...
Can anyone tell me where the S&R store or stores are located? I am staying in Laguna for the month of January and want to go to the store. Also, do they have a website? Reply to henry.halpern@aramco.com
The website for S&R is http://snrshopping.com.ph/. Closest to Laguna would be Alabang.
Seems like you really got a nice Christmas tree there for sure. I also spent this Christmas in the Philippines and I had a great time. I was in Subic and had a Christmas dinner close to the beach. Looking forward to reading more of your posts.
I also have a blog and article page I'm writing about the Philippines, so please check out:
http://www.PhilippinesTravelPortal.com
If you have the chance, have a good day!
What happened to you?...There has been no post at all? Nothing new???
I know. I suck. My own sister has told me unless I post something soon she will take me off of her bookmark thingum. I do have a billion things to post about--the printer with never ending ink, Bohol, Tagaytay, renewing my driver's license (still not complete).
As soon as I get off this beach in Hawaii and head back next week, I will get back to posting.
Hi there! I am an American and my husband is relocating us over in Manilia next month. I would be interested in hearing any feedback on a smooth tranistion from you or any other American's that see this blog. Oh, we have a son that is two years old as well. Thanks! Olivia- olivemommie@gmail.com
OK...Where the heck have you been?...Last I checked you were in Hawaii and heading back to P.I...but still no updates.
We're headed back ot Philippines in October to stay in our home in Antipolo. I can't wait..
I will make a nice Christmas tree like this and will gift it to my little cousin who is fond of decorations and Christmas tree. I will ask her to make one for herself too. She loves to make all kind of fun stuffs.
Cool to know that S&R sell fresh pine trees for Christmas!
Jackie, why are you living in San Pablo? Is it because of your job?
The carbon footprint of real trees are still better than plastic ones. It will take many more years to degrade those plastic trees...hehe..with fresh ones you can chop it up and use it as mulch or fireplace fuel.
I'm surprised no one here is living in Baguio. I think it is one of the best places in Pinas where a foreigner could live comfortably. Fresh veggies are cheap. It is cooler there too. There are also some stores selling stateside products inside Camp John Hay. But sorry, no S&R there. But I'm sure one day they will put up one.
Post a Comment