home for the holidays

This year wonder | wander | women were back in the Philippines for the holidays.

We come from a country notorious for celebrating the longest Christmas season and we glory in it!

Christmas is the biggest and most widely celebrated holiday in our predominantly Catholic homeland where we all tend to go gaga over the holidays.

Christmas carols start blaring everywhere as early as September 1. Immediately after All Saints on November 1, many start decorating residences and establishments with lights and all sorts of kitsch.

 

By the middle of November celebrations start in all seriousness - year-end bonuses are released; shopping escalates to a fever pitch; parties, reunions and weddings abound; overbooking and delayed flights become the norm; and traffic is in constant gridlock until past the New Year.

In a country were everything revolves around food, the holidays here are all about consumption!

Food! Glorious Food!

Gifts! The more, the many-er!

Party! Til the wee hours! On and on!

The most popular go-to gifts are traditional food items ranging from foreign fruitcakes to local kakanins and delicacies.

Family dishes and secretly guarded recipes are flaunted at competitive gastronomical fetes and fiestas - often overboard and mostly overloaded.

'Tis definitely the season to be jolly and over stuffed. Happy New Year! ! !