How To Embrace Christmas In The Philippines

Ditch your romanticised view of a White Christmas and embrace the heat of an extra-long festive season in the Philippines.

Christmas or Paskong Pinoy starts early in the Philippines – it puts on one of the longest Christmas celebrations in the world. Filipinos start decorating their homes with colourful parols (lanterns) and Christmas lights as early as September and the festive fun continues to roll out until Christmas Day.

If you’re visiting over Christmas, here’s how to embrace the warmth of the holiday season in the Philippines with these top Filipino Christmas festivities and delicacies.

1. Witness the Giant Lantern Festival, Pampanga

Lighting up the streets of Pampanga, the Christmas Capital of the Philippines, are dazzling parols made from capiz shells. The time-honoured tradition started back in the 1900s when the townsfolk of Pampanga used to walk with a lantern in hand to light the electricity-deprived streets.

traditional star-shaped parols at night — Stargazing but make it merry and festive.

From the Spanish word farol or lantern, these star-like ornaments are quintessential elements of a typical Christmas in the Philippines. To celebrate the parol-making tradition and the remarkable craftsmanship of Pampangueños, the Giant Lantern Festival is held annually in mid-December, showcasing vibrant and spectacular lanterns as tall as 20 feet.

Giant Lantern Festival in Pampanga City, Philippines — Brightly coloured parols at the annual Giant Lantern Festival.

2. Gaze at The Festival of Lights, Makati City

Come November, the Ayala Triangle Gardens and the long stretch of Ayala Avenue in Metro Manila are festooned with twinkling lights jiving to a medley of Disney songs and popular holiday tunes.

the Ayala Triangle Light Show in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines — A thousand lights illuminate the Ayala Triangle Gardens at night. (Image: David Kim)

The Festival of Lights has been an annual tradition for more than 15 years now and was once named one of the world’s best Christmas lights by international travel magazine Condé Nast.

the Liter of Light installation at Ayala Land Festival of Lights in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines — The Liter of Light installation is made of solar-powered recycled bottles. (Image: Ayala Land)

3. Visit Christmas Symbols Festival, Tangub City

What started as a simple request for a Christmas tree to be placed in the city’s plaza in 1992 has grown to become one of the longest-running Christmas events in the Philippines.

Now you can find mini replicas of 14 iconic landmarks from around the world – think Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, Temple of Athena Nike in Greece, and Ashikaga Flower Park in Japan – but all in one place at the Christmas Symbols Festival in Tangub City, province of Misamis Occidental, Northern Mindanao.

the Christmas Symbols Festival in Tangub City — Catch the iconic Christmas symbols from around the world in Tangub City.

4. Attend Misa De Gallo

One of the most embraced Paskong Pinoy traditions in the Philippines is Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi. If you’re visiting the Philippines in the third week of December, be sure to set your alarms early so you won’t miss out on attending the sacred gathering held in the wee hours of the morning.

Filipinos attending Misa De Gallo while seeking shade from the rain — Even the rain won’t stop Filipinos from attending the Simbang Gabi. (Image: George Calvelo)

As a predominantly Catholic country, Filipinos believe their Christmas wishes will come true by merely attending the Misa de Gallo for nine days from the 16th of December until right before dawn on Christmas Eve.

people buying food and Christmas delicacies outside the church after Simbang Gabi in the Philippines — Drop by the food stalls outside the church to buy kakanin (native rice cake).

5. Celebrate Noche Buena

When the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve, families gather around the dining table for Noche Buena. Every household has a signature Christmas recipe often shared with their neighbours.

a traditional Noche Buena feast on Christmas Eve in the Philippines — Paskong Pinoy is simple but meaningful.

Feast on savoury Paskong Pinoy dishes such as pancit (stir-fry noodles), Filipino sweet-style spaghetti, lechon (roasted pig), lumpia (spring rolls), jamón, queso de bola, tsokolate (hot chocolate), leche flan (caramel custard) and buko salad. Yum!

a bowl of buko salad on the table at Noche Buena — A typical Filipino fruit salad is served with freshly grated coconut.

6. Dine on Christmas delicacies

The smell of puto bumbong (purple rice cake) and bibingka (salted egg rice cake) fills the air as churchgoers drop by the stalls selling Filipino Christmas delicacies.

puto bumbong, a Christmas purple rice cake dish on top of a banana leaf — Puto Bumbong is made of pure ube with muscovado sugar and shredded coconut on the side.

You’ll find vendors cooking these special rice cakes in clay pots with fresh banana leaves and purple bamboo tubes.

the purple tubes used to cook puto bumbong in the Philippines — The beloved Christmas staple is steamed until it becomes deep purple.

7. Head to the Christmas Village, City of Pines

In a perpetually sunny country like the Philippines, experiencing a White Christmas remains a wishful thought. The closest you can get to a wintery feel is up north in Baguio, the City of Pines where the temperature can drop to 10 degrees Celsius. There’s no snow but the vegetable fields in the nearby towns get covered with frost.

the carnival theme at Baguio Christmas Village 2023 — Part of the Baguio Country Club transforms into a festive carnival display. (Image: Baguio City Guide)

Head to Baguio Country Club and feel an enchanting holiday spirit at Baguio Christmas Village. This year, the Christmas Village takes on a carnival theme staging artificial snow installations.

snow installations at Baguio Christmas Village 2023 — Winter wonderland feels at the Christmas Village. (Image: Baguio City Guide)

8. Visit Casa Santa Museum

There are no reindeer to ride or chimneys for Santa to crawl through in Manila but the guy in a big red suit certainly has a special place in the hearts of Filipinos. So much so that you can visit a Santa-themed museum all year round.

life-sized statue of Santa Claus and other Christmas memorabilia at Casa Santa Museum, Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines — Casa Santa Museum will ignite your childhood memories of Santa Claus.

The Casa Santa Museum in Antipolo (about an hour outside Manila) is home to over 3700 figurines and life-sized statues of Santa Claus and his elves, as well as various kinds of Christmas memorabilia.

the elf station at Casa Santa Museum, Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines — There’s even an elf station at which you can imagine Santa’s elves working behind the scenes.

Showcasing Christmas traditions and stories from around the world and housed within a 19th-century house in the Jardin de Miramar, this festive museum offers a nostalgic Christmas experience for all ages.

the Belen or nativity scene, a three-dimensional art depiction of the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger — The three-dimensional nativity scene is also known as Belen in the Philippines.

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9. See the Christmas-themed houses on Policarpio St

Amid the bustling streets of Manila lies the dazzling Christmas-themed Policarpio St, Mandaluyong City. The homes here are alight with Filipino festive spirit come ber months (September to December).

a house decorated with bright and colourful Christmas lights along Policarpio St in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines — The city street gets dressed with flashy and twinkly lights.

Follow the glow as you drive down the street until you see the House of Light and House of Santa Claus and marvel at the spectacular Christmas light displays and life-sized nativity scenes.

a house decorated with Christmas lights and Santa Claus statues along Policarpio St in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines — The well-decorated houses along Policarpio St have no shortage of Christmas displays.

10. Shop at modern Christmas markets

The essence of a Paskong Pinoy is rooted in gift-giving. Filipino kids typically visit their godparents (ninang/ninong) to ask for their aguinaldos (gifts) on Christmas day. In the Philippines, you can shop at holiday bazaars as early as September, and the most anticipated of them all is the Noel Bazaar, the longest-running holiday bazaar in the country.

the home of wonder entrance at Noel Bazaar 2023, Okada Manila — Step into the home of wonder across different venues of Noel Bazaar. (Image: Cathlyn Botor)

This year’s bazaar will run for 48 days from the 10th of November and is held in different venues across the metro, including Okada Manila, World Trade Center and Filinvest Tent Alabang. Find stalls selling celebrity thrift clothes and all kinds of excellent gifts for loved ones. Organised by the GMA Kapuso Foundation, all the proceeds go towards children and families in need.

people browsing through the stalls in Noel Bazaar 2023 in Okada Manila — Find joy in shopping for Christmas gifts at Noel Bazaar. (Image: Cathlyn Botor)

Other Christmas markets to check out: Christmas ToyFAIR (December 15 to 17), World Bazaar Festival (December 13 to 22) and Greenhills Night Market (open until the first week of January).

the crowded Noel Bazaar 2023 in Okada Manila — A wondrous atmosphere of merriment screams at the Noel Bazaar this year.

For more ideas to spend the holidays this year, check out the best places to spend a White Christmas and the cutest German Christmas markets here.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

There’s no snow but this could be the most festive place on Earth