As I bite down on this golden crispy outer layer of an egg roll, I envision the glory that awaits me under the tree.

Christmas in the Philippines starts in September. I know it’s pretty crazy, but since we don’t celebrate any other holidays, we make a very big deal out of Christmas. Every house has decorations and a parol (a star shaped Christmas lantern representing the Star of Bethlehem). It basically looks like Whoville (The Grinch).

Most American children wait until Christmas morning to open their presents, but in the Filipino culture, we open presents Christmas eve. We have a big feast starting at 11 pm leading into gift opening.

The feast is very much like an American Thanksgiving, “We usually have sacks of rice, bbq, spaghetti, chicken, and the “turkey” of the Filipino culture… a roasted pig” senior Marko Dacpano said. The feast represents the prosperous and fulfilling year we had. Yes there was a time I asked my mom “How does Santa deliver presents if we open them during Christmas Eve.” In our culture, the idea of Santa coming the night before Christmas was not really enforced. My parents’ exact words were “Santa has to deliver presents to all the children in the world… he comes to the Philippines nights before because traveling takes days.”

Christmas is not only celebrated with family members. We welcome our neighbors into our home or we bring the food outside and celebrate with them. Christmas is very much like a gathering of everyone in the neighborhood. Even though it doesn’t snow and we don’t build snowmen, Christmas in the Philippines will always be my true Christmas.