10 Tables & Trees for Christmas

Christmas as I remember it was a season when my mother would pick one from her brood of seven to handcraft a lantern to hang by our window. I was always given that task. She would remind me that the lantern is a sign that we were welcoming with all our heart the birth of Jesus the Savior. I was in grade one when I made my first lantern for our home.

In three days, we mark another birthday of Jesus. The WTC episode was a big threat to the celebration of the season. Not a few promised to go easy in the celebration as a sign of protest against terrorism or as a symbol of their sympathy for families who lost loved ones in the tragedy. But as we now know, the spirit dominates so as we look around we see that the desire to celebrate Christmas is still alive. We see lanterns, lighted trees and a myriad of decor displayed not only in the malls but, more meaningfully in homes of the faithful who ardently still believe in Christmas.

I decided to see how this Christmas tradition is practiced in a year which has seen so much violence.

We have as in past years invited a handful of friends to participate in this Christmas pictorial. We photographed some of them proudly posing with their trees. They are happy to share with us the labor of their toils. It’s no easy task to put up a tree and hang those trimmings. Some of our interviewees have had their decor for years.

Youthful architect Anna Rocha Castillo, granddaughter of the late UST dean of architecture Julio V. Rocha, shows off the futuristic nine-footer cone that she filled with balls in colors that one does not see every day. Every square inch of the perfect cone was paved with multi-sized balls in such rich colors as magenta, cobalt blue, cardinal red, beetle green, fuchsia and a sprinkling of gold and silver. For a Yule repast, she set her table in a Zen manner to keep with the rest of the house.

Former newscaster Veronica Baluyot Jimenez obliged us and posed for Talking Design in front of her Douglas fir tree, elegantly trimmed with rock crystals, some of which are from Swarovski. She likewise gave us a preview as to how she will be setting her table for her yearly December 25 dinner. Veronica’s color scheme is red and green.

Noel and Eileen Gonzales are better known to their friends as the guys behind Muebles Italiana, a store patronized by lovers of decadent and gilded furniture and accessories. For their stately abode the youthful couple (he recently turned 40) predictably put up a 14-foot tree that they lavished with grapes. They intimated that before the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve a good number of the faux grapes will make way for real juicy ones from California.

Popular party-giver Marilu de Borja invited us into her home for a peek at her decor and tree. She even generously invited us to sample native delicacies like piping hot bibingka, puto bumbong and suman sa ibos served alongside ripe golden mangoes.

Simplicity is the operative word in the decoration inside the main church of Saint James the Great. Jimpee Madara of the Mother Butler solicited the help of Rustan’s Flower Shop and the joint effort produced a very simple and sedate décor. Huge lanterns fashioned out of abaca cloth were painted in dusky shades of silver, copper and gold. Minimalist stars that these are meant to be, they are faintly decorated with curliques resembling hand embroidery when viewed from a distance.

On the other hand, the lobby of the New Life praying center is punctuated by various-heighted trees trimmed differently but faithfully following a red-and-green color scheme. They are carefully and stragetically lighted, so at night the lobby is a sight to behold.

Maitel Minana Cacho, one of the visible frontliners at the soon-to-operate Palms Club at Filinvest invited us to view the tree she helped decorate in her mother’s home. She especially enjoyed the task since she in turn asked her seven-and-a-half-year-old-daughter Ysa to be part of the action. Red and white gingham ribbons dominate the tree side by side with red and golden balls. Some styrofor balls have been painstakingly embellished with sequins that highlight the handpainting of each ball. Maitel likewise set a simple Christmas table dominated by a lush pot of poinsettia that she used as centerpiece. Bold gingham of red and green make up the ringed napkin.

Maitel’s brother, party designer Miguel Minana, can happily celebrate the season since organizing events at the palace by the Pasig River is one of his major accounts. For his high-rise pad he trimmed his medium-sized tree in nothing but silver and gold. He takes special pride in informing us that the trimmings were remnants from several Christmases enjoyed by this confirmed bachelor. Just like his sister Maitel, he added to the spirit of the season by decorating the small chandelier hanging over his dining table with turquoise moiree ribbons and ropes of gold beads.

Christmas can never be complete without the traditional belen or the nativity scene. As a kid I looked forward to the belens set up by the rich families in my native Parañaque. They set it up in a part of their garden so the whole town could appreciate them and even make some kind of "pilgrimage" to the belen during the season. That tradition died many years ago. I was reminded of it as I entered the palladian house of a family friend, Claire Ignacio. Now a young widow, Claire pours a lot of her time and energy into her collection of figurines of all sizes and persuasions to create nativity scenes. She has so many of them all over her house but I centered on this one that has the whole town of Bethlehem accurately minaturized on a generously-sized table. One only has to see this scene and he is assured of the beauty of the first Christmas.

Charity, they might again tease me, begins at home. But with the indulgence of the people who follow the weekly trips of Talking Design, I am presenting my youngest son Justin, his wife Lia and their three-year-old daughter Russia, as they pose against the tree of his mother-in-law, Jane Lising Enrile. This was not part of the original plan but this is a precious moment I feel I must share. You see, a day after the picture was taken, Lia, who had been hoping for some time to have another child, discovered she was three weeks on the family way. Now tell me, what could be a better gift from Him this Christmas?

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