Filipino Holiday Cards

Client: Island Pacific Supermarket

Illustration, Photography

I was tasked by Island Pacific Supermarket, a Filipino supermarket chain based in California, to design holiday cards utilizing assigned Christmas greetings and incorporate the supermarket’s logo.

These cards were created to reflect the joyous celebration of Christmas in the Philippines as well as to engage with the Filipino-American community during the holiday season.

This illustration depicts hung parols twinkling in the night sky with the word ‘kumukutikutitap’ which means flickering or sparkling. The parol is an iconic symbol cheerfully reflecting the Filipino Christmas spirit. While parols nowadays come in various colors, shapes, and materials, I chose to go with a traditional design of the star within a wreath and tassels and implemented Island Pacific’s logo onto the parols.

Ang Pasko ay Sumapit translates to ‘Christmas is here’; what better way to express this phrase than of young Christmas carolers jamming to holiday jingles with their homemade instruments. This design depicts a traditional affair amongst children in the Philippines. They transform household objects into musical instruments such as the tanso, a tambourine made out of bottle caps, to use while they carol.

Simbang Gabi, Tagalog for Night Mass, is a nine-day series of masses practiced by Filipino Catholics leading up to Christmas Eve. Street vendors typically surround the churches in the Philippines and specifically during Christmas puto bumbong, a sweet, purple rice cake steamed in bamboo tubes, is sold.

This design is an illustrated version of a photo taken at Our Lady of the Abandoned Church in Marikina City, Philippines observing Simbang Gabi with a food vendor on the side serving puto bumbong. See how it’s made here.

Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve in Tagalog/Spanish, is typically celebrated with a feast of Filipino cuisine. In a large gathering, lechon, a whole roasted baby pig, may be served.

I’ve illustrated a spread of popular Filipino dishes with the lechon as the centerpiece laid out on banana leaves — a traditional method of serving food. Did I make you hungry? Visit a local Island Pacific Supermarket where they serve ready-made dishes or head over to my favorite restaurant here.

“Maligayang Pasko” is the Tagalog greeting of ‘Merry Christmas’. Since these cards were to be distributed in the United States, I ensured to depict a modern Filipino-American family. I illustrated the family dressed in cold weather clothing (you rarely ever wear a sweater in the Philippines) gathered around a Christmas tree. The two individuals on the far-right are of a lolo (grandpa) and a young boy enacting in a Mano.

A Mano is a gesture of respect to elders and is a way of asking for blessing from the elder. To initiate this gesture, the person bows towards the hand of the elder, asks “Mano Po” or “Pa bless po” (‘Please bless me’), and presses their forehead on the elder’s hand. This is typically done to older relatives as you enter their home or when you see them.