For the past six years, the Canoy family has nurtured a Christmas tradition in the family-owned premier business hotel which Kagay-anons have come to look forward to come December.
Christmas is for Children
The “VIP Christmas Village” is a miniature winter wonderland complete with houses, churches, carousels and trees designed and laid out by Ma. Theresa “Teza” Canoy-Sambile, youngest daughter of the late RMN Founder Henry and Inday Canoy.
Dr Hector San Juan and apo checking out The Christmas Village
Eileen E. San Juan, director of VIP Hotel, said the VIP Hotel “Christmas Village” was started in December 2008 and has become a tradition every First Sunday of Advent by the Canoy Family which owns the establishment.
“It is our way of giving back to the community of Kagay-anons and other patrons who have made VIP Hotel the city’s premier business hotel since its inception,” she said. However, the unveiling and blessing of the village for this year was done on the first day of December instead.
Canoy Family Portait
”We had hoped to add something new every year to this collection so eventually, the village would grow as time goes by,” Ms. Canoy said. “But for this year, our new items got stuck at Customs in the Port of Manila and couldn’t make it in time for the opening.”
The village collection includes selected items from the famous Lemax Village Collection and Department 56.
“The other items such as lights and trees we got individually but we made the bridges and roads ourselves,” she added. Newer miniatures from China have also made their way into the growing winter wonderland.
For this year, Ms. Sambile has added two gorgeous hand-made centerpieces, a grotto with a waterfall and a blue lagoon festooned with Christmas lights.
In addition to the traditional belen which replaced a fireplace complete with mantelpiece and faux embers which glowed like the real thing, the new additions for this year include a center tableaux which looks like an outdoor park on a winter’s day, where guests and visitors can have their pictures taken (for the obligatory selfies and groupies for posting in social media) and Christmas symbols painted on the hotel’s glass windows by their very own staff.
Glass Windows Murals by Ceasar Gullabon and Julius Almerol
“Ceasar Gullabon from the front office and Julius Almerol from the restaurant painted the Christmas symbols on our windows using latex paint,” said Ms. Sambile. “The snowflake mobiles hanging from the ceiling were cut from 1/8 inch plywood by workers from my husband’s furniture shop.”
The hotel staff’s participation in the seventh edition of the Christmas Village doesn’t end there. The quartet which rendered Christmas songs during the unveiling rites was all hotel employees.
Mayor Oca Moreno and Mrs Inday Canoy unveils the 2014 VIP Hotel Christmas Village
And for the traditional giveaway to those who attended the traditional unveiling and blessing, the marketing staff headed by Jenifer E. Sebillano, sales and banquet supervisor chose the “Masa Podrida” after Ms. San Juan’s advised them to focus on traditional local pastries.
Masa Podrida (literally “rotten dough” in Spanish) is a Filipinized shortbread cookie (traditionally made from one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour) some describe as “a polvoron made into a crisp cookie” and immortalized in Kagay-an culinary heritage by the late Tita Luz Macaranas.
VIP Hotel's Best Bake Masa Podrida, a winning heirloom recipe from Kumbira 2014
But this was no ordinary Masa Podrida as one can immediately discern from its Christmassy Star Shape cut, to its pedigree: the “Heirloom Recipe” earned a Silver Medal (Professional Category) for VIP Hotel’s Best Bake Bakery in the Kasoy Tinagbuan category during the recent Kumbira 2014, the biggest culinary show and competition held outside Metro Manila.
“We hope our fellow Kagay-anons bring their children here during the holidays to share a part of their childhood memories similar to what they experienced with the former
moving Christmas displays of the old Coca-Cola plant along Osmeña street and the famous COD Dept. Store animated mannequins in Cubao and Araneta Center,” Ms. San Juan said.