Disney UK got a cool and heartwarming Christmas advert! I am particularly touched and moved by this video ad simply because it features bits of the Filipino qualities and culture.
Mano: the gentle placing of the back of the hands of your elders to your forehead is a unique Filipino gesture to show sign of respect to elders
Parol & Parol-Making: a lantern which is made of bamboo sticks and colored paper is a major Christmas symbol of every household in the Philippines. And it is a common practice that grade school students would create one as a school project during Christmas season so as to have it hanged in their respective houses. I made a horrible-looking one myself during my young school days!
Simbang Gabi: a Filipino-Catholic tradition of attending midnight Mass at a nearby Catholic church for 9 consecutive nights prior to Christmas Eve. And since I am wicked, this is one Filipino tradition that I never get to complete!
Recycling of an old cookie tin can: Lola-s (translation: grandmothers) around the nation would never throw away metal cookie cans. These would instead be re-used either as a jewelry box, a sewing kit container, an old photos or greeting cards chest or other similar charms, trinkets and mementos that a usual Filipino lola wants to keep.
Thanks Disney UK! You moved me.