It is a tradition during the Spanish times that people would line up at the Archbishop’s Palace or Arzobispado in Vigan on Christmas day for the annual alms giving. The church would distribute cash or goods to people. You can also witness people lining up in affluent families’ houses in Vigan, most of them are the families’ farmhand or katalunan and their families bearing gifts like local produce or fruits from their backyard for their landlords.
People lining up to wait for traditional alms giving (photo credit: Vigan Album, NCCA 2002)
Our grandparents did the same during Christmas Day, it was a day for gift giving for the families of their farmers who are working in the family’s farmlands across the province.
To this date, every Christmas day is a huge gift giving event for the Triplets’ ( Fe, Esperanza and Caridad+) families. They have continued this gift giving tradition initially for the farmhands’ families from way back since there is not much planting activity nowadays and the over the years word got around and the crowd just got bigger each passing year.
It has been over 35 years since they started this Gift Giving tradition in Laslasong West, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur and now attracts about 1,000 children from all over the province. It was an annual Christmas Day event that my family would always attend and help out anyway we could.
The New Year’s Eve was another event, as a child, it was tradition that my family would host the Villanueva New Year’s Eve celebration in our residence in Quezon City. It was an event where I get to see all my 56 cousins from my father side, that is the reason we know all the names of my first cousins. It was also attended by our dear grandfather, Lolo Fidel.
The highlight of the New Year’s day event was the appearance of Santa Claus. As a kid, I would also look forward to this occasion and get excited as we just try to figure out how did he get in the house!
The kids grew older, my grandfather passed away and my family transferred residence to Vigan in 1976 …. That was the last of the New Year’s Day Reunion.
Until when the triplets’ families decided to continue the gift giving activity with Santa Claus distributing gifts to the kids who were staying in the family estate.
It’s combing two family traditions in one big event!
Now I see how these children smile when they receive their loot bags of toys and goodies, sometimes so much that they can’t even handle with their 2 hands, you see their eyes light up and jump with joy as soon as Santa makes an appearance riding not in a sleigh but in a sled pulled by a carabao or sometimes an open truck bearing gifts for the children. They waited in line for hours for this memorable event.
I am pretty sure that these kids are now the children of the kids who used to line up here every Christmas day.
This Christmas I had the opportunity to join my cousins for this event after 5 years of absence, I saw that the crowd was so much larger and have noticed that there were ambulant vendors inside the property selling street food and drinks, a sign that this event must have a huge crowd, and they were busy all throughout the afternoon selling.
It warms our hearts to see that the family continued a very special family tradition that has been extended to anyone who wishes to join. I salute my cousins that they are able to sustain this daunting task of preparation and spending for this activity.
May the good Lord bless them and return the blessings to them a hundred fold.
La Familia Villanueva de Ylocos 
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