The family Christmas tradition in Baguio

December 23, 2024 | 12:00am

Two weeks ago, our family went on our annual Christmas trip to Baguio from Dec. 12 to 15. My mom and two siblings, Paul and Penny, together with twin nephews Patrick and Peter, went up Thursday morning, while me and my daughter Gabbie followed on Friday, Dec. 13, after my morning show. (My other brother Pete couldn’t join us because his daughter was sick.)

My siblings completed the trip in a little over five hours, including stopovers to use the bathroom and to have lunch. For me, though, getting out of Metro Manila was a Friday the 13th nightmare. What usually takes 20 minutes from the NET25 studio along Central Ave. to the NLEX Mindanao Toll Plaza took us an hour. But we didn’t allow the traffic to dampen our mood because we were expecting it. We got to the NLEX Toll Plaza around 11:30 a.m. and before entering SLEX, stopped for a quick bite and two iced coffees for our drive to the City of Pines.

We arrived at the Baguio Country Club (BCC) around 3:30 p.m. and the place was teeming with golfers, who were there for the 74th Januarius Fil-Am Golf Tournament. I learned that the event attracted around 1,400 golfers from 260 teams across the Asia-Pacific region.

After our luggage was brought to our room and I said hello to my mom and siblings (who were walking around Camp John Hay at the time), Gabbie and I went down to the Verandah for fresh strawberry juice and puto bumbong. And just like that, the holiday spirit enveloped us like a hug, the gorgeous, giant Christmas tree in the golf course and the yummy puto bumbong playing no small part in giving us the warm and festive Christmas feels we had driven almost six hours to experience.

One of the musts for our family is dinner at Hamada, our top-ranked Japanese restaurant in Baguio that is conveniently located in BCC. At our teppanyaki table, our favorite chef Ray — who has been with BCC for over 24 years — treated us to a mesmerizing display of juggling and chopping as he cooked the steaks, vegetables and fried rice.

Our hearty and sumptuous Japanese dinner was followed by another Baguio tradition: a visit to the annual BCC Christmas village across the street. As expected, there were lots of people because it was a Friday night. Just entering the village itself already primed us for a dazzling experience because the first thing we saw was a cylindrical mini tunnel of blue and white lights that we walked through to get in.

Once inside, I sat on a bench while Paul and my nephews explored the area, stopping now and then to take photos and videos, especially when the artificial snow rained down every 10 minutes or so. I especially liked the look of the attraction this year, which was themed “Alpine Holidays” and sported a predominantly blue-and-white color scheme. It was heartwarming to see how excited the very young children were when they posed with the life-sized statues of reindeer and polar bears that were situated around the area, and how they laughed and started jumping up and down with joy when the artificial snow came down.

Even the adults were not immune to the charm of the soapy snow. Everywhere I looked, I saw couples and barkadas gleefully snapping groufies as the snow rained down and gathered at their feet. Peter, Patrick, and Paul had fun taking lots of photos throughout the place, even posing with the young performers who starred in the Nativity re-enactment! We stayed for around 45 minutes then went back to BCC around 9 p.m., marveling at how long the line to enter the attraction had grown, with even more families arriving by car and by foot every second, everyone smiling and seemingly not minding the traffic.

The next day began with breakfast at around 8 a.m. in the Verandah. We all had a relatively light breakfast — I had croissants and taho with my coffee — because the plan was to have an early lunch three hours later at Lemon and Olives, our favorite Mediterranean restaurant.

Lunch was scheduled at 11 a.m. because it was a Saturday and we knew that the city would be teeming with tourists.

After lunch, we stopped by Mt. Cloud, a quaint Filipino bookstore near Brent school. There, my siblings and I bought things we never saw in Manila’s book shops: a couple of beautifully-illustrated children’s books, cute Little Prince eco bags, and charming greeting cards made by Pinoy artists.

The next part of our trip, however, was anything but charming. A warning to those who plan to visit Baguio City: Leonard Wood Road is now one-way, and cars from the rotonda going to the Botanical Garden are rerouted. What used to be a 10-minute ride took us more than half an hour each way from Mt. Cloud to BCC. Even Waze broke down, forcing us to go back to Leonard Wood repeatedly even though both Penny and I knew quicker ways to go where we wanted. Because of the monstrous traffic, we abandoned our plan to visit the Market and Good Shepherd.

We then headed back to BCC for another family tradition: mahjong! We played for a couple of hours, sharing gossip and stories while “pong-ing,” “kang-ing,” and “mahjong-ing.” Penny and Paul were the big winners, while mom and I were the humble losers. We stopped the game at 4:30 to attend the 5 p.m. anticipated Mass in St. Joseph Pacdal. Despite the traffic that awaited us outside BCC’s gates, we still managed to arrive at the church in time and to park. After the Mass, traffic was once again bumper-to-bumper on the roads leading to BCC and Camp John Hay. Waze glitched again, telling us it would take an hour to get back to BCC when the reality (after I turned Waze off) was 30 minutes.

With traffic the way it was that Saturday, we decided to stay in BCC and have dinner in the Verandah on our last night in Baguio. Penny and my nephews enjoyed the buffet, while mom, Paul and I had a Filipino food festival of sinigang na hipon, sisig, and adobo for dinner.

Afterwards, we went back to the room and resumed the mahjong game. While chatting as we played, we realized that our favorite moments from the trip were all spent in BCC. For mom and Penny, the highlights were the massages they had the evening after they arrived. Gabbie and I particularly enjoyed merienda at the bake shop and dinners at Hamada and the Verandah. Paul, Peter and Patrick added that they also had a wonderful time not just in the Christmas village, but in BCC itself, where they delighted in simply walking around and looking at the colorful sparkling lights that made merely being in the Baguio Country Club a uniquely magical experience.

We all agreed: next year, we would be very happy indeed just staying in BCC and cozying up in the newly renovated and beautifully appointed rooms.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, dear reader!