Bring the spirit of Christmas into your home by making your own Christmas parol mobile with all the household members. Watch this video, the first of four craft tutorials we will be publishing this holiday season.
Get creative with all household members and make a DIY project during your salo-salo with the family and kasambahays this Christmas. Imagine a flurry of activity during a weekend. On top of the fun and cozy Christmas party you will host for everyone in the home, have more fun by making this beloved Pinoy parol. This could be a great bonding activity for everyone in the household. Don’t forget to have some Christmas music to complete the holiday ambience.
Start with a light lunch, then bring out all the materials as shown in the video. Choose different colors of Japanese paper. Make sure you choose a gorgeous color scheme for each parol. Find out which colors go well together by reading this post. Stop for merienda then continue with making parols if you have not finished but allot some time to hang your creations. In the early evening, you can have your manito manita reveal or exchange gifts with each other. Then dinner! This is a Pinoy Christmas celebration after all so food should be the main event.
You can make mobiles or just make many parols if you want to keep it simple. Can you imagine hanging several parols in different colors from the ceiling or in the covered terrace? Hang them in different heights so they would look more interesting. They would definitely look festive and so Pinoy!
If you want the tails of your parol to be more traditional, then watch this video.
Tip: Choose really bright and happy colors for the Japanese paper. The best neutral color that would go with all the colors would be white which is why we suggested Boysen Permacoat Barely White|BCP-0021 for the walls. If your home is white, you’ve got that perfect backdrop for these lanterns.
Traditional Pastillas Wrappers
Do you know what else you can do with your besties at home? You can revive the dying art of pabalat!
Pabalat is the art of cutting intricate patterns on paper used for wrapping pastillas made of carabao milk and sugar. This art comes from San Miguel and Malolos, Bulacan. However, these are no longer practiced because it is very delicate and time-consuming work. But these look so beautiful so you can probably look at this activity as an active meditation practice!
Isn’t it time to revive our traditional arts before we lose them forever? With the pandemic, many of us have realized that stepping out of the rat race brings more quality to our lives. It’s really time to stop and smell the flowers, so to speak. This is the reason why rural escapism has become more and more attractive for urbanites.
Slow down this Christmas and treasure moments with your loved ones. These crafts of making parols or doing pabalat may just what we need to spark joy in our hearts this holiday season.
For more DIY video tutorials, visit this link.
