Bringing Christmas Traditions from the Philippines

In the Philippines, Christmas is a time for family, for giving and sharing, and a time for celebration, food, and friendship. In fact, it’s more than just a holiday; it’s more like a whole season!

The Christmas celebration begins on December 16th with the first of nine early morning masses (Simbang Gabi) and doesn’t end until Three Kings, the first Sunday of the year. The Philippines becomes a wonderland of Christmas lights, colorful parols, lively tiangge markets, Christmas trees, and even Santa Claus. Carolers walk from house to house singing Christmas carols, and street vendors sell freshly-made Bibingka, Puto Bungbong, Castañas, and other traditional foods.

Filipinos who move to the U.S. generally miss Christmas in the Philippines more than any other time of year. Yet this is the most expensive time to travel, so we can’t go home every year. Instead, we bring our Philippine traditions to our new country, and sometimes modify them to fit our new environment.

“We do what we can to recreate the experience of Christmas at home. So we always have ham, Queso de Bola, and Pancit.”

“I miss caroling in the Philippines. Here in America, we sing Christmas carols in church and we play Tagalog Christmas songs at home. We also use videoke to sing along.”

“Our family goes to midnight mass together on Christmas Eve and then we have our Noche Buena feast. We have as many of the traditional foods as we can, but we usually add roast beef, mashed potatoes, and gravy.”

“We always put up Christmas lights, and even have a lighted parol on display.”

 Ask remithome: Sending to Multiple Recipients

Question: I understand that remithome has a Multiple Recipients feature that allows me to send money to more than one person at one time. Why would I want to do this and how does it work?

Answer: When you send transfers to 2 or more recipients in one transaction, remithome reduces the fee for each transfer by $2. So, for a standard Philippine Peso transaction, the cost per transfer would be $8 (instead of $10). By using our Multiple Recipients feature to schedule these transfers in one transaction, you can save both time and money!

Here are a few other reasons you might want to use remithome’s Multiple Recipients feature:

• Confidence that Each Recipient Receives the Right Amount – So, you usually send money to your brother and ask him to distribute part of the money to your two sisters. But what if he forgets, or doesn’t distribute it according to your instructions? The solution may be to send money directly to each of your siblings using remithome’s Multiple Recipients feature. You gain peace of mind knowing that each recipient will receive the intended amount.
• Your Recipients Live in Different Locations – If your recipients are in different parts of the Philippines, sending money to one person for redistribution may not be an option. So you can save time and money by using our Multiple Recipients feature to send 2 or more transfers in one transaction.
• Five Christmas Gifts for Under $100 – If you would like to remember your 5 nieces and nephews in the Philippines at Christmas, but don’t have enough time to shop, wrap, and mail your presents, you could use the Multiple Recipients feature to send each of them $10 in Pesos. In Metro Manila,
  $10 in Pesos buys 3 movies, 6 meals at Jollibee, 60 jeepney rides, or 470 cellphone text messages! And if you use our Multiple Recipients feature to send the 5 transfers in one transaction, the cost is only $8 per transfer. For a total cost of $90 (Pesos sent plus transfer fees), you’re sure to brighten their day!

Here’s how to get remithome’s Multiple Recipients discount:

If you have already set up profiles for 2 or more recipients in your remithome membership account, just go to the Send Money page. All your recipients with the same delivery currency will be listed together. Simply enter the dollar amount you want to send to each person. If you select at least 2 recipients, your transfer fees will be automatically adjusted to $8 per transfer.

If you do not yet have 2 recipients listed, you can use the Add Recipient page to enter information for other people you want to send money to. Once you have successfully added your new recipients, they should appear on the Send Money page. Note that for recipients with Bank Deposit as the delivery method, our Manila Office will need to verify the recipient’s Philippine bank account before you can send money. This generally takes an additional business day.

For recipients with Door-to-Door delivery or Cash Pick-Up, no advance verification is required since the recipient must show 2 forms of ID to receive the money. To accept delivery of cash, recipients must be at least 18 years old.

Note that for Multiple Recipients transactions, you can send different amounts to each recipient, they do not have to reside in the same area, and they can each have different delivery methods!

If you have questions about remithome’s Multiple Recipients feature, please contact remithome Customer Service at 1-800-919-0787, Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, Pacific Time (California), or email us at customerservice@remithome.com. We would be happy to assist you!