Christmas is that most wonderful time of the year that people really prepare for. Festive and oh-so-merry, this is the season for reunions with long-lost friends and relatives, sharing special moments that make beautiful new memories. It even has its own festive gastronomic delights, such as lechon, ham, queso de bola and kakanin (rice cakes) like bibingka and puto bumbong.

These days, when you talk about kakanin that you indulge in during the holidays, you don’t just mean bibingka and puto bumbong in their traditional form. With life — and food — constantly evolving, the kakanin has also transformed into other forms like ice cream and bread.

Sebastian’s, with Ian Carandang at the helm, has always been innovative in its approach towards ice cream flavors, which people enjoy in scoops, ice cream cakes, chilly burgers (ice cream sandwiched between cookies) and other exciting ice cream concoctions. For this Christmas, it has rolled out five limited-edition flavors for its Christmas Collection.

There are two ice cream cakes. One is Bibingka Ice Cream Cake (oven-baked bibingka cake made with rice flour and topped with sliced duck eggs and cheese on melted butter. In between are layers of queso de bola ice cream and itlog na maalat ice cream. Each slice or nine-inch whole cake comes with packets of grated niyog (coconut), which you sprinkle on top just before eating. The other one is Food for the Gods Ice Cream Cake (oven-baked layers of Food for the Gods cake made with walnuts and dates, layered with Spiced Brandy Ice Cream, and topped with date walnut crumble.)

Sebastian’s also offers Fruitcake Chilly Burger, which is Butter Rhum Ice Cream sandwiched between two Fruitcake Cookies made with a spiced cookie batter loaded with glazed fruits and walnuts.

The brand also added two Christmas flavors to its Crispwiches line (ice cream sandwiches made with oven baked Queso de Bola Crisps) — Ensaimada (filled with Butter Cake Ice Cream with cake chunks) and Latik (filled with caramelized Coconut Cream Ice Cream) to go with flagship flavors Gatas and Ube.

Over at Masa Madre Bakehouse, Santa and his little helpers have turned out to assist Chef Kris Edison Tan and his team bake special breads and pastries for everyone this holiday season. The star of the Christmas Collection is the OG Bibingka Croissant, which is a beautiful golden croissant with all the bibingka works, all the way to the torched grated cheese on top.

Also in the collection are the Nata Natividad Box, which consists of two pieces of Masa Madre’s famous Pastel de Nata in its classic form, plus one piece each of festive Puto Bumbong de Nata, Tablea de Nata, Hazelnut de Nata and Bibingka de Nata.

Another limited-edition treat is Santa’s Mini Treats Box, which contains two pieces each of Mini Pain au Chocolat, Mini Rocher and Mini Honey Butter.

All of these are so darned special this holiday season!