Across Metro Manila this year, the Christmas season has arrived not quietly but in full glow. City halls, parks, streets and public spaces are once again illuminated with shimmering trees, attractive parols (Christmas lantern), cascading lights and large-scale installations that invite people outdoors — to linger, to take photos, to feel that familiar sense of shared celebration. The season’s decorations have grown more ambitious and some even more thoughtful, turning civic spaces into places of celebration and also reflection.

Parañaque City is among those that have embraced this spirit with thoughtfulness. On 1 December, the city government, led by Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez, formally inaugurated its Christmas tree and decorations at the Parañaque City Hall complex — unveiling "Pasko ng Parañaqueño," a concept that treats the Christmas season not simply as spectacle, but as story, identity and values made visible in light.

Conceived by creative director and events and tourism consultant Nilo Agustin, “Pasko ng Parañaqueño” is anchored on the idea that Christmas decorations can dazzle as well as speak, teach and remind. Throughout the city hall grounds and façade, light installations unfold as a visual narrative of what it means to be Parañaqueño —rooted in faith, grounded in community, and open to all.

At the center of the display stands a Christmas tree that is deliberately simple in form but rich in symbolism. It is borne by four figures of Queño, the city’s mascot, each one representing an ideal or value: maka-diyos, maka-bayan, maka-kapwa and maka-kalikasan. These values — faith, love of country, compassion for others, and care for the environment — are presented as lived principles that shape everyday life in the city.

“More than a festive icon, Queño stands as the values ambassador guiding every Parañaqueño towards its vision as the ‘Mega City by The Bay,’” explained Agustin.

Surrounding the central tree, which is located behind the monument of hero Jose Rizal, are smaller, uniformly-sized Christmas trees, each representing one of Parañaque’s 16 barangays. Together, they form an image of unity and bayanihan.

The Christmas trees are in stylized conical shape, and paneled, evocative of stained glass windows as well as the Filipino parols.

The belen or the Filipino depiction of the Nativity scene, prominently set against the city hall façade, deepens this narrative. Here, the Holy Family is not isolated in a distant biblical past. Instead, they flanked by figures that mirror the city’s present-day reality.