15 Traditional Filipino Christmas Foods To Try This Holiday Season

If you’re planning on adding Filipino Christmas food to your menu or just enjoy learning about how other countries celebrate the holidays, you’re going to want to keep reading! Filipino Christmas foods are varied and delicious, featuring a variety of sweet and savory options like roasted pork, sweet rice cake desserts and twists on global dishes like meatloaf and ragù.

Many of these holiday dishes also have an interesting history connected to them and can be customized, with variations of original recipes occurring in different regions. To learn more about the tasty Christmas food of the Philippines, read on for 15 of the most popular holiday dishes.  

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• What Is the Christmas Feast in the Philippines?
• The 15 Best Filipino Christmas Dishes
• Learn To Cook Filipino Dishes

What Is the Christmas Feast in the Philippines?

The people of the Philippines take celebrating Christmas seriously! In fact, they start celebrating the season as early as September, making their Christmas celebration the longest in the world. One unique way the country celebrates the season is with a Christmas feast on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve). 

Relatives will come from all over and celebrate with a meal of sweet and savory Filipino Christmas food. During this feast, Filipino Christmas dishes like lechon (roasted pig), spring rolls (called Lumpiang Shanghai) and various kinds of stews are often eaten.   

Sweets are also aplenty, with options like fruit salads and various sweet rice cake desserts, including bibingka, one of the most-loved Filipino Christmas foods.

The 15 Best Filipino Christmas Dishes

1. Lechon

Regardless of where in the world you’re hosting Noche Buena, the menu will include lechon, a crispy roasted pork belly. This Filipino Christmas food is one of the most popular dishes in the country and is also often served during birthday celebrations.

The pig is traditionally cooked on a rotating spit for several hours until it is perfectly golden and crispy. Depending on where you are in the Philippines, the meat is either seasoned with salt and pepper or stuffed with ingredients like garlic, spring onions, ginger, peppers, chilies, lemongrass and pineapple. Finally, this Filipino Christmas food is served with a dipping sauce, adding an extra layer of flavor. 

2. Hamon

It doesn’t matter where in the world you’re celebrating Christmas, having a Christmas ham is a tradition and one that is very special to Noche Buena. Traditionally, Christmas hams have a sweet and sticky glaze, which is also found coating the Filipino Christmas food version.

Hamon (hamonadong baboy) is specifically a ham hock that has been marinated overnight in tangy pineapple juice and soy sauce for a rich flavor. The ham is browned with garlic and onions and flash-fried. 

Next, the pork is boiled for a few hours until it's melt-in-your-mouth tender and is finished with a topping of extra sugar and pineapple slices. Traditionally, the ham is served with warm brown or white rice or alongside other Filipino Christmas dishes.  

3. Lumpiang Shanghai

While there are many excellent main dishes to try, a menu of Philippines food for Christmas will also feature tasty appetizers and finger foods. One of the most popular of these snacking options is Lumpiang Shanghai, a delicious spring roll-type dish. 

Despite the name of this Filipino Christmas food, it did not originate from Shanghai. This Filipino dish is said to have originated within the country and dates back to the 1500s.

This Filipino Christmas food is made by taking a thin egg crêpe wrapper and filling it with ground pork sautéed with onions, garlic, shallots and carrots. Each roll is then fried until crispy.  Lumpiang Shanghai are typically served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce.   

4. Chicken Relleno

Chicken relleno, also known as chicken gallantina, is a popular Filipino Christmas food that you need to add to your holiday cooking repetoire. This Filipino Christmas food is a bird that is deboned except for the limbs. It’s also stuffed with a filling that combines ingredients like ground pork, Vienna sausages, raisins and gherkins. 

Additionally, this stuffed chicken features hardboiled eggs in the center of the stuffing. Other alternatives you can add to the stuffing include Chinese sausage, olives and chorizo.

Traditionally, this Filipino Christmas food is served with banana ketchup (a fruit ketchup condiment made from banana, sugar, vinegar and spices) or a rich gravy with steamed rice, mashed potatoes or vegetables.     

5. Caldereta 

Caldereta (or kaldereta) is one of the coziest Filipino Christmas foods. Said to have been introduced by the Spaniards during their occupation of the country, this meat stew has become a Filipino classic and is seen at various celebrations, with some having their own twist on the recipe.  

Typically, the dish features goat, but beef, pork or chicken may also be used. The meat is cooked into a stew with tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers and potatoes. Olives are often added as well along with a rich liver spread or paste. Some recipes also use tomato sauce alongside or in place of fresh tomatoes.

6. Kare-Kare

Kare-kare is a rich and creamy peanut stew. It's a popular and comforting Filipino Christmas food, although it’s enjoyed at other times of the year as well. This Filipino food includes meats like oxtail, tripe, pork leg and other meat offcuts and offal. It also includes vegetables like string beans, eggplant, banana blossoms and bok choy.

This stew is prepared like any other: tenderize the meat and then cook it down in the sauce (in this case, a peanut sauce) with vegetables. Variations of this dish include seafood, such as shrimp paste, prawns or mussels. No matter how you make it, this dish is a cozy and delicious addition to your holiday food spread.

7. Callos

Stew is a very popular Filipino Christmas food and callos is another of many stew dishes that may be served around the holiday. Historically, this ox tripe stew was considered a peasant food in Spain, but over time, it has become a popular dish in the Philippines, including becoming a staple during the holiday season.

Today, the meat used may vary but generally still includes ox tripe as well as trotter meat, blood sausage and even chorizo. Most recipes also add chickpeas along with vegetables like carrots, potatoes and peppers. The stew sauce is a rich and tangy tomato sauce and is served alongside crusty bread or rice. 

8. Embutido

What’s Christmas without a hearty meatloaf? Embutido is a meatloaf-style dish that is also a popular Philippines food for Christmas. Interestingly, its similarity to American meatloaf isn’t just a coincidence. The dish is said to have been created during the American canning industry expansion in the Philippines in the early 1900s.

Although adapted from U.S. meatloaf that was served by Americans in the area during that period, this Filipino Christmas food does feature some differences from its U.S. counterpart. While the dish similarly contains bread crumbs and ground meat (usually pork), this mixture is also combined with minced carrots, raisins, garlic and sautéed onions. Hard-boiled eggs, sliced ham and Vienna sausages are traditionally placed in the center of the meatloaf as well. 

Some locals like to add other ingredients like pineapple, bell peppers and cheese. Cooking this dish is conveniently quite simple as well — you just need to combine all the ingredients and wrap the meatloaf in aluminum foil before steaming it until fully cooked. 

9. Pancit Malabon

Pancit Malabon is a Filipino Christmas food that originates from the city of Malaban. The dish features rice noodles cooked in seafood broth (which may include crab fat and fish sauce) with annatto seeds, contributing to the yellow color of the noodles. 

It’s usually topped with seafood but may also include meat like pork, eggs and crushed chicharrón. This is another of many Filipino Christmas foods that can be enjoyed all year round, so you can likely try it if you visit the Philippines or a Filipino restaurant outside of the holidays.

10. Fruit Salad

The fruit salad is a quintessential Filipino Christmas food and one that is super easy to make. As with many Filipino recipes, there are lots of versions of this recipe, with various ingredients added. 

However, most recipes will feature a base of tinned fruit cocktail, cream and sweetened condensed milk. You simply mix the ingredients together, chill until ice cold (or even partially frozen) and serve. 

Variations on the dessert include adding nata de coco (coconut gel), shredded coconut, additional cocktail cherries or fresh fruits like cubes of apples or bananas. Some recipes even feature cubes of cheese. No matter which ingredients you add, this creamy and refreshing Filipino Christmas food is sure to become a favorite on your holiday menu! 

11. Ensaymada

There are so many different sweet Filipino Christmas foods to choose from, with another top dish to try being ensaymada. This pastry originates from Mallorca in Spain but has since become a popular dish in the Philippines, especially around the holidays.

This dessert features balls of light, fluffy and buttery dough. The dough balls are then covered in toppings like butter, sugar and grated queso de bola (cheese).    

12. Filipino Spaghetti

This Filipino Christmas food is a take on the Italian classic of pasta with ragù sauce, incorporating sweeter flavors than the Italian version. It’s commonly served on other special occasions, such as children’s birthdays, as well as at Christmas.  

To make Filipino-style spaghetti, start with a base of rich tomato sauce with sweet banana ketchup or brown sugar added in. Some recipes even see condensed milk mixed into the sauce.

Meats like hotdogs, ground pork and luncheon meat are next added to the tomato base. This pasta recipe is often finished with a sprinkling of grated cheese for the ultimate comfort food dish.

13. Bibingka

Perhaps the most recognizable Filipino Christmas food is bibingka. If you’re looking for Christmas breakfast ideas, this is a great dish to try as the sweet treat is often enjoyed for breakfast instead of as a dessert.  

Bibingka is a rice cake made from rice flour, coconut milk and water. The cake batter is poured into a pot lined with banana leaves before being cooked. This dish is often served with butter, sugar and grated coconut. Grated cheese and sliced salted egg may also be added as a topping.

14. Puto Bumbong

You cannot make bibingka without making another iconic Filipino Christmas food called puto bumbong. This dessert is easily recognizable thanks to its bright purple color. More traditional versions of this dessert are made with pirurutong (black rice), but the purple version has become the most common variety. 

This sweet treat features sticky rice cake that has been stuffed into bamboo tubes and steamed. Once cooked, it’s usually topped with melted butter, sugar and grated coconut. This is another of the Filipino desserts that may also be topped with grated cheese. If you don’t plan to make it yourself, you’ll generally find puto bumbong served wherever bibingka is served.

15. Suman

Suman is another tasty Filipino Christmas food featuring a rice cake base. These sticky rice cakes comprise a rice and coconut milk mix which gets wrapped in buri palm leaves or banana leaves before being steamed. 

They’re usually served with a small sprinkle of sugar, fresh ginger or with latik, which is a syrupy caramelized coconut cream. These sweet treats can be enjoyed at any time of the day, and making them for a holiday feast is a popular Christmas activity in the Philippines.

Learn To Cook Filipino Dishes

If learning about Filipino Christmas foods has piqued your interest in the country’s cuisine, learning how to cook Filipino dishes at a cooking class near you is a great idea. You can learn holiday recipes and authentic dishes as well as fusion cuisine, combining Filipino foods with other global dishes. You can also opt for online cooking classes to learn how to make delicious meals from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Whether you’re looking to add some unique dishes to your holiday table or simply enjoy learning about world cuisines, this list of popular Filipino Christmas foods should have taught you something new about how Christmas is celebrated in the Philippines. If you do want to recreate some of these dishes, most are relatively easy to prepare and you’ll be rewarded with delicious flavors and new recipes that may become a part of your regular holiday menu.

For even more ways to explore your favorite foods, check out other experiences happening on Cozymeal.