Spend christmas in Iloilo

Molo Plaza (Iloilo City)
photo credit: Hawili Hurom

This season is the time of joy, reunions and family bonding. It's the best time of the year to meet old friends and to visit colorful and well-lighted parks and plazas with carefully designed light adornments for the celebration of Christmas. Experience Iloilo brings you some of the best places to visit this Christmas all over Iloilo.

In Iloilo City, the City Government of Iloilo launched 'A fair in December' last November 19, 2010 which highlighted the switching-on of Christmas lights in all of the public plazas in each city-district. The major thoroughfares of the city are at the same time adorned with lanterns sponsored by various business firms in Iloilo City.

The Iloilo Provincial Government at the same time decorated the Iloilo Provincial Capitol with elegant lights and Christmas adornments.

Lights and Music Festival at Central

The two most popular areas in the City of Iloilo are the Angelicum School and the Central Philippine University, both in Jaro district.

In Central Iloilo, the town of Pototan is the most visited in the region during Christmas season because of its spectacular Christmas designs and lights exhibits. Dubbed as the Christmas Capital of the Visayas, Pototan is celebrating its yearly Iwag festival which starts on December 16 each year. This makes the Municipality of Pototan to be one of the favorite places to visit, every December, in Western Visayas.

Other popular destinations in central Iloilo also include the light exhibits in the municipalities of Cabatuan and Janiuay while in the southern part of Iloilo is the Municipality of Guimbal.

Iwag Festival (Pototan Iloilo)

Going up north is the "Adopt and Light a Tree" project of the Municipality of Balasan which already runs for more than a decade. Balasan is the popular Christmas destination among the Northern Towns of Iloilo and other neighboring places in Capiz. This year, an added attraction is made; a giant Christmas tree competition among its 24 barangays was revived after almost 11 years since it was first initiated. The 'Adopt and Light a tree' is now being participated by government agencies and business sector in the said municipality.