A scarecrow in a lush field of palay or rice… Who would have thought this could be the setting for a couple of gingerbread houses? Several years ago, one of this blog’s regular readers suggested that I attempt to do a Filipino-themed gingerbread creation. It seemed like a farfetched idea, the gingerbread tradition being rooted in cold weather, snow, et al. But that “reader challenge” was filed away somewhere in my brain and I guess this turned out to be year to take it on. So while just a few of you figured out what I was doing with these materials a few weeks ago, here is the story behind Marketman & Crew’s gingerbread village/barangay/scene.
While shopping for some gifts a couple of weeks ago, I found two of the cutest model piglets about 1.5 inches in length. I bought both of them and knew right then and there that the gingerbread design for this year would follow from there. For Marketman & crew, this was essentially our “year of the pig” what with all the Zubuchon activity, so it seemed fitting that the pigs would be the center of attention.
After a couple of days spent thinking up the “blueprint”, I ended up going back to the same store and purchased several more small animals, including a mommy and daddy pig, anatomically correct… :) We also got a couple of chickens, wild boar, etc.
We plotted several “rice fields” into the tableau, and the pigs were center stage.
The entire edge of the village had a bamboo wall, made from some placements. Several rice paddies were a beehive of activity.
A few brown ducklings played at the edge of the of the rice fields…
Two incredibly intricate homes were made from a base of thin styrofoam, to keep the gingerbread supported and firm (it is sometimes way too humid in Manila to expect the gingerbread to stay crisp). The small but native homes had gingerbread walls, bamboo lanais and railings, what looked like cogon roofs made from cereal, and all parts of the styrofoam were concealed with brown colored icing, bamboo poles, etc. Unusual for gingerbread, the insides of the houses were completely visible through large windows, and the interior walls were clad in what looked like authentic local materials. And if you looked closely, the houses have ceilings as well!
The essence of a simple yet practical provincial home is apparent in both homes. Just one large multi-purpose room for eating, sleeping, chatting and living. Cross-ventilation from large windows all around. Bamboo floors for natural air-conditioning. And in the case of this second and bigger home, it is raised off the ground with thick but short poles. Authentic stairs with four steps (oro, plata, mata, oro after all) lead up to the large lanai shaded by a light woven material. Note the three hand-made parols or Christmas lanterns in red, green and white on the homes… each one took nearly an hour to complete! And they have the tiniest but most accurate of “tails” on the lanterns.
You can see some of the interior wall coverings in the photo above, as well as the crochet window treatments that were placed at every window, and of course, the main doors. :)
An outhouse of bamboo and real dried palm leaves has a door and a little window vent.
Railings were painstakingly done by hand by two members of the crew, as was much of the other intricate bamboo work. Note the rolled up mat on the balcony. There is a more colorful mat in the other house as well…
The crochet work, ceilings and interiors of the smaller home.
An overhead “nightime” view of the tableau… Recently electrified, the barangay was aglow in an excess of lights from lamp posts placed way too close together, probably due to some hefty kickbacks… :) Hung on the poles were also fiesta banners, each triangle cut by hand and pasted onto thread. It took over four hours to make the multi-colored decorations…
What’s amazing about this year’s creation is that EVERYONE in the house contributed something. Whether it was the idea for how to string the lights, to the hundreds of palm tree leaves that we had to cut by hand and past onto spare rattan poles from the backyard storage area, to the fabrication of the styrofoam bases… we all had a part in this year’s effort. It was truly the spirit of bayanihan, in a theme that screams local pinoy. I mean, this is the idealized provincial setting… no exterior bathroom design styles in this make-believe part of the gingerbread realm.
Notice that we also took the time to take photos of everyone in the household, to scale, well almost to scale, and mounted the printed cut-out photos all around the scene. This makes it extremely personal and meaningful for our household. But it was a result of trying to find Asian figurines and I couldn’t locate any… the ones in the stores are all Caucasian! Oh, and let’s not forget the chocolate lab, whose name is Ginger, after our annual gingerbread effort, and she hangs out in the lanai of the smaller nipa hut watching all the hubbub on the farm. She isn’t sure whether she should run around the fields since she is most certainly a city dog… hahaha.
Set on a large narra table surrounded by pots and pots of poinsettias, this small but unique set-up is definitely one of our family’s favorites to date. After each long and crazy day of pre-Christmas activity, I like to turn off almost all of the lights in our living room and sit staring at the gingerbread for a few minutes before finally heading off to bed… It’s an oddly calming thing to do. From our home to yours, we wish you all a wonderful holiday season!!!
Gingerbread has been an annual tradition in our home for the past 15 years. Here are some other editions…
Madeline’s orphanage, 2001.
The domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, 2002.
A large candyhouse and the St. Basil’s Cathedral piece, 2002.
A block of townhouses, some unnamed Western City, 2003. Note, templates for the front of the townhouses designed by A. Locsin, the architect. :)
The Kid’s Village strip Mall, 2005.
The Red Barn, 2006
The Green Chapel, 2006
Some gingerbread cookies decorated with icing and double as ornaments for a Christmas tree…
Last year’s New England Gothic Chapel, 2009
93 Responses
This is absolutely amazing! A Blessed Christmas to you, your loved ones and all under your care!
Greetings!
It is really so enjoying to see all those pics and got nostalgic about my makeshift gingerbread house when I was in second grade. It was all made up of Nips candy with a thickly melted powdered milk as my adhesive. I love the houses that you’ve made throughout the years and was quite inspired of doing simpler ones with our four year old so he’ll treasure the memory too. Happy holidays to your family!
Wow Pinoy gingerbread…. Happy Holidays!!
very nice Mr. M!!!! – Mabuhay!!! Pilipinong pilipino tayo ngayon! Maligayang Pasko po sa inyong lahat!
BRAVISSIMO!
I guessed correctly in your previous post! :)
A labor of love! Painstaking , finely detailed, very beautiful! Most of all, very Filipino.
Maligayang Paskong Pilipino!
Awesome! They are just so fantastic!
Btw, I’m digging the achives for Christmas recipes.
Merry Christmas to you and your family! :)
very creative MM!
Two thumbs up, MM!
Among all your gingerbread creations, I must say this is my favorite! A good bayanihan effort indeed. I love the crocheted window treatments – don’t tell me someone actually did that by hand?! I love the night-time shot as well and in this case, hooray for the kicksbacks! haha
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!
Absolutely amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon sa inyong lahat!
That was too awesome! Happy holidays to you, your family and crew.
Very Nice! Bravo!
AWESOME!!! Definitely your year-of-the-pig…..but where is the zubuchon roasting in celebration?….hehehehe.
Merry Christmas everyone!
That’s a really detailed pig! I agree with other posters, this one is the best out of the previous productions. Designs from the heart.
Very pinoy. I would say the best gingerbread bread I’ve ever seen MM. Have a blessed Christmas to your family!
Just charming and so Pinoy in every respect! Thanks for sharing as always, MM.
Happy holidays to you, your family and your crew!
This is, by far, my favorite of your gingerbread houses! Being away from the Philippines makes me appreciate all the small details that you put in there even more…the banig, the parol, the outhouse. Amazing! I don’t comment often but I felt this endeavor truly deserved a congratulatory greeting :-) Merry Christmas to you, your family and your crew. May 2011 bring you nothing but the very best!!!
So wonderfully elaborate and intricate, I can see the labour of love you’ve poured into this project! Thanks for sharing. A peaceful Christmas to you too.
A labour of love indeed! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful creations!
I can’t really pick which one is my favourite as each one is unique and gorgeous and I just love them all!
Wishing you and your family and crew a very blessed and Happy Christmas!
Fantastic detail in your Pinoy gingerbread house and a job well done. A big thumb’s up to everyone who pitched in this endeavor.
Maligayang pasko sa inyong lahat!!!
Awesome! I think I’d want to display that the whole year round :)
Malipayong Pasko kanimo ug sa imong pamilya MM! Kasadya gyud ining takna-a!
MM, Congratulations again to you, the Mrs , the Teen and your staff. Just finished watching your segment with Jessica Soho’s show. BEAUTIFUL INDEED!!! From my family to yours – Malipayon nga Paskua kag Mahamungayaon nga Bag-ong Tuig!!!
I saw the gingerbread house segment last night and I love your gingerbread village! It’s my favorite! Thank you for sharing MM.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours. :)
It’s really all in the details…amazing! Merry Christmas from Toronto!
This is oh so amazing! And the details. Wow! The most amusing part for me would be the anatomically correct daddy pig. LOL! I can’t believe you found one of those.
Anyway, just saw the Jessica Soho piece on the internet. Wish they devoted more time to your bayanihan gingerbread house but I guess Krissy’s and Marian’s spaghetti efforts cut it short. ;-)
Merry Christmas to you, Mrs. MM, The Teen, and The Crew! (Sister and Brother, too!)
mabuhay! amazing!
I watched Jessica Soho last night and I think I saw a little tiny you( walking? running? it was fast!) in the pinoy tableau…..but couldn’t locate you anymore at the pix above.Was it just my imagination? :) Great idea using photos and I like how their poses tell a story like the one of the girl going to the outhouse for a pee?? Ha!ha!ha! You and your crew are amazing! no stones left unturned….very detailed!Congratulations and Merry Christmas to you, Mrs.MM, the Teen and the crew!
Lovely, lovely – the details are so amazing! The most joyful of Christmas to you MM and family and the worldwide Market Manila family. Blessings for the new year too!
I love it! Merry Christmas MM, Mrs. MM, The Teen and the Crew!
Just gorgeous! Merry Christmas to you MM, the family and crew!
My favorite part of the decorations are the tiny details like the banig and parols and the best part is the tiny MM crew! Love seeing the tiny pictures all over the scene. <3
Grabe, ang galing-galing! How many manhours did it take to make this?
Merry Christmas to you and your family, MM!
This is absolutely the best of the lot, MM!! I love all the details, especially the interiors of the houses. My daughter and I used to make gingerbread houses when she was growing up but now she makes toppers for the tree- a different one each year. Last year’s was the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver, pervfect in every detail. Can’t wait to see what this year’s will be.
Truly amazing! Love the cereal roof…I wonder how you came up with that. I agree with the others that this is the best gingerbread house so far. What is more precious though is how you unselfishly keep sharing your creations with us. Thanks and Merry Christmas, MM and family!
This has to be my favorite of your featured gingerbread houses! Kudos to all who worked on it! :D
i love this MM!! thanks for sharing! it has to be my favourite amongst ur creations =) ohh my second favourite is The domes of St Basil’s cathedral. fantastic!
just so awesome! what a wonderful effort. merry xmas and happy new year to the mm household
ang galing!!! It was truly a labor of love.
BTW, are the pigs you used Schleich? My son loves the animal figures especially the horses. :)
You can find them at Hobbes and Landes or Build City.
Maligayang Pasko sa iyo MM at sa iyong pamilya.
This is absolutely amazing, MM!! This is the best gingerbread house I have seen! I wish I had your creativity and patience to make one. One question though….so what do you do with the gingerbread houses after the holidays? Such a pity to dismantle them after spending hours creating them.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! (Can you tell how much I love it?) You’re so creative.
Merry Christmas to you, your family, and crew!
A big round of applause for Marketman and crew!
Beautiful! You are a gift to me MM, you never fail to impress and inspire =)
I Really just can’t believe how you can surpass one great creation after another each year! How you make such a very foreign activity relevant in our country as well your eye for detail are just some of the reasons that a lot of people keep coming back to this wonderful blog!
BTW, for those of you who missed MM last 12/18/2010, here’s the link for the show:
https://www.pinoypctv.com/2010/12/kapuso-mo-jessica-soho-december-18-2010.html
Just finish the first 14 minutes and the next clip will load up! MM’s segment should come around the 2:18 minute mark of the second clip (after Ms. Marta Matute’s segment)!
Grabe MM! poging pogi with a deep voice to boot! Congratulation! :)
MM, would you believe you and your gingerbread houses are also in a Pakistani version of youtube?
https://pktube.onepakistan.com/video/YQi_B7D_es0/Jessica-Soho-12-18-2010-GingerBread-Part.html
Napakaganda at napakahusay ng resulta ng inyong bayanihan!
Maligayang Pasko MM. Mrs. MM,The Teen and the Crew!!!
just totally amazing! MM, your creativity and passion have rubbed off on your crew, who must be looking forward to your crazy ideas by now. love everyone’s pictures there – brilliant idea.
warmest christmas greetings to you and your family and the crew, MM, and wishes for a new year filled with more blessings and happy surprises!
MM, our flight to London was cancelled making for a fitting end for a really poopy week. Your gingerbread barangay made me SMILE! Well done you guys!!!!!
nice voice MM! may new career ka na , u cn be a dj :D
WOW! Malupet! Pati interiors meron. Good job MM and crew. Thank you for sharing.
Merry Christmas to you and your family and your household.
GALING!
Have always loved your gingerbread houses – so much so I have finally decided that I am going to make one this year. Hopefully it goes well and the kiddies won’t finish the candies before we complete the house!
ang galing! …. my fave so far of all your gingerbread houses, mas may emotional connection :)
Maligayang Pasko sa iyo at sa buo mong pamilya!
sana open for public viewing ang inyong munting nayong pilipino :)
MM, another over the top magnum opus!
I will be audacious in riding on your coattails by thinking that I may have suggested the idea . Hmmmmm. I tried going thru the archives but couldn’t find proof. Perhaps it is all in my head. Anyway……
Happy holidays to you, and family, sister , the crew and all the netizens who visit this blog! A special one to BettyQ as well!
Love it!!! MM you just made me so happy with this post. It must be awesome to be a part of your crew. Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!
WOW!! How creative. Thank you very kindly for sharing. Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all.
just like everyone else i am truly thankful of what you share not only to your family and friends but to your readers as well. you’ve got a big heart MM. May you and your family have all the joys this Chistmas and wishing you a blessed 2011.
Ms Betty q, if you happen to read this, would you (or anyone who has a copy) be so kind and generous to share to share your AWARD WINNING CHOCOLATE CAKE (the one worthy of a medalya). My email is miotitat@yahoo.com. Thanks!
Mabuhay at Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!!
that was amazing and beautiful! Maligayang pasko to mm family and the staff!
thanks you so much for sharing all of these.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! THIS IS A WORK OF ART.
THANKS FOR SHARING….
Kudos to you and your tribe, Marketman.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous new year.
wow, this is truly amazing! the jessica soho ep. didnt do your gingerbread house any justice! i love it and the family tradition that goes with this! thanks for sharing, mm.
merry christmas mm! what a fabulous creation… again, thanks for sharing =)
kudos to you and your family (the crew of course included)!!!! seeing this year’s gingerbread creation brought nostalgic feelings of home. your creation has an “amorsolo” feel to it. have a blessed Christmas from the ocean state.
MM, was that wheat cereal for the thatched roof? Nice “green” architecture.
Been reading your blog for 6 (?) years and this year I won’t experience pinoy pasko vicariously.
Merry Christmas!
this was very exhilarating for me to read. here i was, blogging about the sacrifices i have to make, to use only Filipino motifs this christmas, and here you are, building an entire, exhaustively detailed, Filipino rice farmer’s compound. this is simply beautiful. beautiful. congratulations. you and your crew have outdone yourselves. and thousands of other selves. haha.
nakita ko poh e2 sa kapuso jesica.. and i think nakita kuna si market man sa isa sa mga episode ni bobby chinn
MM, you amaze me. what a joy to behold such a work of art and love. Am just in awe. A very Merry Christmas to you and your family and your crew.
aylaveet. ang galing! my favorite part is the roof of the hut (looks like cap’n crunch) :)
Amazing!! Merry christmas to you and your crew!
Gorgeous! The attention to detail is so impressive! Merry Christmas to you & your family & the crew!
Wow, this really looks great! Your creations get better each year, it’s so nice, how can one have the heart to dispose of it after the holiday season?
Merry Christmas MM, family and crew!
Fantastic! You never fail to amaze me, Marketman! Blessed Christmas to you, your family, and the crew!
Wow, you out did yourself this year! (although all of your past creations were just as spectacular, I think it’s the theme this year that is so close to home : )
So, all of our guesses were sooo wrong…lol. Merry Christmas MM and family!
Nice! Amazingly done! Merry Christmas MM and to your family and crew! :-)
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Galing! I wouldn’t have imagined anyone coming up with a gingerbread bahay kubo. I hope our local hotels would be encouraged to come up with a creatively similar theme for their Christmas decorations next year. Merry Christmas MM, to your family and crew from ours. :-D
Was able to watch the Jessica Soho show, it was replayed just now( monday am) here in Cali. Amazing ginger bread house, nice job again Mm and crew!
Merry Christmas everyone!
to cheeseheadeatsushi, i think the roof is made from frosted mini wheat cereal
Yes, Maligayang Pilipinong Pasko to MM, family & crew. Mabuhay sa inyo! Peace, joy, blessings, and more of MM in 2011.
WOW!!! GALING!!! Sana ma-exibit mo ito sa public places so everybody can appreciate your “work of art”…
NICE. I love the banderitas.
Hope you are having a merry, merry christmas!
Truly a labor of love and bayanihan. This will be hard to beat next year. Merry Christmas to one and all!
Awesome! The details are just amazing. Thanks for sharing. Happy Holidays to everyone. :)
I agree with Artisan Chocolatier, where’s the lechon to complete the festivities? but aside from that all i can say is WOW!!!
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year everyone!
I only noticed when I re-read your post and looked at the photos…poor female crew, she’s forever waiting for her turn to pee in the outhouse!
fascinating gingerbread houses! i love gingerbread goodies.
how come the candy mints still have wrappers in them? it kind of killed the structure.
Truly WONDERFUL CREATIONS! You’re simply THE BEST, MM. A Blessed Christmas to you and your family… and your crew as well.
Your attention to detail is perfect, Mr. MM, and you have the patience to execute such a painstaking project. Hats off to you!
A blessed Christmas and New Year to you, your family, and your crew.
Thank you, too, for making every visit to your site an interesting/fun learning experience.
rita, Manila is too humid to unwrap the candy mints, they tend to liquify and drip all over the g-bread houses…
MM, I found your web site in June while trying to find recipes to cook for my wife who is from Cebu. I am a U.S. Sailor who spends many months out at sea, but it is so refreshing everyday when I log on to the computer to see what adventures/projects you have been up too. Your writing, pictures and topics I look forward to everyday. I am finally in Cebu enjoying time with the wife and family (my first christmas here), so hopefully this is a start of many family traditions for my family. Merry christmas to you and your family MM, and god bless.
Scott
amazing, awesome!! two words….
All I can say is “WOW”!
I’ve been looking forward to your yearly Christmas gingerbread… I’m glad that you did a Filipino setting… Great details, as always! Merry Christmas! :)