The Philippines has the longest holiday season in the world. As early as the first day of September, Christmas tunes start to dominate radio airwaves and malls, and children start rounding up houses and streets doing carolings. Bibingka and puto bungbong become best-sellers, and children selling ampaos roam the sidewalks and streets. Giant Christmas trees and similar christmas-themed parks start get lit up.
While these traditions strongly represent holiday symbols, Christmas is never really around the corner until the two giant TV Networks –ABS-CBN and GMA Network, that is– released their Christmas station ID’s.
Family is LOVE.
The new station ID wants to prove one thing: family emanates from God’s grace. It is something you always come home to, it is a pair of welcoming arms waiting to wrap you in a warm embrace. And because family is purely a gift from the Almighty, it demands those who receive it to share it with others.
In #FamilyIsLove, Kapamilyas show how easy it is to share the blessings of being a part of a family.In the station ID, different people from all walks of life pay tribute to their families. We see the struggles of our brave soldiers who long to come home to their real families, while trying to fulfill their mandate to serve and protect a much bigger family — the Filipino people.
A foreign doctor who chooses to attend the Filipino poor, becomes a testament to how love, alone’ makes someone family. A mother who works as traffic enforcer and goes to school at the same time, finds dignity in her struggle, when she dedicates all her sacrifices to her eight children.
These amazing people, their perseverance, and hardwork, are just some of the few things that remind us that family, is indeed, LOVE.
Pag-ibig, Pag-asa, at Saya.
Family is the greatest love we can ever have. It does not discriminate, as affirmed by people who chose to serve those who seek their help regardless of their nationality, religion, and race.
In this year’s station ID, we are also reminded that family is hope, like it is to our brave soldiers who cling to the hope of being reunited with their families at home, again. The Kapamilya Network also asserts its commitment to bring happiness to the Filipino people by providing quality programs and shows that give every Filipino the sense of being in a family and being loved.
400 Stars
This year’s Christmas station ID showcases around 400 of its brightest stars. Like every year, it is almost customary to see the biggest stars in the opening and closing frames of the station ID.
This year, phenomenal box-office star, Vice Ganda is the first to appear.
Surprisingly, there is no individual kapamilya artist anointed to singly close the station ID, as a sweep of Kapamilya stars is seen closing the official music video, instead.
Perhaps, a beautiful way to look at that choice, is how it cleverly represents this year’s theme, which is family. Be that as it may, it is interesting to note some of the stars that are given important moments in the station ID, among them JaDine, LizQuen, KathNiel, JoshLia, Sarah Geronimo, TNT Boys, Coco Martin, Piolo Pascual, and the combacking Kapamilya, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid, who is given significantly high regard and space in the music video.
The Song.
Every year, comparing the new station ID with the past ones, is inevitable. Those who appear in the closing and opening frames are always anticipated as they often affirm their place among the Kapamilya network’s most prized stars.
The music video, however, won’t have the recall it intends to give, without the song. For the past few years, ABS-CBN has enlisted the artistry of known composers to create their official christmas theme songs.
This year, they’ve put veteran station ID composers, Amber and Marcus Davis, at the helm. It also showcased some of the brilliant choral groups in the country, including the UST Singers and Ramon Magsaysay High School Chorale, while accompanied by the ABS-CBN Philhamonic Orchesra.
One would argue that ‘Star ng Pasko’, the song for the network’s 2009 Christmas Station ID, remains unbeatable, but it’s hard to deny the merits of #FamilyIsLove as an equally powerful song, that it is actually hard to imagine we won’t hear it in malls and in the streets, in many years to come.
Watch the new ABS-CBN Christmas Station ID, below:
