As a compartmentalized task-oriented person, I need to say that this year’s seasonal operations were largely continuations of past Christmases, building on lessons learned in previous years. For starters, the search for a Christmas card cover artwork started early, in fact as early as December 2024, when I contacted a potential artist whose work I had seen in a recent book anthology of Bulacan artists.
Though still relatively young, the artist was fairly well-established in the realist, even photorealist, genre. His growing portfolio, only some parts of which were included in the anthology, demonstrated respectable nods to the great renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
As with past Christmas artworks, I asked the artist for studies around the theme of “A Filipino Christmas,” and by February 2025, he had sent me three, namely,
“Airplane Gift”
“Friends Celebrating their First Parol”
“Parol Vendor”
After more than twenty years of commissioned Filipino Christmas artworks, it’s probably inevitable that subjects will start to recur. Of the three studies, “Airplane Gift” and “Friends Celebrating their First Parol,” to my eyes and mind, reminded me the most of previous Christmas card covers, therefore I asked the artist to progress “Parol Vendor,” in particular.
Over the March to April 2025 period, the artist diligently sent me updates of how the final artwork was taking shape.
By late April, the painting, while not yet completely finished, was already fairly discernible.
At the beginning of May, the piece had been finished and delivered, and it could then be professionally photographed.
Apart from an early search for a Christmas artist, which allowed the final artwork to be completed by mid-year, another favorable continuity from previous Christmases was the inclusion in our gift bag of the latest Kapitan Tambay collection, now volume 3.
This will allow recipients to check if their political and world views align with my family’s, or at least with the artist’s.
Another continuity, perhaps more predictable, was the 2026 edition of the Ortigas Foundation desk calendar, now featuring views of structures in pre-World War II Manila.
A good exercise for recipients will be to do some desk research to undertake an inventory of which of the twelve places shown still exist, or had been heavily modified or rebuilt due to war damage, or have, sadly, disappeared.
The sole discontinuity this year was the third bag content – the revised edition of “Isang Daang Bagay na Nais kong Isama sa Hukay” by Kyle Gianan, “The Filipino Picker,” the social media-savvy purveyor-dealer of antique and vintage objects and other collectibles.
Kyle’s book is a faithful compendium of his range of interests and expertise (which differs from my family’s and mine, as his collections involve mainly small, handy objects, whereas ours are mostly large, human-sized, and bulky!).
The final continuity, to contain all of the above, was the third annual incarnation of our katsa bag, now emblazoned with the logos of both our two house-museums in Malolos (previous versions had the logo of only one or the other).
Everything was accompanied by this year’s Christmas card, with the afore-cited finished artwork on the cover.
Sir-Anthony Y. Mercado
ANG MAGPAPAROL
Oil on canvas
114 cm x 91 cm (45 in x 36 in)
2025
A native of Apalit, Pampanga, Sir-Anthony “Tony” Y. Mercado graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Bulacan State University in Malolos, Bulacan in 2017. Since then, he has been a finalist or semi-finalist in numerous art competitions, including the Shell National Art Competition, the DPC-PLDT Art Competition, and the Metrobank Art Competition.
A prolific artist in the realist style, Tony has exhibited frequently in solo exhibitions, including at the Ysobel Art Gallery in BGC Taguig in 2019, at the Village Art Gallery at the Alabang Town Center in 2021, in Art Verité in BGC Taguig in 2022, and in Art Cube in Makati in 2024.
Email: mercadosiranthony@gmail.com
Mobile: +63 995 933 8611
And so, from Tony Mercado, Kyle Gianan, Kapitan Tambay (a.k.a. Allan Leycano), and my family and me,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon!
Originally published on 5 January 2026. All text and photos (except where attributed otherwise) copyright ©2025-2026 Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
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