CHRISTMAS AT RUSTAN’S IS ABOUT HAPPINESS, NOSTALGIA AND FAMILY
There’s something about shopping at Rustan’s that makes me feel sentimental and nostalgic. Looking at the many Christmas trees to choose from, I remember my childhood Christmases. And I feel a yearning for people I’ve lost. And things that are no longer the same. Do I still have that sense of wonder and innocence I had with every Santa Claus I see and every gift I open?
Perhaps that’s why shopping for Christmas decorations and gifts provides me with some sort of escape from my jaded adult existence. And today, as I attend Rustan’s traditional October launch of the Christmas shopping season, I feel good.
Rustan’s chairman Nedy Tantoco reminds us that after the truffle pasta and turkey, there’s
bibingka and puto bumbong. Immediately, the aroma of these Filipino comfort foods makes us rush to the dessert table. The sound of carols being sung by a young choir, and the sight of Santa Claus waiting for children to sit on his lap make the feel-good picture complete.
Marilen Tantoco joins us, the sound of her happy voice sparkling with pride over the store’s home wares and decorations she has curated for the holidays. She wears a bright neckpiece of red-orange beads done by Silnag, which traces its artistic origins to the Ifugao region.
Donnie Tantoco presides over the early dinner table with a speech coming from the heart. “As a member of the third generation, I feel pride for what the Rustan’s team has done under the leadership of Ms. Nedy Tantoco and Ms. Marilen Tantoco to make Christmas at Rustan’s more inspiring and more beautiful than last year. We feel pride for what my grandparents, Benny and Glecy Tantoco, and my elders including my mom (Nena Tantoco) and several generations of Rustan’s employees have done over the last 65 years to make Rustan’s connected with the spirit, the emotion, the beauty, the most cherished moments of Christmas for Filipino families.
“We also feel a deep sense of gratitude that Rustan’s has become the strong brand that it is today. A name that beyond Christmas also stands for wonderful virtues like trust, like quality, like personalized and caring service, beauty, style, sophistication, and Filipino and global excellence.”
Decades ago, there was Glecy Tantoco presiding over gatherings such as this one. Now the event is lorded over by the merry laughter of the fourth and fifth generations. There is little Zachary Tantoco, distributing sacks of goodies for each of us, each sack identified with our names.
And so I know here in this store, Christmas is about family.