MANILA, Philippines -- What started out as a marketing gimmick to entice buyers into the family?s department store has evolved into a well-loved Filipino Christmas tradition.

Last Friday, 83-year-old Alex Rosario Sr. opened his 50th annual Christmas show titled ?Once Upon A Christmas Dream? at the Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan.

The annual Christmas display of the Manila COD department store was a well-loved feature of many a Filipino child?s Christmas. But though the store is no more, the show goes on.

According to Rosario, this year?s show uses a new concept and is by far the grandest of their Christmas displays, featuring more than 30 animated figures with more intricate movements, thanks to improved animation techniques.

It is also the longest at 17 minutes, highlighted by a waltzing couple, accompanied by two figures playing the violin and another one the harp, as well as a sword fight.

Close to 30 people will be manning the intricate controls. Since the show is still not fully automated, some workers will be manually operating the figures, while others will attend to the automation, lights and music to make sure that all of the elements are neatly in place.

Original staff

According to Rosario, a number of these workers are the children and family members of the original staff that helped him mount the first show back in 1957 when the family-run Manila COD was still on Avenida Rizal (Rizal Avenue) in downtown Manila.

Manila COD (for cash on delivery) had already been operating for nine years when Rosario, then 24 years old, thought of putting up an animated window display to get people to take notice of the wares on offer inside the 230-square-meter store.

?We could not afford expensive radio advertisements so we had to come up with something else to attract customers during our sale that November,? said Rosario, who being the eldest of six children, was president of the company.

Instant hit

That something else was a belly dancer made of plaster of Paris, which had been fitted with an electric fan motor to make it move. It was an instant hit.

?The distance from the front of the store to my desk was just 20 meters but it took me 10 minutes to get through all the people that came into the store,? Rosario recalled.

The success of the animated display encouraged Rosario to put up another one for Christmas, this time featuring a moving Santa Claus laden with gifts.

That first Christmas show was mounted on a stage just eight meters long, the frontage of the Avenida store. It would become bigger and bigger through the years.

When the Avenida location threatened to be overwhelmed by bars and restaurants, Manila COD transferred to the Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City, in 1966.

?We were the first department store to set up in the Araneta Center. At the time, only the coliseum was there. The other department stores were on Aurora Boulevard, like Assandas, which was for the middle class like us, and Aguinaldo?s, which was for the A crowd,? said Rosario.

The move to the new 1,500-square-meter location was nerve-wracking. Rosario said he never enjoyed a good night?s sleep in the three years that the store was being put up for fear that it would not do well.

To the rescue

The Christmas show came to the rescue yet again.

?I gave myself six years for us to recover our investment. But thank God we immediately earned on our first year,? he said.

That first Christmas show at Araneta Center had a lot to do with Manila COD?s success. And what a show it was.

The theme was ?Cinderella? and Rosario got popular movie star Liberty Ilagan to open the show. She arrived in a helicopter that landed on the site where the Rustan?s department store would eventually rise. (Rustan?s has since moved to the Gateway shopping mall.)

The Christmas display and show became so popular, groups of families would patiently wait outside the Manila COD to watch the show, the mechanical display portion of which lasted from 10 to 15 minutes. Some would even come from the provinces just to watch the biggest Christmas show in town, and the best part about it was that it was free.

Themes varied from year to year but there would be repeats of some of the more popular ones because of public demand. These were the ?Barrio Fiesta? and ?Santa Claus? shows and the all-time favorite and most often repeated, the ?Nativity? Christmas show.

Made by hand

Sometimes the theme was also influenced by the times, like the show featuring Muslims and Christians at a time when there were calls for friendship between people of different faiths. When the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, the Christmas show that year incorporated a short history of the Philippines.

Rosario said he had the most difficult time mounting the ?Christmas Galactica? show of 1969 to celebrate the moon landing that year. The stage had to accommodate a space module and needed a huge backdrop to simulate outer space.

Mounting the displays is not easy as each part of the mannequins has to be made by hand. About 50 workers are needed to make the costumes, paint the mannequins and install the motors. Then there are the plumbers, electricians, carpenters and sound experts.

According to Rosario, only one member from the original crew is still alive, Berting Aguirre, who applies the makeup on the mannequins. But the others live on through their children and relatives who continue to involve themselves in the show.

Rosario said that one reason the people who were involved in putting up the display loyally stuck together was their sense of pride in having created something of beauty and wonder.

?We all felt that we were involved in something bigger than ourselves. It is no longer just a show, it has become our mission,? he said.

Ortigas steps in

The Christmas show almost came to a halt in 2002 when Rosario decided to close down Manila COD because business was no longer as good. Fortunately, the Ortigas family stepped in and invited Rosario to move the show to its third home, the Greenhills Shopping Center. The partnership is now on its fifth year.

Rosario continues to take charge of conceptualizing the Christmas show and he has no intention of stopping anytime soon.

?For us old people, having something to do is very relaxing. I still like going to the shop to talk to our people and just keep busy. I don?t have any problems when I am there,? said Rosario, who is a healthy octogenarian free of any ailments.

One of his nine children, Rey, helps him with the show, ensuring that a beloved Christmas tradition will live on for many years to come.