Pampanga lights up 20-foot LED Christmas tree

We still have 22 days to go, but it already feels like Christmas in San Fernando, Pampanga.

As seen on GMA's "Unang Hirit" on Thursday, the Christmas Capital of the Philippines put its famous hand-crafted Christmas parols on display, including a 20-foot tall Christmas tree made up of 2,000 LED bulbs and 24 channel sequencers.

Of course, Pampanga is also known as the country's Culinary Capital, so UH hosts Love Anover and Chef Jose Sarasola featured some of the many delicious Christmas desserts in the province.

December is the perfect time to eat tamales (rice flour, toppings and egg wrapped in banana leaf); puto bumbong (purple rice cake steamed in bamboo tubes); bibingka (baked rice cake topped with salted egg); suman (glutinous rice wrapped in a banana or coconut leaf); and tsokolateng batirol (hot chocolate made from tablea cacao, milk, and peanut butter).

Chef Jose and Love also joined Kapampangan chef Don Edward Quinto for an intense Asado cook-off at the plaza of San Fernando. —Margaret Claire Layug/JCB, GMA News