The best time to buy Christmas lanterns in Pampanga is now, says lantern businesswoman Mary Ann San Pedro who runs the biggest lantern store in Mabalacat City, Pampanga.
She warned that prices of lanterns could jack up by as much as 40 percent during the “peak season” after All Saints’ Day. Photo by Ding Cervantes
MABALACAT CITY – The best time to buy Christmas lanterns is now, while most people are thinking of what flowers and fancy candles to bring to the cemetery for All Saints’ Day and children are egging their parents on costumes to buy for Halloween.
“Now is the time to buy lanterns since it will be peak season after Nov. 1. Then, the prices could go as much as 40 percent higher,” warned Mary Anne San Pedro, 33, who has been into the business of lanterns for many years in this province reputed to be the world’s Christmas lantern capital.
San Pedro, whose husband is himself a lantern craftsman, said that unlike pyrotechnic products whose prices plunge on the eve of New Year’s Day, the prices of Christmas lanterns are not expected to dip substantially even after Christmas day.
“That’s because the demand for the Christmas lanterns remains even up to the Chinese New Year,” she said.
Chinese New Year this year begins on Jan. 23.
San Pedro, who owns the Santa Sleigh Lantern store along the Dau highway near the exit of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) here, also noted that “balikbayans” and foreigners who spend Christmas in the country often buy lanterns to bring back to their homes or friends abroad.
“They do this after Christmas, so we convert the volts of the lanterns from 220 to 110 for use abroad,” she noted.
So how much are the lanterns now that the peak season has not yet come?
The prices are usually standard anywhere in Pampanga, but they would tend to vary during the peak weeks.
San Pedro said that at present, a capiz star lantern measuring three feet in diameter cost P2,800.
Such lantern is lighted by 21 bulbs that dance in five patterns. A similarly sized lantern with colored plastic cover would cost much less at P700, but they have only six bulbs each with only two lighting patterns.
“But we now have more alternatives, especially for those who want something new. We have products that look skeletal, made of flatbars in the shape of a star or Santa Claus”s sleigh with multi-colored flexilights that run in series,” she said. A flatbar star measuring three feet in diameter costs P2,800.
San Pedro said that while more customers want new designs, majority still buy lanterns with the traditional shape of a star.
“Balikbayans often prefer the 18-inch capiz star lantern which at present costs only P800 with six lights and two lighting patterns,” she added.
San Pedro also noted other new products in the local markets, including lantern roses with three-foot stems , as well as fiber glass Santa Claus for the garden. The roses sell for P100 per piece, while a six-foot Santa Claus, with lights inside, cost as much as P20,000.
“That’s the prices now prevailing. After All Saints’ Day, the prices could jack up by as much as 40 percent so buying early means a lot of savings,” said San Pedro whose products are done by her workers themselves and are therefore less costly than those found in stores where lanterns pass through middlemen.
