Have you noticed how the food served during Noche Buena or on Christmas look and taste a little bit more special than during regular occasions? Maybe it’s because our moms always bring out their best dishes during the holidays, most specially their signature fruit salad.Much like that special china they have for the holidays, every mom has their very own special fruit salad concoction that they whip up only for this most awaited annual spread.

My mom’s extra special fruit salad recipe uses real, fresh fruits instead of canned. My brother and I aren’t fans of canned fruits so our fruit salad is made up of fresh cubes of melon, honeydew, watermelon, grapes, chunks of cheese, sweet condensed milk, and Nestlé All Purpose Cream.  

Thinking of this Christmas fruit salad brings me happy memories. We are procrastinators when it comes to preparing Noche Buena so we would only be shopping for ingredients in the morning of December 24th and spend the whole day busy preparing for Christmas Eve. It can be hectic but also a lot of fun because we get to do it as a family.

I got curious about my teammates’ moms’ extra special Christmas fruit salad recipes and the fond memories they have of it – so I asked them to share theirs, too.

“My mom loves using a mix of fruits mostly from fruit cocktails, but through the years we’ve experimented adding other fruits, too, like fresh oranges, honeydew, melon, raisins, and peaches. We also love extra cheddar cheese in our fruit salad. We have only ever used Nestlé All Purpose Cream. Through the years, it’s the only all purpose cream brand that we trust and have grown to love. It’s part of our childhood and adulthood at this point!

Christmas fruit salad brings back memories not just of actually eating it but preparing it too! I remember feeling so helpful and useful that I was slicing up cheese, then eventually other fruits, to contribute to our Christmas handa. And now, I’m not just helping make the fruit salad but sometimes make it by myself! Recently though, this job has been transferred to my sister. She had taken on fruit salad duty!”

 – Julian Cirineo, BrandRap producer

“My lola does! Christmas isn’t complete without a bowl of my lola’s giant fruit salad waiting in the ref (and its leftovers for days after ). She secretly sneaks in more of my buko strips during the holidays. Nestlé All Purpose Cream is definitely a staple in the kitchen even for her Christmas creamy carbonara and mango graham.

My lola is very traditional and doesn’t want us in the kitchen when she’s doing her thing. But when it comes to easy desserts like fruit salad, she’s given my cousins and I free reign to add our favorite fruits. It’s a real bonding moment for us while the house fills with our lola’s cooking.”

 – Saab Lariosa, BrandRap producer

“My mom makes fruit salad with canned fruit cocktails and big, chewy chunks of nata de coco! She also always uses  Nestlé All Purpose Cream, which is a pantry staple for us all year long. She usually takes charge of the whole process, but I do check in during the mixing process to confirm if there’s enough of all my favorite sahog in it – and if there’s enough for me to bring a jar home to my apartment! Of course, she’s always already on top of it, as mothers are.

Even though it’s a cold dessert, my mom’s fruit salad always makes me feel warm inside because it just feels like being with family. It also makes me feel a little guilty because I end up fishing out a lot of the cream-drenched nata for myself. Sorry to my sister!”

– Giselle Barrientos, BreandRap producer

“Fruit salad is our family’s special contribution to all our holiday gatherings, a tradition my grandma passed onto my mom. Her fruit salad always receives compliments for its perfect timpla – a crucial balance of cream and condensed milk that creates just the right sweetness. What makes it so special definitely lies in what cream we use (it’s no secret that we’ve been using Nestlé All Purpose Cream for decades). 

I’ve always been the designated decorator. When the fruit salad is ready, my mom always calls me to the kitchen to add cherries for the finishing touches. As a kid, this was the highlight for me as I would get pretty creative with the design. Now, I’m looking forward to learning the recipe alongside my mom, to keep the family tradition going.”

– Tricie Gonzaga, BrandRap content strategist

While every mom has a different Christmas fruit salad recipe, we can see that there’s something in common: it’s not about making fruit salad according to a classic recipe or a recipe made by some renowned chef. Their recipe is a mix of ingredients that every family member loves – made extra special by Nestlé All Purpose Cream and the unforgettable memories they make as a family.

How about you? What makes your mom’s Christmas fruit salad extra special? – Rappler.com