Tami Leung: Designing Christmas

MANILA, Philippines - When Tami Leung of Tamilee Decors, an avid golfer, saw four gigantic mountains of tree logs and other branches and debris left by Typhoon Glenda on the greens of Sta. Elena Golf Course, “I saw reindeers,” she says.

Collecting the logs, she turned her vision into reality – dozens upon dozens of reindeer, now grazing at Sta. Elena for Leung’s Christmas décor this year.

Noticing as well how it became a community effort to clean up the golf course, Leung suggested that employees also adapt her design and sell their own log reindeers to raise funds for their own Christmas celebration.

Leung seems to bring the holiday spirit to anyone she meets. For years now, she has also decorated her condominium – not her own unit, but the whole lobby and common areas, with a 20-foot centerpiece tree. It has even become a tradition for the unit owners to gather for a tree lighting ceremony in their lobby. “I think the Christmas tree is meant to be shared,” says Leung.

“I love Christmas. To me it’s the best time of the year,” she adds. “I’m so excited about Christmas even if I see Christmas decorations the whole year.”

Christmas was always a special occasion for her family. “For me, it’s really a family thing,” she says. Leung shares that when she was child, her mother would encourage her and her siblings to save money from their allowance to be able to buy simple gifts for the family.

Growing up in Baguio, her family had real pine trees for their Christmas tree at home. “We go to the mountains to pick the treetop to bring home. The house smelled of Christmas,” she recalls.

She remembers fondly decorating the family tree with the same traditional ornaments every year. “I still remember how the old ornaments looked like.”

Her favorite ornaments were bubble lights, with the water inside the bulb bubbling as it warmed up. “Before going to bed, I would lie down under the tree. I used to spend hours underneath the tree just watching the lights,” she shares.

To this day, she looks forward most to going home to Baguio for the holidays with her husband and Tamilee Decors co-owner Nelson, to be with their family.

Going home for Christmas also gives Leung some time to rest after the holiday rush – and before starting again the very next month.

As people around the world start taking down their Christmas decorations, Leung is already thinking of what to do for the next year. “Usually, by January we’re already manufacturing and we’re shipping by March,” she says.

Leung starts each year’s decoration designing with colors. She then explores materials that can be used. As a golfer, Leung is constantly surrounded by nature, and gets her inspiration from it too. “I am always thinking, ‘How can I use this for Christmas?’”

“I try to use as much natural materials as I can and I also try to import less,” she says. She also goes to factories to ask what materials she can use that they would otherwise throw away. “There is a never-ending supply of materials.”

Leung is happy that using natural materials has become a trend in the international market. “Now people are coming here to the Philippines to look for decorations that are made from natural materials. We fill a need in the international market.”

After Leung puts her ideas together, she meets with her employees to further develop their theme for the year. “I encourage them to come up with their own ideas,” she says.

Leung adds, “The people who are working with me now are the same people who were working with me 24 years ago.” From their years of experience together, she has instilled a high workmanship standard and ethic in her employees. “Over the years, we have worked together so well that we all have the same aesthetic level. It’s easy for us to communicate,” she explains.

“Filipinos have an advantage over other Christmas decor manufacturers because we celebrate Christmas and we understand what it is about,” Leung says. More than anything, Leung believes that holiday decorations need to evoke a feeling – one that can be understood best by designers and workers who have a deep tradition of celebrating the holiday.

This is perhaps what buyers from the biggest international companies saw and felt when Tamilee Decors was just starting out. Featured by CITEM in its 1987 Manila FAME exhibition, an Italian buyer discovered Leung’s work and proceeded to provide her with raw materials to fulfill his order. Since then, Tamilee has been featured in stores and catalogues of the likes of Harrod’s, Neiman Marcus, Macy’s and many more across Europe and the US.

“Some stores like Neiman Marcus have been with us for more than 20 years,” she says. “Of course, the buyers have changed. There are young buyers now. I’m the only one who hasn’t retired!”

Through talking with buyers early in the year, Leung gets an idea of what is on trend internationally. She explains that Christmas décor colors and trends are also influenced by the year’s fashion and houseware trends.

This year, aside from the ongoing trend of using sustainable, eco-friendly, natural materials, Leung observes that crystal is very much in fashion, as well as soft pinks, turquoises and greens, or what she calls romance colors.

Leung also enjoys creating personalized trees for her friends and loved ones, once making a matchbox car themed design for her father and buying dozens of ukuleles to put on a tree of a musically-inclined friend.

“Christmas is such a special time in the Philippines,” Leung says, and making your own personalized decorations adds so much to the spirit of the season. “It doesn’t have to be expensive because you can make your own, and out of any material that you can find. All you have to do is be creative.”

“Decorations are important because when you ornament something, you add spice to it. It’s the spice of Christmas,” she says. Leung particularly loves her job – and can spend hours and hours at her factory – because she is in the business of adding spice and cheer to the holidays of anyone who sees her work on display – be it in a home, the lobby of a building, an office or even a luxury car showroom.

“I like the idea that I’m making people happy. It’s an outlet for creativity. This is how I express myself,” she says.

“I don’t get tired of Christmas. I get animated by the idea of Christmas,” says Leung. When asked if she has trained anyone – who is as enthusiastic about the season as she is – to whom she can pass on the proverbial Christmas wreath in the future, she admits, “That’s the problem. I don’t know yet.”

With conviction, she says, “God will decide. After all, He was the one who gave me this business and all these ideas came from Him. He will find a way. This business makes people happy and I’m sure God does not want that to end.”