The Sigue La Estrella Christmas Parranda is a cultural and community event, in which Estrella Tropical Latin Restaurant and Deli recreates the Puerto Rican tradition of the Parranda – or Christmas caroling. On the island, this style of Christmas caroling involves groups of families,neighbors and musicians that travel from house to house with instruments and singing songs that have been passed down through the generations from the countryside of Puerto Rico. Each stop along the way on a parranda included food for the carolers and new participants to join in on the next stops until the early hours of the morning – which always ended with a bowl of asopao (rice soup). Instead of traveling from house to house, Estrella Tropical recreates the Christmas tradition by hosting the event at our facility, complete with live traditional music, pig roasts, traditional Christmas foods, contests, folkloric dances and cultural presentations. In its third year, this event is expected to bring over 1,000 people from our community and throughout the area who will participate in preserving this cultural event.

Every year we create a cancionero, or songbook containing all of the traditional Puerto Rican Christmas carols. This year, Centro Mi Diario of the Tampa Tribune, will be one of the main sponsors and help advertise to approx 2,000 Latino homes in the Brandon/ Valrico community. This will be a great opportunity to advertise to the Latino community, and Sponsors will have the opportunity to purchase full-color ad space in the cancionero.