Sometimes the best legacy is something that your kids can continue.

This is what celebrity and entrepreneur Christine “Tintin” Bersola-Babao had in mind when she put up her own bazaar six years ago.

“My Mommy Ching was my inspiration because she had been a mompreneur or a bazaarista since I was in high school,” she said.

Tintin remembered her mom being a “biyahera,” travelling to Hong Kong and Bangkok to buy clothes, shoes and accessories. Tintin would help her mom sell the articles in their boutiques in the old Virra Mall and Shoppesville in Greenhills, San Juan. They also regularly joined various bazaars.

Tintin has followed the footsteps of her mother. In 2006, she put up the Grand International Importers and Exporters Christmas Bazaar at the Rockwell Tent, and became its president and CEO.

The experience was not easy, she said, as she had to deal with numerous challenges. She remembered promoting the bazaar by all means possible: through ads, referrals and word of mouth.

“The bazaar business is very cutthroat especially during the peak season of November and December and we are just a small fry compared to the big bazaar organizers who have been doing it for more than a decade,” Tintin said.

Despite the daunting challenges normally experienced by start-ups, the mom and daughter tandem managed to successfully pull it off. They were able to continue mounting the annual bazaar in time for the Christmas holidays through their company CBB Events Organizing and Management. It was a blessing, she said, that their bazaar became bigger in no time at all.

This year, Tintin’s Christmas bazaar will be held from November 9 to 11 at the Hall A of the World Trade Center. It has evolved into both a charity and celebrity bazaar as well, because of the support of her local celebrity-friends who have donated some of their personal items, which will be sold in the celebrity booths.

The proceeds of the donated items will go to the charity of choice or to the pool of funds to be donated to the Shepherd of the Hills Orphanage, World Vision scholars and Gawad Kalinga.

The bazaar will have lots of booths selling unique, imported and local items from clothes, shoes and accessories, to organic and specialty foods, toys, home and health, and even jewelry. Tintin promised a host of other activities during the three-day affair to make the shoppers’ valuable time even more worthwhile.

While organizing and managing bazaars eat up a great deal of her time, Tintin manages to juggle her other activities as well. She co-hosts the daily morning show GoodMorningClub at TV5. She is also the creative director and host of the first Philippine online parenting web-based show, www.parentin.tv. In between, she manages to fit in both commercial endorsements and advocacies as well.

Despite her workload, Tintin said that she remains to be an entrepreneur at heart. When not attending to her bazaar, she manages to sell what she terms as “love of country thirst” online through her Facebook page and calls them “Makabayan Tees”.

She knows that opening a business is no walk in the park and as such she wants to help future entrepreneurs put up their own businesses via a booth in her bazaar. When asked about the future growth of bazaars in the Philippines, Tintin said she is very optimistic.

“Pinoys always love to shop for their loved ones, especially during Christmas time, plus the nationalistic pride and spirit is ever increasing as Pinoys will readily part with their hard-earned money for a good cause,” she said.

Right now, Tintin is toying with several business ideas. What’s important for her is that her future businesses will have to fit into her hat as a social entrepreneur. Perhaps she will look again to her family for inspiration, and maybe the work that her mom originally inspired her to do will someday be the same inspiration her kids can look forward too.