It’s getting closer and closer…. Christmas! To some of you, this may be really exciting, others may feel even more stressed out, and some may feel ambivalent. I am always a little bit of each.
Now that we live in Thailand, it takes even more of an effort to make Christmas special. Being a primarily Buddhist country, Christmas seems to be simply an opportunity to sell more things at the mall here. Of course, there are Christians here as well, but to the Thai Christians I have met and spoken to here see Christmas as a day to go to church. Which actually seems like the most appropriate way to celebrate it if you believe it is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Chad and I are Christian and always teach Z that Christmas is Jesus birthday, but we also have a (fake) Christmas tree and stockings that get filled by “Santa Claus” on Christmas eve night.
Christmas time is always the hardest for me to be away from my family. I miss the monkey bread that my Auntie makes, and the Baileys/Kahlua that my sister and I would always hide in our morning coffee (after we were 21 years old of course!). I miss the silly group gifts from my dad: hulk hands for all the guys in the family makes a smashing good time, hahah… see what I did there? I miss eating too much crap food and trying to stuff in a yummy dinner after that.
Most of all I miss the feeling that I am spending the holiday season with people who know me. I mean, people who know all my good, bad, and embarrassing times. From my whole life, which is a lot of embarrassing and funny stories to be told! I love the fact that my family knows me and can make fun of me for being scared poopless of a singing mermaid doll when I was 12 years old (the song still creeps me out). And I love hearing their laughter at the retelling of family stories that we tell over and over again.
Chad and I work hard to have this type of Christmas for us three here. We strive to make special memories with Z and try to spend time as a family on Christmas. Last year, we mistakenly joined some friends at a very overpriced brunch at one of the resorts here in Phuket and it felt like just another day. It was stressful and we ended up watching Z play with friends and barely saw her at all.
This year we will probably just hang out together and play with our new stuff for the day. Well, until dinner time because there is no way I am cooking on Christmas, that’s what moms do… oh wait, I meant what my Mom does. Ha!
This upcoming Monday I will be sharing how we started off our holiday season here in Thailand with pictures! What does that really mean? It means badly lit pictures of fake tree decorating and a really cute toddler in a Santa hat, and maybe even some pictures of the Elf on the Shelf! You know you can’t wait for that! See you then!
Do you celebrate Christmas? What do you do to make the day special? Leave a comment and let’s chat!
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