Christmas in Thailand; Celebrating Christmas Day in Thailand

This will be my seventh Christmas in Thailand. With the exception of one year back in Ireland, I have become used to celebrating Christmas day in Thailand; or to be more honest I have become used to not celebrating it. Last year I had to work and one year I even forget what day it was until the evening. In fact if you are away from the main tourist areas and big cities there is little to remind you that it is holiday season back in the west. This was once my favorite time of the year, but somewhere along the way I lost the habit; this could all be about to change.

Away from the tourist areas the only real sign that it is Christmas is in the in the big supermarket chains. For years now they have been trying to get Thailand to develop the habit of celebrating this festival. Call me cynical but it is obvious that they have seen how much money there is to be made elsewhere at this time of year and they want in on the action. For the last few weeks they have been pumping out Christmas carols and selling decorations. I'm not sure how effective it is. Apparently many members of the upper middle class (or hi-so as they are called) are now beginning to give gifts on the 25^th to their children. Maybe in a few years time it will become an even more popular to celebrate Christmas in Thailand.

Thailand is predominately a Buddhist country and Christianity is only practiced by a minority of the population. If Christmas in Thailand is to become a big event it is unlikely to have anything to do with religion. The Thais seem to have a knack for taking things from other cultures and putting a Thai spin on things; in the end you find it hard to believe that it wasn't Thai to begin with. They have already made Valentine's Day an important part of their calendar. The people of Thailand may very well take the Christmas traditions and make them their own; much like the early Christians took pagan traditions and made them part of their festival.

I actually think that making Christmas day in Thailand a national holiday wouldn't be such a bad thing. It is nice to have a time of year when people are nice to one another and give gifts. One of the Thai monks once suggested that they could call it Buddhamas. I think the whole Santa thing is great for kids, and I intend to carry on the tradition even though my son isn't Christian.

This is the first year that I've put up a Christmas tree since coming to Thailand; it's a bit of a pathetic specimen but it's more than I ever had before. I intend to leave gifts from Santa for my son on the day, and it will be great to watch him open them. Christmas in Thailand will be a bit different this year.