(Version française plus bas)

I had a fabulous Christmas with a Vietnamese family. Fabulous. Not because I got to do the most extraordinary things in two days. Fabulous, because I experienced the ordinary life of an extremely hospitable family over Christmas time. Anh, thank you so, so much!

Anh and I on the first beach we went to in Tân Thiên village.

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(Version française plus bas)

If you wonder whether the Vietnamese celebrate Christmas, the answer is: most Vietnamese do not. If you wonder whether I feel like it’s Christmas, the answer is: yes, most definitely!

I had never heard ”Jingle bells” or ”I wish you a merry Christmas” so many times before Christmas until now. Vietnam is putting on its Christmas garments for tourists.

Christmas decorations everywhere downtown.

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Christmas and I have a love/hate relationship. One the one hand, I love that it brings everyone together and makes you appreciate what you have and how lucky you are to be surrounded by people you care about. On the other hand, I hate the commercialization that comes with the holiday and the stress and anxiety it causes people who find themselves dead broke in January. But Christmas at home is usually a great time for me, spent hanging out, eating and chatting with my awesome family and friends.

Christmas when travelling is entirely different, and really depends on where you are when it arrives. I’ve been abroad for it before and to tell you the truth, I actually  kind of like being away. Many of the countries I’ve been to don’t celebrate it at all (Muslim, Hindu, etc.) so you get to skip all the commercials, crappy music and purchasing pressure. As long as you’re with people you care about, you can make your own small, private, tropical Christmas, get drunk and then move on without the painful lead-up and financial hangover.

So I was excited to spend another Christmas away. Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist so I figured we’d see some Christmas related stuff and maybe the guesthouse would put up a Charlie Brown tree in an effort to appease the foreigners. Oh, how I was wrong.

Starting December 1st, we began to hear Christmas carols everywhere. I sit in a coffee shop listening to Jingle Bell Rock or get a manicure to Silent Night. And although the Vietnamese don’t celebrate the holiday to honour the birth of Christ, they do celebrate it just for the hell of it and put up decorations and give gifts to each other. There are decorations EVERYWHERE. It’s strange to see giant snow globes with snowmen inside with the words “Let It Snow” on the front and think that the average Vietnamese has never even seen snow. They get points for enthusiasm, that’s for sure. They even set up Christmas villages.  It appears that I will not be avoiding Christmas this year.

Do they even know what this is supposed to be?

Santa makes a pit stop in Vietnam, too.

Apparently there are giraffes at the North Pole.