Christmas in a Thai Wonderland

           It is only a few days until Christmas and instead of being home in Los Angeles where garlands and Christmas lights line the houses and streets and the Christmas classics fill the airwaves, I’m here in a small town in Thailand.  In general, most Thai’s don’t celebrate Christmas given that they’re Buddhist although there is a small minority of Thai Christians.  While it is a bit of a lonely feeling to know that everyone is celebrating the holiday season back home, I’ve been surprised to find little tidbits of Christmas cheer around me in the most unexpected places.

            For starters, a few weeks ago, all of the teachers in my department began randomly singing Christmas songs together in our tiny office one day.  I was shocked by how many songs they knew!  One of the Thai teachers loves to sing “Silver Bells” with a silly bravado every day which makes us all laugh every time.  It was fun to sing the songs of my childhood and it made me laugh but it did also make me wish that I was “home for the holidays”.

For over a month now, I’ve been teaching a different Christmas song to each grade “We wish you a Merry Christmas” for Prathom 1, “Two front teeth” for Prathom 2 and “Santa Claus is coming to town” for Prathom 3.  Not the entire songs, but one or two verses.  Can I just tell you that I have probably sung these songs hundreds and hundreds of times in the last month (reminds me of being home and hearing the same ten songs on repeat on the radio!)  I have sang these songs for the students more times than I can count as well as reviewed the lyrics regularly and as to be expected, there are still many kids who watch my overly pronounced mouth as I annunciate every single word and then mumble through the whole thing with their cute Thai accents.  It’s pretty funny to hear “(mumble mumble mumble)” followed by a booming “…Santa Claus is coming to town”. 

            Some restaurants and shops do have small Christmas trees and decorations set up and I was truly touched and shocked when I saw a beautiful Christmas tree made of lights in the center of Phayao.  It definitely brought the Christmas spirit to my heart.  This week, I began singing and acting out “The 12 Days of Christmas” for every single class.  It has been exhausting since I have twenty two classes but it’s also the most fun I’ve had with my classes to date and the amount of joy on their faces and roaring giggles coming from my students showed me that they felt the same way.  

Phayao's beautiful Christmas tree!

            Last but not least, on Christmas day which is a workday, our department is putting together a little show for all the students.  A few of us teachers are still deciding on a song but we will be performing, the students will sing a song that each grade has learned, there will be an excerpt from the true Christmas story and there will be “Christmas games” including limbo and something like pin the hat on Santa Claus.  As I write this, I’m hearing girls from grade 5 singing and dancing to “Jingle Bell Rock” in the next room over.  So in the words of the students “Merry Christmas!  And happy New Year!!!”…from Thailand.  I hope that this holiday season finds you all well.  God bless.         

Angry bird Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!