Christmas time is here!

Chestnuts delivered by visitors (from Asia)
Jack the cat nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by English students
And folks dressed up in cotton clothes...

Okay, so that's not quite how the song goes, but that's the reality of this Christmas season on the island. I've been busy since returning from my visit to the US, so blogging has gone by the wayside, but for those of you who are interested, here's a bit of what Christmas here tends to look like:

-- Palm trees, fans, and fruit: it's the biggest fruit season on the island now. Lychees are in season, along with pineapples, mangoes, jackfruit, soursop, and more. It's hot and sweaty. But at least the rainy season rains have come early, so we get some relief from the heat during the rainstorms!

-- English club celebrations: although Christmas isn't celebrated by many local people (in fact, you can have lots of fun asking people what day Christmas is), we like to make a big deal about it with our English students. We have parties, share the story of Christmas, talk about traditions, and try to use the opportunity to talk about other ways of life. Of course, a cookie decorating party is a little different when you have to teach everyone how to decorate cookies!

-- Unusual house decorations: there aren't much of any evergreen trees available to bring inside, so those of us who haven't imported our own artificial tree have to make do with other options. This year's tree in my house is green and red construction paper, with cutout candles, balls, stars, etc. as decorations on it... all handily taped/pasted to the wall. Along with the paper tree, we also have paper snowflakes, a leftover Santa Claus advent calendar, and a lonely string of lights I brought from Kenya. No, we don't have a particular theme going on. "Island shabby" is probably how I'd describe my style. 

-- Christmas Day with the team: this varies from year to year, but what's your family-away-from-family for, if not to celebrate the biggest holidays of the year? We'll be doing a gift exchange (drawn names), white elephant, and lots of food. And Christmas carols, 'cause what is Christmas without a lot of singing?

Anyway, that's what this Christmas season looks like for me. It's simple and I enjoy it.