"Sandy" Claus is coming to town!

Christmas in Thailand

Christmas is very popular in Thailand, from a completely commercial point of view. There are Santas, reindeer, Christmas trees, and whatnot all over. In our school, there was quite a large display set up and you could see similar such displays in the larger departments stores and malls. I think there is about a 1% Christian minority in Thailand, and the official religion of the country is Buddhist. Therefore, the holiday is not “officially” celebrated, and the religious element is almost completely omitted. In our teacher orientation, we were told Christmas carols and activities were great, but to steer away from anything that was religion centered. 

 For much of the previous week, I was doing Christmas crafts and activities with my students. One day, I made paper snowflakes with my 4s and I made origami Santas with the 3s. We also did Christmas drawings, and sang carols including Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. It was a lot of fun, especially making the snowflakes. The kids had never made them before, and got really excited when I demonstrated how to make one in front of the class. Soon, kids were getting out more paper to keep making the snowflakes. Even the boys were very into it. Many of them also found that they made fun masks as well!

 Leesor, Aum and Aum

 The girls in 4.2 like to swarm my desk

 Game and Earth

 Napat, Earth and Boss

 Mix and Rin

 Boss and Napat

Christmas Eve was my last day of class before our holiday, and the other foreign primary teachers had already left for their trips. So the brunt of bearing Christmas spirit fell on me. In the morning, I showed up early, as was asked, to find a santa (or Mrs Claus, if you will) costume laid out over my desk. My first thought was, “I really hope the skirt fits” (based on my difficulty to buy shorts here). But it did...barely. With the jacket on, you couldn’t see that the skirt didn’t zip up all the way. 

First, we went down for the special Christmas Eve assembly – my students seemed to enjoy my outfit. One of the older classes put on a Christmas dance and skit... It was in English but I had no idea what was going on. Then I had to wish the students a “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. I was pretty happy not to have to sing, dance or do anything else too embarrassing. As I already had basically no idea what was going on. After that, we went over to the Anuban building, where they were having their assembly. The students did their dance, and then we handed out candy to the students. They are so funny. I was basically just throwing candy around randomly. Was good times.

 I'm not awkward at all...

 Handing out candy at Anuban

 The English department (minus a few foreign teachers)

 the English teacher's CD cover

I wore the outfit for the rest of the day: it was pretty fun. Also, apparently Mrs Claus is known as “Sandy Claus” in Thailand. In my classes, I did review to help them prepare for their exams over the next two days. I hope they did well. As for myself, I headed to the bus station after class to catch my bus down south. My Christmas eve dinner consisted of pork wonton soup. Yum yum! In general, I didn’t really feel like it was Christmas. I guess mainly because it is so hot, and because I wasn’t with my family. This was the first time I wasn’t with my family for Christmas Eve, and Christmas. But I didn’t find it too bad. I am still enjoying the warm weather and the sights in Thailand.