Christmas in Thailand

We may protest against the commercialization of Christmas, however, what is ironic is it is through this that Christmas has become a “universal” celebration. Even a non-Christian country like Thailand celebrates Christmas. A young Thai blogger tells of his experiences about Christmas.

This time of year every department store and shopping mall will be celebrating Christmas all day by playing Christmas songs and having people dress up as Santa Claus. Also when you go out, if you look around you will see Christmas trees and other decorations everywhere you go. You can see Christmas trees alongside the road or even outside the toilet!

Some foreigners might think that Thailand is a Christian country when they see all the Christmas decorations, but really we are not. Ninety-five percent of Thai people are Buddhist and Buddhism is our country’s religion. But in Thailand, there is a small percent of people who are Christian and Muslim. Even though most of us are Buddhist we celebrate Christmas day because Thai people like to have fun and we are open and friendly towards other religions.

Commercialization of Christmas is not all that bad. Here is a good perspective about the many goods that come out of consumerism on Christmas season. Even our country benefits a lot with this. Remittances from Overseas workers flood our country during the holiday season and this commercialization is responsible for it.

Here in Mae Sai, it is very cold. It is the first time in my whole life that I wear ski mask and gloves. The children sleep with us in the room hoping that our collective body heat might warm the room a little bit. We spend a lot of time outdoor, this explains why I haven’t update this blog for a while. We are busy explaining to the people that Christmas is all about Christ.