Santa's birthday, right?

Santa's birthday, right?
I remember one year, decades ago when I was about 13, we went to Hawaii to celebrate Christmas with our Japanese relatives. It felt so odd to be celebrating Christmas in the tropics. I remember learning to sing, "Melekelikemaka is the thing to say saying Merry Christmas the Hawaiian way" or something like that...don't quote me. Santa on surfboards, palm trees, pineapples and plastic Christmas trees. It all felt very odd. Fun, but odd. It is also odd to think that this kind of tropical Christmas, without the song, English as the spoken language or big region-wide celebrations among the populace, is what will be most familiar to my children. What is their visual world? Theravada Buddhism, with its thousands of temples, thousands of Buddha and Hindu statues, tiny spirit houses for the land spirits, and the house spirits, and spirit shelves and small shrines in nearly every home, every business. Here Christmas is celebrated by very few and is a Western holiday not understood very well..."Santa's birthday, right?" Christmas is celebrated in the homes of the few scattered Christians, and at the few scattered churches. It is not a national holiday, though decorations are put up in the malls now, usually. Next year we are planning a trip home, just a few months, and we are planning to be home for Christmas. I really want this for Poppy & Jasper, while they are still young (by that time next year Poppy will be 12 and Jasper will be 9.) I want them to experience an American Christmas, which is quite beautiful. I want to take them to Cornish Christmas and Victorian Christmas in my home area, the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Maybe we'll even get snow... I wonder if it will seem as exotic and odd to them as my Christmas in Hawaii did to me when I was 13?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Wan Dee

Your dad gave me your site and I have enjoyed all your blogs and pictures. How wonderful to have the experiences you are going through. Merry Christmas to you and your family and God Bless.
Oceanicthai said…
Wow...great to hear from you, Janet, it has been so long since I've seen you...how many years now? I always here you and your family are doing great. Where do you live now? Thanks for leaving a comment and I hope we can get together again sometime before too many more years pass. Merry Christmas to you and your family, too. Blessings
Anonymous said…
Cornish and Victorian Christmas events are still being held, and are basically the same as they always heve been except they have alot more people comming now. Are your parents still living in the area? I haven't run into them in all these years. If you make the trip, give us a call so we can have dinner or something, I'd love to see you guys again!

R
Oceanicthai said…
Hi Rick, thanks for commenting. My parents moved out of the area about 16 years ago. Yes, let's get our families together next year when we make the trip home to the US for a few months. Take care.

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