Christmas in this Muslim country is just plain over the top. Much bigger than in the U.S., ironically. The malls here are the center of life in Kuala Lumpur, and they have Christmas decorations as early as November 1. There’s no waiting for the first day after Thanksgiving, like back in the U.S. And, when they decorate the malls, the decorations reach 6 floors high, with fake snow falling and Santas abound.
I’m not sure why there’s such a love of Christmas here. Partly, I think it’s because Malaysia is getting hip to the Christmas boost in sales, since they’re fresh to consumerism here. Their relationship with Santa isn’t quite the same, though. A friend just found a picture of a black Santa here.
The kids' classes had big Christmas celebrations thrown with gusto by all the parents, regardless of what nation or religion they came from, although there were some Muslim-Christian rumblings in another class where a Muslim room mother hadn't collected money from parents for a Christmas gift for the teachers, leaving the Western parents flummoxed over how to proceed with a gift without raising tensions.
We had our own early Christmas celebration, before leaving for Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I took Boom to get a tree, and he sobbed when he couldn’t get the huge tree he was used to since it was too expensive, but he perked up when he saw a white, sparkly faux fir and spiced it up with a snowy penguin to snuggle under it. We decorated it in the 90 degree heat. On our early Christmas morning, meaning on December 19, the kids ripped through their gifts, saying it was almost as good a Christmas as at Nanny and Papa's house (their Christmas and holiday love was sorely missed by me too!). We ended it with a fire boat lego building session which landed it in the bath along with a Christmas brunch.
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