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If you want to travel somewhere that is as nuts about the Christmas season as your own country, may I suggest Latin America?
I have spent late December in a fair number of other countries in my day. Turkey was probably the strangest. We went to a buffet brunch at an American chain hotel where there were lots of decorations, then tromped back past a half-dozen mosques in the gray Istanbul coal haze to return back to our apartment and reality. When I lived in Korea, I found they heartily embraced the cheesy side: imagine artificial trees everywhere with gaudy lights and a star on top blasting out synthesized versions of “Jingle Bells.” All us English teachers were good and ready for a drunken party on the day itself.
In Latin America though, it’s quite the event. These pictures here are from Peru, but Mexico has been just as decked out when I’ve been there. The timeline is a little different though. Towns in many of these countries will stage a reenactment of Bethleham, with a couple going from door to door asking for a place to spend the night.
Then there’s a big party afterward. Midnight mass is a big deal and widely attended. In Mexico though, the 12 Days of Christmas are alive and well. Christmas Day is kind of a quiet family time, while the 12th day (Epiphany, when the wise men arrived) is when the real celebration happens.
Also, the nativity scene is more common than a Christmas tree in Latin America, apart from big public ones in the squares and roundabouts. This makes perfect sense: houses are smaller and this Alpine tradition doesn’t transfer well to countries where evergreen trees are far from abundant on the deforested hillsides. These nativity scenes can get quite elaborate, with a huge cast of characters that grows over the years and real moss and straw (both for sale on the streets in December) to make it real.
At least in Peru, the “shop til you drop” mentality seems to be spreading. I think I saw the word regalos (gifts) on signs more this time than I did bienvenudos (welcome).
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