pattaya127 Posted December 26, 2003 Report Share Posted December 26, 2003 Seriously, those of you who have kids in Thailand, thaithai or 50/50, how did te Xmas thing play, regarding the morning of the 25th, or simply the celebration, if any of Xmas, with kids around. Are your kids, thru your influence, getting into the spirit of things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted December 26, 2003 Report Share Posted December 26, 2003 Hi P127, My toddler is just short of 1 year, so this year I let it pass by, but next year is going to be full on Xmas for her. I intend to do all the standard Dutch holiday celebrations with her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosyourdaddy Posted December 26, 2003 Report Share Posted December 26, 2003 Every year I dress up as santa and go visititing kids. This year a few of us ( couple board members and friends) did a christmas performance at poor temple school. It was great. Certainly every kid in the world knows about santa. Even Thai buddist kids with no western parents will believe in Santa and the Xmas spirit. Talked this over with a few of my students and many believed in Santa for a year or 2 when they were young. One of the advantages in the west is the entire society is helping kids believe in Santa. They have Santa sighting on the news, they have people answering Santa letters etc. Thailand does not have such a thing and thus Santa does not live long in the life of a child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted December 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2003 Thanks, I am pleased to hear that one does not have to be a christian to look forward that special time of the year as a kid. i had just an argument with friends about how Xmas trees were only to show christian faith, which i found a bit over-reacted. It's also good for business, i guess.... Hope to hear more from others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulc31 Posted December 27, 2003 Report Share Posted December 27, 2003 Hi pattaya127, Did Santa come to Thailand. Yes and No I had santa drop off some flowers to my TG Fiancee But her real Christmas present will come in February when she gets her visa :hubba: paulc31 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted December 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 Valentine's gift then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Scrutinizer Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 P127, Yes, he did! This year was the first year I was home in Surin, rather than home in the states, one Xmas day. I have three kids back in farangland and usually spend Xmas with them, flying back to LOS to celebrate New Year's here in Thailand if I can get a flight over. The Makro in Surin had artificial Xmas trees for sale. I bought the largest one for like 700 baht. They also had a very good selection of Xmas tree baubles and garlands and such decorations. Although the lone lighted tree Star was a bit gaudy and funky I bought one as well. So we had a tree here this year, for the first time. My daughter here is 11, and we had never celebrated Xmas here. (Oh, she's gotten Xmas presents before, just I've never been here during the holiday itself, and the wife doesn't really know how it is celebrated and all.) She was very excited. I explained a lot about this holiday, even some of the religious aspects which started it all. I bought wrapping paper and ribbons, brought her out shopping for presents for Mom, and we spent Xmas Eve afternoon wrapping everything ourselves while the wife worked the shop. Later when the shop closed my wife helped me wrap our daughter's presents, which were many. My wife seemed as excited about this as my daughter was. A lot of the neighbors were interested in our tree and decorations and came in to see it all lit up. I took a lot of dig pics of the tree and the opening of the presents on Xmas morning. It wasn't the same though. Look sow had school on Xmas and had to leave around 7:30 a.m. for classes. Wife and Sis opened the shop after we opened the presents. It's a bit odd not having everyone having the day off and spending the time together over a Xmas turkey and the trimmings. Just doesn't feel like Xmas somehow, and a lot of the holiday is missing. Although I don't miss the cold and the snow, this somehow also adds to the odd feeling that it just ain't the same here. Daughter had a fine morning though, and was all smiles. Strange though, she has no one to compare and talk about her gifts with, friends and other kids I mean. One day I'll get her over to the states during Xmas and show her a true Xmas season! Being from New England it does have it's own feel to it all. Weird going out in t-shirt and shorts after opening the presents. But a good weird if ya know what I mean! :-) No freakin' snow and freezing weather! All in all a pleasant morning. And nice to show them one of our holidays. Thais are very smart! They always take for their own any holiday they like! Looks like I'll be having Xmas here every year. Luckily Xmas shopping here is much more pleasant, and less stressful, and less costly! No Xmas crowds at the stores, no Xmas shopping traffic, no slush, snow and cold weather, and no high expectations as in the states. Best of all the only place they were playing the never ending goddamned Xmas carols was the Makro. Where do they get these tapes of Thais singing Xmas carols? Odd to hear the accent as they sing the songs. Sorta Twilight Zone feel to it all really. New Year's next. Now New Year's the Thais know! They celebrate them all, the greedy sanuking buggers! Thai, Chinese, and farang! Never seen a people with so many damned holidays! Cent p.s. I suppose I could just leave the Xmas tree up all year here! Seeing as the Thais have such an affinity to the lights that is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 <<p.s. I suppose I could just leave the Xmas tree up all year here! Seeing as the Thais have such an affinity to the lights that is!>> You can say that again--last years xmas lights in our living room didn't get taken down till June this year!!--also the run up to xmas this year we've been driving around in the evening to look at what lights people have. To conclude the bigger wealthier looking propertys tend to have just white lights tastefully drapped over a tree in the garden and your smaller and lower 'socio economic' looking abodes have the works--flashing, colourful lights with huge lite up reindeers and/or father christmas's perched on roofs/garages....no prizes for guessing which she preferred! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted December 28, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 :) Yep, anything with the promise of sanook, the thais will adopt and they know sanook when they see it. I just hope some of your tree-cutting "gang" did not tell you:" see plastic tree, too much luck for baby, real tree, OK you cut, put plastic one, samesame, but no pii..." ::. My GF's daughter is 12. For sure, no Xmas in the baan, and the card I sent her for her birthday with 500 bahts inside, has still not arrived after one month. Like my GF says: "no problem, you give to her when you come". Here we go, mai pen rai ::........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Scrutinizer Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 P127, Yeah, they adopt anything that smells even faintly of sanuk! :-) Okay now. What the hell are ya doin' sending cash by snail mail into Thailand? I haven't done that in years now. Lost a couple things in the mail, one with small cash inside. Do yourself a favor. Set up a seperate account in your bank in SFO. One with a ATM card. Get two cards. All in your name is easiest, but totally seperate from any other accounts you may have. Give one ATM card to your lady, and the pin you have for it, keeping the extra in case it breaks/doesn't work/gets lost, which you can mail later if needed, without the pin number, which you can tell her later on the phone, when she recieves it in the mail. (You can also send the first card this way if you want. I've done this and had no problem. I sent it Express mail between to larger pieces of cardboard. Use an account that doesn't need to maintain a certain balance. A lot of banks allow this now. No minimum balance charges really. When you want to give her or her daughter some small cash just deposit it in this seperate account, and tell them it is deposited when you talk to them by phome later. Make sure the account has Plus or NYCE or one of the ones that makes it possible to access from overseas. Now you can send small amounts of money on occassion without any problems for them, except they need to be able to get to a bank with an ATM machine. I know, I know, sometimes this can be quite a ways from a village, but better than some mail clerk getting the cash you've sent for them, no? :-) Also, for almost instant access to the cash you deposit, deposit the amount in cash, instead of using a check. Or transfer money into the account electronically from one of your sperate other accounts. I've found depositing cash during normal banking hours gives almost instant access to the amount over in Thailand. This is the easiest way I've found to do this. Whether just for small money on an occassion, or even for weekly, or monthly, allowances and rent payments and such for your lady. Makes it all so damned easy, and no waiting for the mail to see if it ever even gets there. The Thai mail guys are pretty adept at spotting mail sent from farangland to a Thai lass in the LOS, and aren't adverse to just taking the whole letter/envelope and putting it in their pocket to open later to see if there is cash inside. Just a thought. Takes maybe twenty minutes to set up at your local bank, and about ten days, maybe only a week, before they mail to you your ATM cards and later the pin numbers. And good for an emergency if daughter or girlfriend end up in hospital and need some money to pay the doctor and hospital bill to get out. You do know that most of these hospitals won't let the patient leave the hospital until they pay their bill don't you? :-) True! Which of course runs the bill up further and will end up costing you more! What? You expect them to use Taksin's 30Baht hospital plan!!?? Cent p.s. Hope the card gets there, but don't count on it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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