Christmas in Southeast Asia

I‘m not particularly feeling like we’ve entered the holiday season; I think it has to do with the fact that Thanksgiving was a blur, it is always in the high 80s – low 90s here, and I see palm trees everyday.

Never fear, even though the primary religion here is Islam, KL celebrates Christmas, and they mean Merry Christmas, none of the generic Happy Holidays stuff. It’s like the whole city is determined to get me into the Christmas spirit.

It seems that most of the Christmas songs you hear at home are of the “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” variety, and you certainly hear those in KL too, but you also get honest to goodness Christmas carols straight out of your hymnal played through the speakers of every store and most restaurants. It’s interesting to hear more religious Christmas music in an Islamic country than you hear in the United States!

Even though I haven’t done any decorating, because we’ll be spending Christmas and New Year’s in Cambodia, I’m getting my daily dose of Christmas cheer every time I step out of my door. Without further ado, here’s how they do Christmas in Southeast Asia.