Why I hate Christmas in Thailand

You said in your story: "We celebrate Christmas respectfully as Christian countries do. Buddhism teaches us to open our hearts to people from other religions. So, we don't really mind if it is our religion or not.What about you?" I feel compelled to respond. I feel very strongly about this subject.

I've lived in Thailand for four years and positively hate the sight of Christmas decorations here. As an American, one of the reasons I came to Thailand in the first place was to escape the intolerance, hypocrisy, and excesses of the Christian religion. Christmas in America has become nothing but an orgy of spending money; everyone wants to try and outdo their friends and neighbors by seeing who can spend the most money and buy the most gifts.

But, is this what gift-giving should be all about? During Christmas time in America, gifts are exchanged often without sincerity or real love. It's entirely a commercial transaction. Look into the stores the week before Christmas and you'll see millions of "robots" going through the motions of buying presents for people who they hardly care about at all. The commercialism has gone to extremes and the entire U.S. economy can be affected by the volume of purchasing that goes on during the Christmas week alone!!

And so, one reason I came to Thailand was to escape all of this, and also because I believe the Buddhist religion is better in every way. You're absolutely right when you say that Buddism teaches people to open their hearts to all religions. I wish every religion (and especially Christianity) was as tolerant as Buddhism.

However,in my opinion, tolerance is NOT the real reason why Christmas is celebrated in Thailand. The truth is that the department stores have become Westernized and realize that they can earn some extra money by putting up Christmas decorations and make their stores look fancy. It all looks very pretty, but the bottom line is all about MONEY, not religion.

Furthermore, these department stores should understand that if they want to emulate Christian ways, they should remove their decorations RIGHT AFTER New Year's Day. In the U.S., the decorations are taken down and put away early in January; people do the same in their homes and toss out their Christmas trees for trash pickup shortly after New Year's Day, too.

But the Bangkok department stores go on displaying their Christmas decorations well into February and it looks positively ridiculous.

[GTG]

Hi Steve,

You're absolutly right. Christmas here has been commercialised and is becoming ridiculous every year. I couldn't bear it sometimes.

[Jackie]

I would agree with this. The kingdom of Thailand is attractive to me because it is an escape from the rat race of the west. But, as it continues to copy and emulate western ideals then it starts to lose the charm for me. Christmas is an example of how bad things are getting. If they do insist on playing christmas jingles in the department stores then at least only play them for 2 weeks, stopping the day after christmas.

[SiamJai]

Quote[/b] (Jackie @ Jan. 22 2003,23:07)]The kingdom of Thailand is attractive to me because it is an escape from the rat race of the west.

Perhaps Thais adopt some Western ideas and traditions for the same reasons that make the Thai way of life attractive to these few Farangs. Both see something in the other culture that seems to be better. As the proverb goes: "The grass is always greener on the other side."

[Jonil Raptor]

I'm starting to hate christmas as well. Actually, i started to hate it several years ago. I hate it so much...I didn't even bother w/ it this year. This is my first year where I didn't celebrate christmas.
My family are not christians, but they celebrate christmas. Not for God or Jesus, but just for the time to get together.
Christmas these days doesn't mean celebrating God or Jesus...but more about presents. If you ask people in America what holiday they like most, they would mostly reply "Christmas" and their reason: "I love getting gifts!!"

[u03mgf2]

It is unfortunate that commercialisation is taking over the world in the way that it is. But it is becoming inescapable. It is unfortunate that a country as beautiful as Thailand has to stoop to such levels just to make money. But it illustrates the fact that people really are much the same all over the world - commercialisation cannot be escaped because everywhere, everyone is doing what they can to make more money. To drive up by Ratchadamri, or on Rama 1 around the Siam area at this time of year is depressing - you could be in any western city for all the christmas decorations. But then it is largely western influence that has made bangkok what it is today. Not so long ago the tallest building, often in fact the only building to rise above the treeline would have been the temples.

Quote[/b] ]The grass is always greener on the other side

This is true and I think that really we need to enjoy the better things of what we have, and try to forget the rest.

With due respect to Steve, I think Christmas has been much misunderstood, even by people from countries where Christmas is a major holiday. A lot of people are unaware that Christmas is really originally about the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ alone. The story of saint nicholas, or more popularly known as santa claus, came much later than that. Now, Christmas is just a holiday for giving and sharing to many, even the Thais, even though they do not know its origin. Not that it is bad but it is a pity that there is just form but no substance. I could only guess that perhaps Steve really had some bad experiences during Christmas that led to this scepticism but I am sure that you must have also felt the love that is behind the giving of gifts. And I guess you never really knew God. Cheers!

[Wanna]

What is christmas??? Thanks for your insights steve. Come to think of it, somehow you hit the dot. Pronto. I guess much traditions are lost in many cultures. With this in mind... I guess i WILL look at the festives i celebrate in another light..

[Makiy0]

I just celebrated Christmas in Bangkok last year and to me it was no different than the Christmases that I spent at my home country the last few years.

I feel that the significance of Christmas simply deminishes as you age. Wonder if anyone agrees with me.....or am I the only one that feels this way.

[Wanna]

I agree with you makiyo, especially if you have no idea why you are celebrating the festivity.