I'm sure out in the rural areas of Thailand it would be very easy to miss.
However I am living in the 2nd largest city, with a huge western expat population and a similar-sized tourism market, so this has not been the case. Most larger shops have decorations, the american children christmas singalong soundtracks (arrhhhh!!) and in the big chains such as Tescos, all the servers wear santa hats. All the Thai kids here seem to know about Santa and presents.
I've been to a few christian christmas celebrations over here though, which have been fantastic. A 200+ person interactive nativity re-enactment was great: as too, some Christmas interactions I've had with students in the urban slum I've been teaching in. The Sunday School pageant was darling and we are going carolling tonight.
The biggest event to have happened in the last week has the arrival of some friends from Sydney, who are leading a short term mission group from Chatswood Baptist church, to visit their supported missionaries, to help run Christmas activities, and to understand Thailand culture better. The photos below are from Friday, when we organised a tour to cover all of the important local tourist activities:
bathtime in the river at an elephant centre
bathtime in the river at an elephant centre
my first bamboo rafting experience =sedate; on the Mae Taeng
my weekender out in the bush (do they sell floorplans?) and oxcart riding
New and old friends from Chatswood Baptist Church, and local friend Emily and her mum from the U.S.A. both in pink
Christmas for me will involve taking the day off, midnight and morning services at the church, lunch with some lovely new friends from Australia, and running a special Christmas broadcast on the local Thai radio in the evening.
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