It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

As my father always likes to remind my family, the majority of the world celebrates Christmas in the summer. His arguement became particularly strong when we moved to Florida, and started to complain that it didn´t "feel" like Christmas, as we decorated palm trees with little Christmas lights and dressed in shorts and t-shirts to go Christmas shopping. He would remind us that the southern hemisphere and a portion of the northern hemisphere (to about the tropic of cancer) celebrate Christmas in balmy conditions. For these folks, the images of "White Christmas" and of Santa skidding to a stop upon a snowy rooftop are in no way applicable.

But, much to my father´s chagrin, I am highly conditioned to associate Christmas with snow and cold weather. Frankly, amidst the balmy summer weather here in Cochabamba, I didn´t even remember the Christmas season is beginning soon until the other day Eoin started humming one of the tunes from "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It suddenly popped into my mind that in the US, Christmas songs are probably starting to filter out on the radio stations, and some cable station will probably start showing "White Christmas" and "Miracle on 33rd St." 24 hours a day. Then things will really start to go crazy after Thanksgiving, which was another reality that seemed so far away for me. Clearly, Thanksgiving isn´t a national holiday here, and one could also argue that the fervor for Christmas shopping is of a slightly different caliber in Bolivia. I haven´t really noted any fervor at all here, but will be thinking about that in the next few weeks.

Much like Eoin´s humming triggered the recall of images of Christmas in my mind, it seems to have also triggered the start of Christmas decorating here in Cochabamba. But what is strange is that so far, what I have seen, relates only to the Northern Hemisphere´s experience of Christmas. Yesterday I walked by a store that was full of artificial Christmas trees, with all the trimmings. I thought to myself, do Doug Fir pines even exist in Bolivia? Why would they be using artificial species of trees that perhaps doesn´t even exist here? True, doug firs don´t grow in Florida either, but at least they´re shipped in from state in the same country.

Similarly, I walked by a restaurant in which an employee was decorating- again using very familiar artifical pine swags and Christmas balls. They had even put a Santa figure on top of their ice cream case. If that Santa were to come alive in Cochabamba, he would sweat to death in his full suit and also probably want to shave his beard.

These beginnings have made me curious as to what other Christmas decorations will start popping out in the next few weeks. Do Bolivians put lights outside their homes as well? Will fruitcake start being sold in the stores? And the big question, will there be commercials in Spanish for the Chiapet??

While at first I wasn´t expecting to see these US holiday icons, I now wonder why I expect to see more? In the next few weeks, though, I also hope to see some unique Bolivian holiday icons.