Christmas spirit?

The past couple of days it hasn´t been a question about whether it´s been hot or cold here in Phnom Penh, as I was writing about in the previous posting. It´s hot. Probably around +32-33 degrees, I´d guess. In this heat, I´ve been driving around Phnom Penh to do my Christmas shopping. It started yesterday, with me and my friend Mimmi going to the International Bookstore to check out their stock of plastic christmas trees. Yes - I know; I can already hear you commenting and mumbling all the way from wherever you are; "Plastic?! How tacky, is she insane?!" Well, I don´t like this any more than you do, but I do live in Cambodia now and I don´t have very much of a choice, ok? So anyway; we found some quite impressive plastic trees in all kinds of sizes, the biggest ones more than 3,5 m tall. And giant plastic raindeers, santa claus costumes, glitter in all kinds of colours, and all kinds of christmas decorations, one tackier than the other.... Well, if it´s christmas decorations you´re after and you´re not too picky about the design being as far from minimalistic as it can possibly be, you won´t be disappointed here, that´s for sure.

I´ve never been head over heels for christmas actually, but as I´m married to someone who´d probably be best described as a "Christmas fetishist", I thought that I for the sake of love could check out the possibility of creating something that could at least vaguely remind us of a traditional christmas celebration, although we´ll be spending this christmas in a tropical heat this year. And for the same reason, I went to the western grocery store "Veggies" today, to get my beloved husband some pickled herring, which is a must for him on Christmas Eve. After that, I went to Pencil Supermarket for some grocery shopping, and found that also they are selling plastic christmas trees and were busy putting them on display outside the store;


I went inside, escaping the hot sun and spent a good half an hour in the air conditioned store, trying to cool down, doing my shopping listening to "Jingle Bells" and other christmas carrols from the loudspeakers, with the sweat still almost pouring down my back. I couldn´t help thinking that it felt a bit weird, and that I found it a bit difficult to get the different pieces together. I mean, I have my picture about what Christmas usually is like, and I just found it a bit contradictory to listen to christmas carrols and looking at christmas decorations, in a temperature of +33 degrees. But at the same time, I wouldn´t change it for the usual Christmas time in Sweden, either. With all that stress, the hectic christmas shopping where you´ll spend hours in the department stores, the darkness and the cold. That I can do without. But what, or rather who, I can´t do without is my husband. But he´ll arrive on the 22:nd, just in time for Christmas. And perhaps, we´ll go to the International Bookstore to get one of those plastic trees... Well actually, I´ve already promised him one... What don´t you do for some christmas spirit?! And your loved one :-)