Christmas flowers

and my alternative to a Christmas tree, in a black glazed pot in the kitchen.

A close up of this orchid, with its exquisitely delicate flowers.

A smaller "tree", in a yellow-glazed pot, in the drawing room.

Again the flowers are an unusually delicate species.

We decided rather than cut flowers this year, we'd buy potted orchids to decorate the two rooms that will be used most over the Christmas period - the kitchen, when we're either cooking, making drinks or drinking drinks, and the sitting room, where we shall entertain our guests on Christmas Eve, whilst we sip cocktails and nibble on fois gras that a couple have brought from the south of France, from whence they travelled earlier this week without encountering the chaos being experienced by their countrymen in the north, and indeed those in northern Europe generally.

I am immensely grateful that I am not caught up in that, and consider my own little inconvenience of a fire drill on the 25th insignificant, with its alarm, which I'm now considering a Thai version of Christmas bells, or as one of our neighbours said: Fire drill on Christmas Day...what are they afraid of...that Santa has set the chimney on fire? Or the power cut by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority of Bangkok on Boxing Day, from 08.30 till 15.30.

As you an see, we have flower power instead.

Christmas Greetings to you all.

What's it to you?

Christmas, that is. It seems odd to me, in a country that is more than 95% Buddhist, Christmas even gets a look in. But it does, in the worst and tackiest ways, predominantly displayed through glittery, shiny, tacky, (yes I know I've just used that descriptor) decorations. I don't suppose many people really know what it's about. So Christmas in Thailand is the marketeers' wettest dream. The masses have bought into something that has no meaning whatsoever. But it's not only in Thailand, it was a cancer that started in the West, and has spread very effectively to all corners of the world where it has no business being.
Well, except Christmas is a business of course, silly.

I was lamenting this lack of spirituality and meaning to my beloved, and he remarked that for most people, of whatever religious persuasion, the marketing message had infiltrated the most diverse of cultures, so that now it represented the festive season in its entirety. People enjoy the mad buzz of partying, present buying, giving and receiving. And perhaps they do. Personally I find it an abomination. Not because it has no relevance to the birth of Jesus Christ, (that's entirely up to those who consider themselves Christian), but the meaningless materialism that has taken its place.

My particular bête noir, apart from the aforementioned ticky-tacky, is the creation of gift hampers by the supermarket where I shop. Apart from the dubious quality of content, (inter alia a bottle that looks like champagne, filled with "red grape" juice - ya wot?), these are strewn throughout the supermarket floors, lining the aisles and making navigating a trolley more tiresome than you could think possible. (Navigating a trolley in most supermarkets in this city ought to be an Olympic event, given the obstacle course that shoppers face.) There seems a particular art here for shop display, which must deliberately be in the way of participants trying to get through a store. This is most effective at entrances and exits and near to escalators. My upmarket and Westernised Thai friend describes it as the Temple Fair mentality; however ordered something is, there seems an amazing ability to instantly create disorder, with noise and chaos seemingly encouraging the unsure to part with oodles of cash on items of little or no value. What do I know? Perhaps it works.

 Having just penned this little rant-ette, I found a CD in the bowels of the collection entitled Christmas Meditation, with Pachelbel's Canon in D, Handel's Messiah, etc etc. I've poured some jolly cocktails; the weather has turned unusually cool. We've opened the balcony doors; it feels positively wintry. All is well in this little world. And not a ticky-tacky in sight.

Anyway, on that note, be sure to enjoy Christmas y'all.

"The holiday shopping season"

So described by Betty Liu of Bloomberg TV. And sadly, that's what it's really all about. The little matter of the birth of JC seems to be but a footnote to history. Judging by all the usual hype, I'm sure that's what most people focus on, which is why for example in a country that is 99% Buddhist, it's capital city and shops are festooned in meaningless tinsel.

As written by The Blue Remembered Hills, in his thoughtful blog, I was encouraged by the words of Nigella Lawson on the subject of Christmas:

Another interesting point that Nigella brought up about Christmas is that, despite her being Jewish "of the blood pure" as she says in her book Feast, for her as a Brit Christmas represents that mid-winter, non-denominational, non-religious festival of lights that bravely battles the dark of winter with a promise that spring, and rebirth is not too far away.

So in a way it has become festival for everyman, and every religion, or no religion. "Battling the dark of winter" however is a bit of a stretch when it's 30 degrees Centigrade in bright sunshine, with blue skies.

Happy holiday shopping season then, if that's what pulls your sleigh.