It's Christmas time in the city...

One of the fascinating things for me going on at the moment in Singapore is the excitement and promotions occurring for Christmas.  As Thanksgiving is strictly an American holiday and not present here, the ramp-up for Christmas starts (only a bit) earlier here than in the states.

As someone coming from a northern climate accustomed to snow and cold temperatures in December, there is a strong association of snowflakes and snowmen, reindeer and sleighs, mittens and long winter caps, with the Christmas season.  This has probably been ingrained since childhood, as much of the kitsch decorations prevalent and brought out for display in the Christmas season have this theme.  So it is very different for me to see the same theme of decorations, perhaps with an Asian twist, in a climate of heat and humidity.  Since Jesus, the honoree of this holiday, was a citizen of the middle east with a climate closer to warm and humid than cold and snowy, it only goes to show how far off track this holiday has gone.

Christmas decorations on Orchard Road, Singapore

Imelda M. Reindeer, Orchard Rd, Singapore

Many of the stores and hotels in this area have displays, in a city-led promotion similar to the ice sculptures of the McCall, Idaho Winter Carnival

The Intel Blue People go multi-racial.  OK-- some non-traditional Christmas decor at Ion Mall -- a very POSH new shopping mall

 (See http://www.ionorchard.com/)

I don't know who this woman is, but this was cool-- she apparently thought it was too.

It is a carved wooden Christmas tree, with small snowflakes that are cascading down on it continuously from the top.

It's yours for about SGD$995

I will replace this picture w/ a short 3 sec video I took, when I can figure out how to post video file formats on BlogSpot.

The store salesman was giving me a few strange looks as I took these photos/videos.

(Seen at a shop in the Ion Mall selling wood carvings from Germany. ( Black Forest (??)).

It is further surprising that Christmas has this much attention here, as Christianity is a minority religion in Singapore.  However, just as in the states and elsewhere, Christmas has become more than a religious holiday-- it's a shopping season, and shopping is king in Singapore.

Religion in Singapore
religion			percent
Buddhism			42.5%
Islam			14.9%
No religion			14.8%
Christianity			14.6%
Taoism			8.5%
Hinduism			4%
Others			0.6%

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore#Religion)