Pinoy Christmas Abroad

Thursday, December 20, 2012 0 Comments A+ a-

This year is going to be my sixth Christmas celebration away from the Philippines. I never thought I'd be spending it longer than what I've originally planned of three or four years, tops. Why's that? Well, not that I don't like Christmas at home. In fact, it's more fun in the Philippines. Let's just call it work related thing because Thai people, who happen to be a follower of Buddha, don't celebrate the birth of Jesus. Therefore, December isn't a month of long holiday for us.  

But it's just fine. Although Christmas is not Christmas when you are not with your family, Filipinos in Thailand and other parts of the world still celebrate it with burning love the way Filipinos in the Philippines do. Here, we normally get together, cook scrumptious foods for "noche buena", sing Christmas carols and exchange gifts, too, as if we are in the Philippines.


So two weeks ago just before we felt the cool breeze that reminded us of the big day, Joyie, my brother-in-law, me and of course my good friend/neighbour Mr. Cansix, decorated our lawn with blinking lights circling the plants and trees. A "parol" with a light inside hanging on the garage which my friend handcrafted, fits perfectly like the real star the wise men saw when Jesus was born.

The decoration is not yet done as we have plans of having our Christmas trees outside to make the lawn brighter, and also have the other trees covered with lights to make us feel we never really left home. 

Merry Christmas!

John Benliro hails from Palawan, Philippines. He's a travel enthusiast who loves to read geography books as well as those authored by Sheldon and Grisham. He's a full time lecturer at a university in Thailand and has been blogging since 2009. Come and join him in exploring the vastness of our imagination, drifting from land to land one step at a time.