Christmas in Taiwan - 2005

Need some photos for this section. It could make for a nice pictorial. This is now my 5th Christmas in Taiwan. The Christmas spirit kinda drains from you here. The Taiwanese try to make Christmas a holiday, but it really is not part of their culture (Chinese New Year – now that’s a different story). So what do I mean: (1) stores basically advertise the Christmas holiday. However the Taiwanese without the original religious overtones can not create what the West now know as Christmas. So, stores advertise, but people are not buying gifts – they are buying sale items for themselves for the Chinese New Year. Money and food are typical gifts a Taiwanese would give, not perfume and household items. (2) Christmas cards are given because “isn’t that what you do for Christmas.” Cards are high priced high ($2.00 to $3.50 I would say average) and personally I believe a very small minority actually send them. Plus you work on Christmas day. It is not made a special time. There is no snow. Kids are not looking for Santa. People are not rushing out to buy gifts. I will receive maybe one Christmas card from this region. I have even let Christmas gift giving come to a crawl. Life goes on……. There are a few nice Christmas displays --- need to get pictures up to show you. Have a good Christmas and enjoy your family time.