Christmas in Singapore
I’m currently sitting at home looking out of the window, watching the December rain soak the city. Not so unusual for a December lunchtime you might think, until I remember that I’m in Singapore. However the rain makes it feel like home, there’s something wrong with Christmas in Singapore. Something very wrong indeed.
It’s not the heat itself that is an issue, although hearing Christmas carols wearing shorts and flip-flops does throw you the first ten times it happens. It’s the combination of the heat, the monsoon rains and the tannoy in the courtyard below loudly encouraging us to ‘Have Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas’ that really makes your brain hurt.
More surreal than the incongruous weather is the treatment of Christmas out here. The decorations have gone up in the last couple of weeks, including several trees so tall they affect the local air traffic. Father Christmas has started appearing hither and thither, and there is, no doubt, a small seasonal power plant turned on purely to power the enormous number of festive street lights. However on questioning the local Singaporeans at work, it turns out they just don’t celebrate Christmas at all.
Apart from in the normal way that Singaporeans celebrate… by hitting the shops. It seems that out here whatever the religious festival; Diwali, Chinese New Year, Summer Solstice – there’s an opportunity for a bargain that goes along with it.
The lack of interest in Christmas traditions is also shown in the selection of music. In the shopping centres the background noise occasionally translates into what must once have been a Christmas Carol but is now clearly an experiment in removing joy from passers by simply by using musical instruments from the 1980s. Even our home is not safe. Our lift CD containing Casio keyboard versions of ‘Eternal Flame’ by the Bangles and a selection of murdered Beatles classics (on a loop for the last 11 months) has been replaced by a Casio keyboard version of ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’. Someone is clearly working from the ‘a change is as good as a rest’ book of auditory torture.
The final piece of the Singapore Christmas puzzle is the use of entirely inappropriate decoration. It seems that despite holly, snow, fir trees, reindeer and poinsettia hardly being native or in some cases ever have been present in Singapore, these are the decorations of choice. Just like back home. The strangest thing I’ve seen is this…
.. the faux fireplace against the window in the lobby of our apartment. It’s startling artificiality wins my personal award for most peculiar choice of home decor in a tropical country.
PS Don’t feel sorry for us missing the comforts of home we’re off to Australia for Christmas. Tough I know.
Andy 5 December 2007
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That looks just like our fireplace back home – Steve has such a lovely surprise waiting for him!! Have a good one and enjoy Australia, Love to Jo from Sam & Joe also. xxx
Gillian Harris # Dec 6
Happy Christmas to you both. Will you be seeing the CRAZY one over the Xmas period? Also, what’s with the CAMP shin pads. It’s like Ben Haim meets Ben Hur
Mike Arrigan # Dec 10