Christmas in Korea. Wow. Once again I will begin trying to explain Korean Holiday but first will compare it to the familiar way Americans and Europeans celebrate it. American Christmas begins somewhere around late July; the stores begin to rearrange shelves and put up little this and that or all o the winter holidays. By the end of October one is usually unsure if Halloween and Thanksgiving are just roadblocks Christmas wishes to plough over. In Europe, many of the cities hosted giant markets transforming the middle of their town somewhere beginning in late November. You could also find most stores Holidays out.
Now I am in Korea. Korea seems to be a few years behind (as it is in many things) in the over abuse of Christmas. You can find the signs and people greeting you in Santa Suits in Lotte Mart (out “target”), but their entire selection of decorations and cards can be found in a 1.5mx5m space (for those of you not metric savvy that’s 6x20 ft). The other major department store doesn’t even have that much. Many places do have a tree and some ornaments or some form of acknowledgement of Christmas, but the look of decorations that can be found in Grandmas oldest boxes. And the prices are unbelievable to me. Lights, trees, and ornaments all very expensive and not of the quality we would willingly pay in the states.
I am eager to see some more areas to see how they are decorating and handling the holiday. The downtown is lit up most of the year anyway and Shinsagae is overly fashionable and even Seoul might be a trip worth seeing Christmas in. I will be posting pictures of the kids helping to decorate our classroom at school. It looks fantastic and soon I will be doing something with my room. I will also be scanning some Christmas cards, while others you will get yourselves to see. Some of them are just super special.
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