Hey all!

Well for you long-timers can you tell me if there's anything going on in the ex-pat community during Christmas and New Years???

Looks like I'll be in BKK during both holidays and I'm not sure I want to eat Pad Thai on Xmas day

Cheers and happy holidays!!!

Moon

I avoid Xmas like the plague...but I here tell that there's a ton of stuff for Xmas and there surely will be traditional Xmas dinners around in many pubs and elsewhere I'm sure. Its probably too soon to be asking but maybe this post will put you back at the top of the list and someone who likes to celebrate Xmas will tell you what has happened in years past.

Ditto everything for New Years.

Currently whats ur favorite song? My favorite is Shut Up from Simple Plan. It just rocks!

Have a look her for eating suggestions.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40277

I avoid Xmas like the plague...but I here tell that there's a ton of stuff for Xmas and there surely will be traditional Xmas dinners around in many pubs and elsewhere I'm sure.  Its probably too soon to be asking but maybe this post will put you back at the top of the list and someone who likes to celebrate Xmas will tell you what has happened in years past.

Ditto everything for New Years.

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Me too.... no christmas last year, and it was fantastic... although I did have a BBQ and a couple of beers with a mate from the UK..but that was cos it was a Saturday..

Got drunk new years, all three days of it...

totster

Well for you long-timers can you tell me if there's anything going on in the ex-pat community during Christmas and New Years???

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Christmas isn't important here at all. While the hotels all promote an endless number of dinner/lunch packages, and the shopping malls are filled with plastic trees, my experience is that none of the local festivities will remind you very much of home. The effort by most Thai businesses to draw additional revenue on the back of Christmas always seems to me to range from highly amusing to downright pathetic. My own recommendation is for you to go down to Soi Cowboy of Christmas Eve. The sight of packs of bar girls wandering the little laneway, largely naked except for their Santa Clause hats, is one never to be forgotten.

New Years, on the other hand, is a huge holiday here, maybe the biggest. You will find the full range of public and private celebrations in all price ranges. And as for Soi Cowboy........

I've never enjoyed Xmas in non Christian cultures, it seems it bit contived. Celebrating the local festivals is much more fun but then I have no particular religeous leanings.

I avoid Xmas like the plague...

Ditto everything for New Years.

Me too.... no christmas last year, and it was fantastic... although I did have a BBQ and a couple of beers with a mate from the UK..but that was cos it was a Saturday..

totster

Interesting.

I also avoid Xmas and have done so for 10 years.

Anyone else want to fess up.

If there is enough of us we could all get together to not celebrate

Wife and I are fleeing to Sante Fe this year for 2 reasons :

1) our first white Xmas

2) to escape the thai style end of year office partys

I've never enjoyed Xmas in non Christian cultures, it seems it bit contived.

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Yeah, it's so authentic back home.

jb

Sounds silly, I know, but the very reason I like Christmas in LOS is that I have got religious leanings. In the west (esp. UK and USA) Christmas has very much lost its true meaning, and is just an excuse for spending a ton of money you haven't got buying things that noone really wants for people you don't particularly like.

By having these distractions removed, I can enjoy the true meaning without the unwanted trappings. There are bits I miss, of course, but by and large I prefer it in LOS. The time of year is a bit poignant now anyway, as I went to morning mass last Christmas morning in Laguna (Phuket). 24 hours later some of the people with whom I had celebrated were dead.

On the positive side, however, I still eat and drink ridiculous amounts - but I've never needed an excuse to do that anyway. So, if anyone is up for it, I shall be in merry mood around the festive season in Cherngtalay.

Last year I had a few mates over from around Asia and ordered up a roast turkey (I live in serviced apartment) - it was huge and came with cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts the works. We then went down to the pool for champagne and after that down the cowboy.

Beats spending it in the UK...