Finally Focusing on Christmas

I make the journey home tomorrow. It's still hard for me to believe that Christmas is only 5 days away, I feel like I haven't done anything to prepare, even though I have a little ;)

Costa Rica is a colorful place. They paint their houses and their metal gates and windows bright colors. While most of the houses have lights and decorations up for Christmas, they are often lost on me. There is so much to look at here, probably because I don't live here and I am often seeing things for the first time.

Most houses have greens up of some kind. Whether it's over the doorway, or a Christmas tree on their porch (or both), They have hung their greens. Real OR fake, they have both. My friends Hugito and Katherin have a real tree in their small apartment. It is fragrant and smells like a Christmas tree, but it is different from the trees we would have at home (it looks more like a bush). I took a picture of it, but it is stuck on my phone that is off and not connected to anything :)

The trees that I have found decorated have been decorated with ribbon and ornaments that match-- like they came in a set. This tree actually had a butterfly theme and a nativity scene beneath it.

Butterfly-themed Tree

LIGHTS. Lots of places have lights. Whether it's a house, apartment complex or house; there plenty of lights here. Costa Ricans prefer lights that are colorful and that blink. Almost all the lights blink. It's fascinatingly distracting.

Many public places have decorated for Christmas as well. Not "The Holidays". Christmas. I haven't seen a single Menorah, Star of David or anything that has to do with Kwanza. Many stores have full nativity sets out declaring their beliefs. Most, if not all, people here celebrate Christmas so I guess they aren't really offending anybody. On television last week we saw a parade of Christmas Lights in San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica). There was no Menorah.

Here are some pictures of various Christmas things I've seen around San Isidro. Enjoy!

Lights on palm trees always look cool

This apartment complex made a tree out of light-up ornaments

A street in San Isidro at night, close to the town square

This is what they've decorated the park with. The tree has the logo of the local cell service provider on it and there is a Nativity Scene on the right

This is a church member's house we went to for a party

The church member's Nativity scene. Notice the tongue on the cow :)