Christmastime in an Islamic Country

Bonjour,

So I had pretty much forgotten that it was getting so close to Christmas, until I read my friend Marie's funny blog post earlier this week. She totally makes me laugh. Check her blog post called "O Christmas Tree".

But with a lot of green, too much rain, and no formal Thanksgiving festivities beforehand, it can be easy to forget that Christmas is right around the corner. After all, you don't hear Christmas music playing every time you go in a store. And as you might have gathered, I've had my Christmas shopping pretty much done for a while, so it's not like I'm feeling a lot of pressure to find a bunch of presents.

But folks here are still aware of the Christmas holiday ("Noel"). In fact, when you go in the bigger malls, it's clear that at least a few retailers know who they want to attract in December.

Here's from the MegaMall.

(Fyi, photos are "interdit" (forbidden) inside the MegaMall, so it's a good thing the security guard doesn't know about the photos that follow).

And here's from the Marjane (Rabat's answer to Target) (not the most exciting decorations, but better than nothing).

A couple of the many other retail store windows.

Finally, here's our Morocco "Christmas tree" (for the next week or so, anyway).

But, as we found last night, even if you don't have many decorations or a tree only Charlie Brown would love, kids will still have fun decorating it (for at least three minutes).

A bientot,

Kim