The boys REALLY wanted a Christmas tree so I began the hunt. Looking for a Christmas tree in Saigon is like looking for Philip when it’s time to wash dishes…..Almost impossible.  It’s not that Christmas isn’t celebrated here. It is and each year it’s getting bigger and brighter. Christmas in Saigon is growing into quite a celebration set up for us the visitors. There is no real meaning behind it but, more and more locals are adopting some of our traditions or what they believe to be our traditions….. Like Christmas dinner. Families all sitting down at the table to share a nice big bucket of Chicken from KFC? (They are masters of advertising….)

After some serious searching we found Hanahs 3 floors of  flashing lights, big plastic ornaments, huge santa displays(oddly though Santa looks a little like a big buddha in a santa suit hmmm…) and tree’s. Not the green ones we’ve all grown up with. These are all colors of the rainbow some on one tree! There are purple tree’s with feathers for branches this one I call Purple Rain and could imagine it in Prince’s bedroom:). There are fuchsia ones with blue stars, gold ones with plastic birds, furry ones, tall and skinny ones but no green ones???? Yikes, I couldn’t do it. Much to the dismay of the kids I just couldn’t hall that 5 foot electric blue feathered “christmas tree”  and all of its glittery trimmings into the cab…. however, I did give into a 24inch purple star tree the “needles” of each branch are made from silky stars. It has blue lights and a big white stand. We paid about 1.75usd. Arlo and Zeb put it on the table next to their bed and plugged it in. Once. Lights fried and the stand broke…

I told the kids about the year I spent Christmas in Mexico. How I was the same age as Zeb is now and we that we didn’t have a tree that year either blah blah and how it turned out to be one of the best Christmas’ of my childhood….but they weren’t buying it. So I decided to make one…….

I think it’s growing on them:)