Christmas in Ukarumpa, 2

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When you live in another county, you quickly discover that festivities like Christmas are celebrated in vastly different ways in different cultures. Papua New Guinea's experience of Christianity is very recent--a little over 100 years in the places that have known Christianity the longest, but in some places only 20 or 30 years. For many Papua New Guineans Christmas is little different from any other day, and there isn't a "Christmas season" as we know it in America. In Papua New Guinea's major towns you may see Santa imagery and hear Christmas music playing in the stores, but these are surface-level trappings that have as yet little connection to PNG as a whole.

William in front of the fireplace
Being in a country that does relatively little to commemorate Christmas makes us realize how culturally specific our warm feelings about this time of year are. It gives us the opportunity to select just those traditions that we want to continue in our household and share with our kids.

A heavy snowfall in PNG
Decorating the house for Christmas is a tradition that we've brought with us to PNG. We don't have an inflatable snowman in the yard or a plastic Santa-and-reindeer on the roof, but we do a bit of decorating around the house. We're thankful for our wonderful house, and for this month when we put up the Christmas tree (the same artificial tree we've had for all our married years) and lights, hang the stockings on the mantle, and turn up the Christmas music playlist. The weather outside is not frightful (it's felt like a Midwest US June for the last week), but inside the house--especially with all the kids home all day on school break--is very delightful.

James continues to enjoy the saxophone during school break

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