A Merry Little Shoba

My Christmas post from last year was fairly negative, in hindsight. Maybe it's because I'm not really going anywhere for winter break, though, that leaves me with a better impression of the holiday season in Georgia. Maybe it's the prospect of eight months left in my service, as opposed to twenty.

There's quite a few things to be happy about during the Georgian Christmas season. The key to everything is to realize that even though the Georgian Christmas falls on January 7th, the holiday that they get all excited about-- with the trees and the presents and what have you-- is New Year's. Naturally, I still pine for Christmas 2005, when I passed the Macy's Christmas windows on my way to work every day, but until Macy's Tbilisi opens, here's what to look out for next time you find yourself in Georgia in late December...



1) You can still find the Coca-Cola polar bears on TV, watching brightly lit Coca-Cola trucks speeding yuletide cavities to children throughout the world. Last year these commercials were only on the Russian channels, but the proudest pronouncement of Georgia's entry on to the world stage is that they're showing the commercials in Georgian this year.

2) Your school's Christmas carnival will be an exhibition of singing and dancing, though not like the exhibitions of singing in dancing that you sat through in the US, where the littl'uns adorably forget their lines and sing out of tune, or step with the wrong foot. Their singing and dancing teachers have long since taught them that mistakes are not cute. Nothing warms the heart like carols and folk dances juxtaposed with razor-sharp Soviet precision.


3) Your host sister might receive a free CD full of Christmas music from cellular provider Geocell when she buys a new SIM card. She might play the songs over and over again, referring to her 10th and 11th grade textbooks for the words from "White Christmas," "Silent Night," and "So This is Christmas (War is Over)." She might ask you to help her with the pronunciation of the lyrics to "Jingle Bell Rock," which she'll be singing at the aforementioned Christmas carnival. You might explain to her that she should say "swingin'" instead of "swinging," and that the A doesn't mean anything in "a-mingle."

4) You can watch a new set of mysterious commercials that has appeared this year, where a bunch of Santas read letters from children and announce in English that they're from Georgia. There's Georgian subtitles, so at first I thought it was an international commercial dubbed in Georgian, but then the Santas are shown walking around Georgian stores-- it's not like anyone else uses this alphabet-- so apparently the commercials were made under the assumption that Santa speaks English. I guess that makes sense; it is the international language.

5) In case you start to get depressed about the impending passing of December 25th as a day without celebration, take advantage of the smattering of saint's days that fill the time before New Year's. Monday was St. Barbara's Day, when one eats pumpkin, bean pastries, and fish. Wednesday was St. Nicholas' Day, when one goes (or intends to go) to church.

Bear in mind that there's plenty of American volunteers scattered around the country who'll celebrate with you, too. If the camaraderie of a bunch of tree-hugging, organic-farming hippies doesn't make your holiday merry and bright, then perhaps there's nothing left for you here. Go back to America, where they play the Christmas carols 24 hours a day for six weeks, and where the Christmas aisles at Wal-Mart are set up before you've eaten the last of your Halloween candy. Go buy presents for your friends, and then wonder at what point you should draw the line between "friend" and "Christmas present friend." Go take advantage of the one day off your job offers you, knowing that they could call you back into the office at any second. Go stuff the used wrapping paper into a giant trash bag and wonder if it was worth all the effort.

Yes, I miss it anyway.