One of the reasons we were so damned excited to settle in Chiang Mai for a few weeks was that we wanted to be able to enjoy the holidays without packing or traveling.
Braeden, ever the typical American 4-year-old, had been peppering us with questions about Christmas since maybe, oh, last Christmas, so it goes without saying that he was excited. And we were excited for him.
The first order of business was finding a tree, which we did pretty easily at a stationery store, of all places. Our usual tradition is to visit a tree farm and cut our tree down, but screw that, next year we’re hitting the stationery store instead.
We picked up a little 3-footer, a couple of strings of lights (one of which zapped me as soon as we plugged it in, so it went into the trash pronto), a slightly-too-big star tree topper, and a handful of ornaments, and carried them to our cozy apartment. We took one day to do the decorating and we trimmed the tree, put up a red and green construction paper garland that Juliann and Braeden had made, and Braeden hung a bunch of his drawings around the apartment, many with such Christmas-y themes as “Batman” and “Minions”.
I guess everything screams “Christmas” when you’re four.
Next, after much digging Juliann discovered that there was a scheduled Santa appearance nearby, in a biker bar called Roo Bar. A year earlier we would have balked at taking a 4-year-old to visit Santa in a biker bar, but the road tends to lower your standards in a delightful way, so we shrugged and set out for Roo one warm and muggy December evening.
The bar was located on a busy party street, Loi Kroh Road, and as we approached we could see it was a busy night for the bar. Juliann went ahead to make sure there was nothing untoward going on – I can only imagine Santa’s helpers in G-strings or assless chaps would be cause for a boatload of questions – and she took a peek inside while I waited with Braeden, who had no idea why we were waiting outside a bar on the busy street.
Less than a minute later Juliann poked her head out and gave me a nod and a smile. Braeden and I approached, and we stopped at the threshold of the bar, where Juliann was talking to the fellow running the show.
A Better Way to Tour the Calanques
Braeden froze when he saw the portly, bearded Englishman playing Santa in one corner of the bar next to a cheerfully decorated fir tree. He stared at Santa, breathless. Finally the boy spoke.
“Daddy!” he whispered urgently.
“What is it, bud?”
“Santa’s checking his email!”
I grinned. Santa was indeed on his phone.
“I’ll bet he’s keeping tabs on the workshop back home. It’s almost Christmas and they’re probably pretty busy up at the North Pole,” I replied.
The boy just nodded, never taking his eyes off of Santa. I watched my son and my heart swelled so much it hurt.
The Santa appearance was for charity, so we gave a donation and walked Braeden back to where Santa was now rising to meet the little boy, a huge smile on his bearded face.
There were no other kids in Roo’s to get pictures with Saint Nick, just the daughters of the owner who were dressed up as helpers, so Braeden had plenty of time to talk, hang out, take pictures, and finally give Santa a crayon drawing he had been working on for weeks.
Santa took the picture, stared at it in disbelief for a long time, then took Braeden by the shoulders and hugged him fiercely.
We thanked the staff, said goodbye, and left, glowing.
Shortly before Christmas we took a cooking class at A Lot of Thai, a cooking school in the home of Yui, a local woman who has been running cooking classes for years.
Yui came highly recommended, and we were not disappointed. Her school was clean and bright, the dishes she made for us (chicken fried rice, papaya salad, and Panang Curry with chicken) were incredibly tasty, and the same dishes that we made ourselves came out fantastic.
Juliann took one station and Braeden and I situated ourselves at another, and we had a blast learning about new ingredients (Lemongrass? Yes please!), and chopping, dicing, and throwing colorful foods in our woks.
At the end of the day Yui, who was charming and funny, took us to the local market to show us where to buy everything we needed to make our dishes ourselves. It was a fun – and filling – day, and we learned so much about Thai food.
Christmas came, and it was wonderful. The boy was thrilled that Santa managed to find us in Chiang Mai, Juliann and I got inventive with our gift giving, and we spent the day doing what most American families that celebrate Christmas do: we opened gifts, ate, relaxed, and just spent time with each other.
It was different, of course, because we couldn’t be with friends and family, but it was Christmas all the same, and it will be a memory we’ll have for a long, long time.
Next: A New Year Celebration, and ELEPHANTS!