Have an Abu Dhabi Christmas

I screwed up.  Big time.  It wasn’t intentional – not that screwing up ever is – but this wasn’t even on my radar.  Larry was notified he’d been hired in late March, and was here by mid-April. I was focused on family and getting the house packed up until I came in early July.  No thought whatsoever was given to Christmas decorations. HUGE mistake, but I didn’t discover it until a year and a half later.

This past Christmas was our first one here. Last year we took a river cruise and visited many wonderful Christmas markets from Prague to Budapest, and it felt very much like Christmas as a result. But this year, Christmas was really different. It was weird. It was also wonderful. It was weird not to have a real Christmas tree. Of note is the fact that real Christmas trees are actually available here. I saw them available for purchase at one of the Spinney’s grocery locations, and even at the souk! And they weren’t expensive. In fact, I’ve paid more back home. But… there is definitely not room on this particular boat for a real live Christmas tree. Luckily, there are also plenty of fake trees available here, in every size shape and color. I even saw a Charlie Brown tree! So we ended up with a 2 ft tall white tree that would fit on top of the dining table in the saloon. There are also stockings, tree décor, gift wrap and pretty much all other accouterments of Christmas.  I bought some plastic balls, because they were the right color, and they would do. All of this was available and easy to get except for one HUGE difference… There was no hype. The home décor wasn’t in stores until around the 9^th or 10th or so of December, and at no point in time did you hear or see ads with anxiety creating gift hawkers on speed urging you into a buying frenzy. That was the wonderful part. Having plastic Christmas tree decorations, that had absolutely no meaning was weird. And also kind of depressing. But I suppose it could have been worse.

There were a couple of Christmas markets offered around the city, and the malls had enormous Christmas Trees. I even heard carols being played on the sound system at a few stores. There was not any cool, crisp, pine scented air. And there was no snow. Considering my last +/- 25 Christmases involved snow and cold, the weather was weird.

We had guests with us over Christmas, my sister in law and her husband came to see us from their home in Germany. Initially anyway, they found the weather very much to their liking (not surprising).  As the week wore on, we began to wake up to dense fog. At one point we even had to close the windows and revert to the A/C to keep from waking up in a puddle and they finally admitted to bringing the fog and damp with them. While they were here we did the standard stuff; day trip to Dubai for the Old Souk and Ski Dubai, back to AD for the Louvre, and the Grand Mosque. This time we toured at night and it was spectacular! This is by far my favorite time to tour.  The light is amazing.

We did some shopping together and they commented on how surprising it was to see Christmas trees in every mall and hotel, and in some of the restaurants as well. This was not at all what they expected. They also did not expect the wide variety of goods and services we have available to us here. My brother in law being something of a foodie was particularly amazed at the cultural diversity of the food and spices on offer at the grocery stores. He was really surprised to find that yes… pork is sold here – just not in the main store – you have to pass through the secret door (mostly) hidden at the back with the ‘No Muslims Allowed’ sign on it.   

And of course, as he has done every year since maybe forever, my husband played Santa Claus for hundreds of local children. As I have done for the past 4 years, I joined him as Mrs. Claus. This year there was a slight twist. We did a quick stint as Santa and Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve, and we had Elves with us! 3 beautiful young ladies joined us to throw candy to the kids from the beach of The Club. One, an attractive English friend of ours who lives locally, another a beautiful young woman from Colorado (now living in Dubai) whom I have known since she was a teen, and the third, her gorgeous Iranian friend. Santa is definitely international! It was a crazy appearance, lasting all of 30 minutes. At the end, Santa told the children to be sure and go to bed early, but also to get up early and make sure to wake their parents up right away so they could open all of their presents! Well done Santa! Our brother in law got it all on video, but I am unable to load the file – it’s huge!

Afterward we came back to the boat, and chatted together, enjoying a few cocktails and laughing. Everybody stayed on board with us over night Christmas Eve. For the second time ever, we had a full boat. On Christmas morning as everybody gradually woke up and came into the saloon to see and open their stockings… it finally felt like Christmas. A different Christmas to be sure, but Christmas nevertheless. It was a lazy morning filled with spiked coffee, gift opening, and lots of food. And of course, mimosas.      

It comes down to this, regardless of what was in my head about how Christmas should be, the fact is it’s not about the weather, or where you physically are. It’s about the people you love, and those who love you. It’s about making sure that all of them know how important they are, and how loved. And it’s about giving yourself a little love too. The setting doesn’t have to be perfect if the sentiments are.

I know this comes late, but I hope you all had wonderful holidays filled with love and laughter, and that your 2018 is all that you visualize it to be.

PS – I tossed the plastic Christmas balls.  I can do better.