Always Christmas But Never Winter

In the book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the land of Narnia is under the control of the White Witch, who has it in a permanent state of winter. The book says that Narnia is a miserable place because it is "always winter, but never Christmas." An American friend here in Manila pointed out that the Philippines is exactly the opposite of Narnia, because here it is always Christmas, but never winter... That is such a completely true statement!!! The Philippines begins celebrating Christmas in SEPTEMBER, and it lasts all the way through December. So decorations were already in full swing when we arrived here at the beginning of November. The malls and restaurants are all already playing Christmas music, and EVERYPLACE is decorated. Below are just some of the decorative sights we see around our neighborhood!

Our neighborhood is called Bonifacio Global City, so everyone calls it BGC.
This tree is in a little square right outside our building. We randomly ran into someone in a Shopkins costume there last night - we have no idea why... :)
Inside the nearest mall to our apartment. They have this walk-through display called "Christmas Under the Sea." We haven't been inside yet, but people sure were lined up on this day!
Gigantic tree in the atrium at church.
 A market selling poinsettias!
And my absolute favorite Christmas decoration I've seen... Throughout our neighborhood, they have changed all the stoplights so that the greens are Christmas trees and the reds are stars! I cannot even believe it! I'm told they do other shapes for other holidays, so I'll keep an eye on it!

So we are swimming in Christmas spirit over here!!! Merry Christmas!!

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