mangoes roasting on an open firepit

Two years ago we spent Christmas in the jungle in Belize. We had travelled there for the month of December while i was on maternity leave - thinking the jungle is as good a place as any to figure out how to become parents. And since we'd been there before we'd already formed a community of sorts - in fact, this trip was partially "business" as we were also scouting out (and found) the land we were looking for.

We had rented a tiny little place in a small village near the border of Guatemala. In our ignorance, we assumed Christmas might go by largely unnoticed. We couldn't have been more wrong.

Everyone was in the holiday spirit. Ancient decorations of unbelievable tackiness were everywhere, and while what we consider to be Christmas lights are somewhat the fashion all year round, I noticed everything was blinkier and brighter. I spent one afternoon helping a group of women decorate their house, and was amused to see the intensity with which they took the process - to the point of taking down the garland I had hung and rehanging it to their specifications after much discussion and measuring, or spending quite a while debating exactly which Santa cutout went on which door. One of them gently took away the blue blinking lights I was trying to hang around a hammock (a swinging blue hammock, people. I thought it was money) and hung them in a much better and coherent fashion on a mango tree.

The big event of the season was when Santa came into town. Everyone in the village made their way to the closest town and dressed in their finest holiday clothes. (red sarongs and t-shirts) and the whole town packed itself into a church meeting hall to meet the jolly good man.

J and I were surprised to see that Santa was white. For some reason, we'd expected him to be more representative of the population and talked a bit about how that might feel. The American Imperialism! The Capitalistic Hacks! The Atrocities Of It All! How Dare Whitey Force It's Image Everywhere! I mean, it's bad enough everyone portrays Jesus as white. But Santa too...The Outrage!

So at one point J turned to a friend and said doesn't it bug you that Santa is white? To which our friend replied You Americans - always seeing things in terms of color. When I see Santa, I only see love. He makes everyone happy. Who cares what color he is.

Consciousness raised.