Green Christmas

It's not that it's so weird to celebrate a green Christmas. In the past I've spent parts of my Christmas vacation in Southern climes. What's weird is that having been down here since September, I've missed out on the whole Christmas build-up. Walking into Zellers the day after Hallowe'en and seeing the decorations; the gradual infiltration of public spaces with Christmas music; lights on houses and in the streets; Christmas concerts and recitals, parties and events; and then as the day approaches, the media running reports on this year's hottest toy or how long the lines are at the Halifax Shopping Centre. Down here this build-up is conspicuously absent.

It's still a big deal. But not THAT big of a deal. Here Christmas is a day off work ( only one or two!), an excuse to get together with family and friends to eat and drink, and most importantly, it symbolizes the beginning of summer. And the heavy emphasis on consumption is quite absent.
In America del Norte, you wouldn't think of holding an event on the 23rd or 28th of December unless it was specifically Christmas related, because everyone's so busy with Xmas no one will show up. Here, it's no big deal. The average person probably has the 25th off, but the 26th isn't a holiday here, so it's back to work for the whole week between Christmas and New Year's.

There's the minimal of Christmas decorations; trees (fake, of course), wreathes, Santa hats, candles, but Christmas lights are few and far between. It's summer, so it doesn't get dark until after 9pm. No need to light up the long winter evenings like in the northern Hemisphere.

Sort of like Hallowe'en here, a North American approach to Xmas is mainly to be found in American chain stores and restaurants and malls. And depending on which average Argentine you talk to, they may view the whole "Dreaming of a white Christmas" with anything from indifference to bitterness. Santa in a snowsuit and heavy boots? Snowmen and reindeer? Polar bears drinking Coca-Cola? Much of the pop culture surrounding Christmas that originates in the Northern Hemisphere just doesn't apply down here. So multi-nationals arriving in Argentina and trying to propagate a Northern conception of what Christmas is just doesn't sit well.

And if you look a little closer, it becomes clear that the same multi-national corporations and companies that try to promote Christmas North American style aren't doing it because they think Argentines would better celebrate the birth of Jesus running around in Santa hats and scarves; it's that in trying to create a North American style Xmas, they hope to encourage the North American levels of consumption associated with the holiday.

But just like how the Saint Jean Baptiste or Canada Day long weekend marks the symbolic beginning of summer in Canada, Christmas in Argentina is when Argentines start to "think beach!" There's a mass exodus out of Buenos Aires to the Atlantic coast in January to beat the steamy city summer heat.