Christmas In Korea

It would seem that I have it all wrong when it comes to Christmas in Korea. I thought being a fairly Christian country, Korea would share our holiday traditions. But you know what they say about assumptions. Yes, I do not know anything about Christmas in Korea.

For one thing, I worked Christmas Eve like any other day of the year. I tried to inject some Christmas themes into my classes, but this proved to just showcase my ineptitude for teaching. I had my kids write three things they wanted from Santa; only later to find out that Korea does not share the same volume of gift giving as North America nor does any other place in the galaxy (who knew?). Also, they have never heard of anyone by the name of Santa. Oh ya, and they barely know the alphabet and can not spell the only things that a Korean child would have any use for: computer games.

Having suffered through Christmas Eve, I was left to enjoy my day off: Christmas day. Not exactly the kind of holiday cheer build-up that I am used to and the day kind of came and went without much drama. We had an excellent Christmas morning and nestled around our Tannenbaum and gave gifts and made phone calls home. That took about 2 hours and I was left wondering what I would do. Enter my next assumption: shops are closed on holidays, especially Christmas.

I wondered around the neighbourhood finding not a trace of Christmas. It looked like any other day full with traffic and shops and all the bustle that any day would. I am a stranger in a strange land.