#ruldoph

"Dandy's World Characters are SO original!"

That Ruldoph's dad is both Donner and Blitzen

One thing that's great about living in an international community is that our kids get exposed to all sorts of holidays.   Not long after we moved to Kenya, Zahra and I went to a huge Holi celebration at a temple near our apartment.  We ate ice cream, had henna done, and danced to blasting music.  We avoided the paint, but still had a fabulous time. 

 On Eid, Abdul took Zahra to a morning celebration and then took both Zahra and Jari to a friend's to celebrate.   Zahra's first day back at school after our trip to Brooklyn was Diwali.  She got to dress up, no uniform, and learn about the Hindu Festival of Lights.  Learning about Diwali was a bit unavoidable as fireworks in our neighborhood went on nonstop for hours.

Overall, Kenyans love celebrating holidays. And Christmas is no exception.  Up till now, Christmas hasn't been much of an issue for us.  I usually make cinnamon rolls and we spend the day watching movies.  When Zahra was Jari's age, my sister Rachel took her to meet Santa at Macy's.  But overall, Santa, presents, reindeer, haven't really been a part of our lives. But after moving here, that's all changed.  

By the time Zahra started school in early November, the main office already had a Christmas tree.  Her art projects mostly focused on Santa, Christmas trees, angels, stars, and presents.  

And administrator actually told her that Santa was going to come to her house with lots and lots of presents for her.  Her school holiday concert was not a holiday concert.  It was a Christmas concert.  Complete with songs about Santa and the Baby Jesus.  Santa actually visited her school's year-end Christmas party and bought presents for all the students.   Her ballet studio put on a performance of The Nutcracker and the younger children performed in the pre-show.  Zahra danced, adorably, to "We Are Santa's Elves," from "Rudolph The RedNosed Reindeer."  

You can watch her performance here!!!! The major kid's TV channel here, JimJam, plays "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" in between all of its TV programming. Every other event this month (and last month) in Nairobi is a Christmas fair.  We attended two of them.  They're basically just fancy artisanal craft festivals with kids entertainment and questionable food and refreshments.  Honestly, Nairobi would be well served to just call them craft festivals and to have them regularly throughout the year, rather than cramming them all into two months.  

On the plus side, I love Christmas music.  I love "Rudolph The RedNosed Reindeer" and other Christmas movies.  I love the lights and decorations that have taken over the shops.  I loved taking Zahra to see “The Nutcracker” at the National Theatre!

I didn't love, however, the administrator assuring Zahra that Santa was coming to her house with lots of presents.  I don't love the idea that in a country with so many people living in poverty, Christmas takes on such a commercial aspect.  

Fortunately, Zahra's still little enough not to be bothered one way or the other.  I explained to her that Santa brings presents to children who need them.  And we talked about all the reasons that Zahra and Jari don't fall into that category.   Not the least of which is that they have plenty of toys.  They have bikes.  Zahra has a scooter.  We brought back their play kitchen and tool bench from Brooklyn.  There is nothing that they need, so it's better that Santa focus on other kids.   And we talked about how kids like Zahra should actually help Santa by helping children who don't have as much.  Fortunately her school also had a program where they collected shoeboxes of school supplies for kids who need them.  Zahra donned a Santa hat and helped me pack up the box.  She and Jari then put it under the Christmas tree at her school.

In the meantime, we've celebrated the festive month of December by partaking in all of the above... concerts, recitals, craft fairs, lighting Hanukah candles, and making lots and lots of cookies... but of course, what we're really missing is the snow!