If there’s one thing that’s common to all Malaysians, it’s the gusto with which they approach holidays. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Christian, Chinese, Hindu or Muslim occasion, everyone will jump into it, determined to enjoy the time.
As you know, we live in the boondocks of Johor where the majority of people are Malay with a sizeable minority of Chinese. You wouldn’t really call it a Christian enclave, by any stretch of the imagination. So, we were expecting a quiet Christmas. Well, we got a sudden invitation to dinner on Christmas Day and went out to buy the inviting family a present. And this is what confronted us at the nearest shopping centre:
Here are a few photos of the decorations in the centre. The big tree you see was made from a few thousand plastic water bottles.
And here’s another view of the crowds we had to navigate while last-minute present shopping:
There were even shoppers walking around with red Santa hats on their heads, just to get into the spirit of things. We got what we wanted and hightailed it out of there as quickly as we could.
Malaysians love holidays, and it shows. Everybody wished us a merry Christmas, from security guards to shop assistants. There are special dishes out for the season at several bakeries and restaurants and everybody seemed to be having a good time. Here’s a Christmas cake we bought at one of our favourite bakeries:
I didn’t get a good photo of it before it was attacked and devoured by four hungry family members but the cake (chocolate with a chocolate and orange marmalade filling) was also decorated on top with truffles. Yum.
All in all, Christmas turned out to be surprisingly cheerful for us. We had Christmas Eve dinner at our club and the food was nothing short of stupendous. No pork, of course, being basically a Muslim country, but we had tasty local dishes, beef wellington, roast leg of lamb, roast turkey, brussell sprouts, baked fish, mussels in a pastry case with a special sauce, pasta with sauces made to order at the pasta station, cold meats and salads including some marvellous smoked mackerel, baby potatoes in beef stock, chicken rolls in a carbonara sauce, a variety of cakes, pudding with custard and … a 2-for-1 special on bottles of house wine with not even a batting of eyelids when we asked the waiter to pour two small glasses of wine for The Wast and Little Dinosaur. There were ice sculptures decorating the groaning tables, a visit from “Santa” with small presents of baked cookies and we met other families also enjoying a strangely satisfying British dinner with exotic accents, hosted by an extremely talented Muslim head chef with a Muslim restaurant staff, barely one degree north of the equator.
All in all, J and I consider this one of the nicest Christmases we’ve ever had together. Hope yours was the same and you and your families enjoyed a bit of a rest. I should be back to a semi-regular schedule next week so, until then, enjoy yourselves. You can save the exercise regime for later in January! I am. 
