I suppose with a strong expat community and a commercial potential, you'd expect such a thing to happen. It's a chance to sell merchandise, and that above anything seems to highly motivate the local businesses to go all out in what they understand Christmas to be.
The local movie theater in the city mall has a tree and "Merry Christmas" strung up from the ceiling, which was bizarre enough, and then Lucky Supermarket got in the act, plastering its windows with tree stickers, displaying stacks of Santa chocolates, outfitting their entire staff with Santa hats, and playing "We wish you a merry Christmas" on repeat.
As far as I can tell, the locals treat it was some bemusement, but I would guess as a grand opportunity to sell stuff, which is unfortunately what Christmas is about everywhere. It is kind of sad, though, a little upsetting, to see that part of it in its extreme -- for most people, I think, Christmas is the commercial but also the family time, tradition.
Here it's just the commercial without the tradition or the idea of spending time with the family. You can sense the locals don't give one whit about the holiday itself or what it may or may not mean. Maybe they see on TV what it's supposed to be like, and I think they really are trying to recreate it for all the crazy barangs, but with this kind of confused distance.
Essentially, it's the side of Christmas I am not at all a fan of, and I'm already sick of it.
In the mean time, today is December 1st. It is hot today. There has been no real change in the weather, though I think it is slightly less hot than it was. I miss the cold and watching the seasons change.
Hot winters and Christmas in the Cambodian supermarkets -- the best word I can think of for it is surreal.
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