It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. This is especially true in District 1 on Le Loi, Dong Khoi, and Nguyen Hue streets.
The Christmas rush
By Jessica Nguyen in HCMC
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. This is especially true in District 1 on Le Loi, Dong Khoi, and Nguyen Hue streets.
Catching a bit of the Christmas spirit is easy when you walk down these streets at night, but the one
caveat is that you’re catching the spirit with hundreds of other people. In a city where Christmas has been extravagantly celebrated, the holiday is on overload on these streets as compared to other parts of the city. You may see Christmas decorations here and there as you pass through Ho Chi Minh City, but mass dosages are administered when you enter downtown.
The best way to experience a Vietnamese Christmas is to walk down these streets, even if a battle has to be mounted against the crowds. Another option is to go during the day when there are not as many people, but despite the crowds, the decorations have an undeniable magic when experienced at night. It happens once a year and is the closest thing you will get to Christmas, if you are missing the comforts of home like hot apple cider and homemade gingerbread cookies.
In a culture where teenage hang-outs are composed of taking pictures, whimsical backdrops bring the Vietnamese out in concentrated droves during the week of Christmas, especially since decorations are not available from the beginning of December for the entirety of the month. They showcase their full glory during the week of Christmas, rather than a lengthy period to spread out the crowds. This means that as soon as the sun sets and the lights perform their magic to illuminate downtown, there is not a free inch of sidewalk to walk on and traffic is bottle-necked, as motorbike drivers try to catch a glimpse of the sights around them.
Taking the perfect picture requires skill and finesse among the people that are trying to take the same picture as you with the exact same snowman and snowy background. You could be stuck standing there forever if you do not strategize correctly. A swift sweep-in needs to take place as the former picture-poser sweeps out. If you spare even ten seconds, someone will sweep in before you. Patience is necessary. It is too easy to get angry at the little kids in front of the perfect Christmas tree whose parents need to retake their pictures over and over again. Or the security guard who keeps blowing his whistle at you because you accidentally brush against a white picket fence as you are getting into your pose with other people pushing against you.