Christmas plans in Kuwait anyone

There is an excellent Bonfire experience on 24th December 2014 at The Light House Church in Kuwait City. Sorry apart from that Kuwait does not allow you the "Outdoor" Christmas experience.

Merry Christmas!

Hello there,

I believe there is a misconception here regarding how you practice your religion.
By constitution, Kuwait allows the freedom of worshiping to every person on Kuwait land.
Many restaurants and hotels have been arranging for Chrismats dinners and Christmas luncheons.
If you have the right circle of friends, you can either have it in a public place or join your circle for a Christmas dinner at home.

Merry Christmas ahead.

Have a blessed one
Cheers

To support what I have just mentioned earlier about freedom of worshiping, did you know that Kuwait has, not only cemeteries for Muslims and Christians, but also for Buddhists.
FYI

Thanks Nancy, we may drop by.

Inalsa,
its not about religious freedom its about the spirit of Christmas. A time of joy, togetherness, sharing, etc. And even that shopping extravagance.  If we look at Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and from what I hear, Bahrain and Qatar there is that spirit.  In the malls there are Christmas music, Christmas trees, people greeting each other happily. 

I went to Avenues last year and the place was DEAD. No music, no effort of a celebration.  In Oman, my Muslim friends wanted to celebrate Christmas more than me. It was not religious but rather a sense of enjoyment and sharing. A lot of positive feelings. Dubai has a Christmas festival http://dubaichristmasfestival.com/  which is around shopping.

Again its back to having a "right" circle of friends. What happens when your circle is not there? Christmas is suppose to be fun time. Oh well we will make some joy.

Dear Trinimario

I got that right from the start about the festive ambiance.
If you compare the other neighboring countries, they have a much larger Christian community than in Kuwait.
Now if you visit the 360, Avenues, Marks&Spencer, The ONE, LeNotre Restaurant on Gulf road, you will find all are celebrating the festive season of Xmas, although the number of Christians shopping is very little.

On the other hand, one has to be fair, Muslims living in the west and Amiracas, Have no one non-Muslim, sharing their festive seasons or even decorating their premises to show empathy with them, yet they will still conduct their rituals.

I am sure everyone of us suffer from nostalgia one way or another in every day life.

Thanks Inalsa

One thing I found was actually Kuwait has the third highest Christians population in the region and perhaps highest in terms of percentage.  See  http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2012 … lid=208398 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiani … iddle_East

I have visited 360 Mall and the Avenues over the past week and there is nothing in comparison. Again ATMOSPHERE not religion.

Please tell us about your experience of Christmas in other parts of the region.

My Eid ul Fitr celebrations in Trinidad and Jamaica and even Thailand was also much more than Christmas here.

You could be right, Kuwait is the 3rd highest Christian population, obviously due the high number of the labor force coming from Asia and Far East.
However, Christmas has always been associated with the joyful atmosphere of decoration and, cold winter, lights, gifts, dinner parties, and being close to the New Year, this is why almost all religions share this celebration, unlike Easter, which has a more spiritual and religious touch.
Visiting the other GCC countries, you wont find the Christmas ATMOSPHERE in the streets or on buildings as you could see in Christian countries, the only exception I would say, is Lebanon, being a Christian country by the constitution, and in the Christian cities of Palestine such as Bethlehem  and Jericho, or Christian cities in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, But as a general theme, you will not see the entire country decorated for Christmas festive season.

Correct you are, you will find it more obvious in the malls , in Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain.
Whereas, for the National day celebrations, in the GCC countries, including Kuwait, you will find an exceptional and attractive decoration theme across the country.

I do not think we are in a conflict in this point of view, rather explaining how it works here.
I hope my above explanation makes more sense to you now!
Bu

Since there's no Christmas spirit here you'll just have to take matters into your own hands! Buy the biggest faux Christmas looking tree you can find, decorate your entire place and jam out to Christmas carols 24/7 while sipping on virgin eggnogs! Hahaaa I'm sure my neighbors love me and Mariah Carey 

Come on guys, its not that dramatic 
Gather and make something to feel the Christmas atmosphere.
Most of the private sector grant their Christian staff a day off btw, FYI

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjkiebus/reason … u-for-life

Considering this is what Christmas normally looks like to me... I would say that it is that dramatic!

inalsa wrote:

Come on guys, its not that dramatic 
Gather and make something to feel the Christmas atmosphere.
Most of the private sector grant their Christian staff a day off btw, FYI

Inalsa, ...the part you seem not to get, is they're not really speaking as 'christians'... they're speaking as 'consumers'... what is missed is the 'commercial' aspects of the holiday season... they miss 'santa clause with cookies and milk', they miss streets full of lights because they 'look pretty' not because of other secular or non-secular meanings... they miss the kids getting up in the morning and ripping into gift packages under a lighted tree with expressions of "wow!" (there's probably a better visual explanation of that one, but the point is still there - lol)... they miss two weeks home from school, the crowded malls with corny music thats only heard that time of year, black friday sales (lol), standing in Q, traffic, and all the other annoying aspects of the season that we always complain about till its not around (then we complain about that).  lol 
For a lot of people it has "nothing" to do with religion regardless of they're chosen religion.  One of my best friends back in Houston (Pakistani) is a fairly strict practicing Muslim on many levels, but he and his family still celebrate christmas as a 'consumer holiday' as everyone else.  It's sorta like a countries anniversary celebration on a consumer basis on steroids!  lol

Your right Tina

I am going to do something about it. We wrote the building management and mentioned that there will be cookies, eggnog and singing round a Christmas tree in the lobby on Christmas Eve.  No response as yet after four days. 

Posters going up later today or tommorw to alert the other tennants.  There will be music, singing (if only by me), cookies and eggnogg. What's the saying, "start the party and others will join."

Thanks Enigmausly,

Is the things we complain about only to miss them and complain again.  At least here I do not have to clean out the house and repaint or prepare for a stream of visitors that we see once a year most we do not even know,  or buy a bunch of gifts (Amazon gift vouchers). The choas - I actually miss it. Age.

That's the spirit TriniMario! I put up a tree and lights in my apartment and leave it on 24/7 and have been BLASTING Christmas music all week!!! I'm not surprised no one in my building has complained... guess they don't mind 

Thanks for the wonderful Christmas spirit explanation Enigmausly! BTW how was the bacon fat smuggle?