{"id":1496,"date":"2023-01-09T11:22:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T16:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebbsbay.ca\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2023-01-09T11:22:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T16:22:36","slug":"a-santa-salta-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebbsbay.ca\/index.php\/2023\/01\/09\/a-santa-salta-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A Santa<\/del> Salta Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve ever spent Christmas in a warm climate you know the feeling. It’s like having your underwear on backwards – it’s there, but it just doesn’t feel right.<\/p>\n

\"\"Liz and I spent the week of Christmas at a house on the outskirts of Salta, a city of some 600,000 people in the NW corner of Argentina. Sitting in the shade on the covered patio, swimming in the backyard pool, walking around in shorts and T-shirt, all very nice, but for those of us used to a bit of snow and a fire in the hearth, it’s a somewhat disorienting.<\/p>\n

Christmas in Argentina is a smaller, quieter, more family oriented affair. It hasn’t been completely devoured by the corporate marketing monstrosity. Which is nice. There’s even a focus on the biblical origin of the holiday in this intensely Catholic country, which I think is appropriate even though I’m not religious.<\/p>\n

\"\"But listening to “Frosty the Snowman” when it’s 40\u00b0C (over 100\u00b0F)??? That’s just not right. Yes, they do play Christmas music in the malls, and it’s all the same stuff you’d hear at home – Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas”, Bing Crosbie’s “White Christmas”, even Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. Which is odd, since very few people here speak English. Yet well over 90% of the music you hear has English lyrics. (80’s pop is very popular some reason).<\/p>\n

Here are a few other differences we’ve noticed:\"\"<\/p>\n