Christmas in Saigon (December 11, 2025)
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas …” and all the other holiday music favorites have been playing nonstop since December 1st here in Vietnam. The country is 70% atheist (by one measure) or, more accurately 70% “Folk Religion” (which includes venerating ancestors, local deities, and national heroes). In other words, Christmas is mostly a commercial holiday rather than a religious one.
Perhaps more surprising to me were all the massive “Black Friday” signs that litter the retail stores throughout Saigon (i.e. Ho Chi Minh City). In the US, “Black Friday” makes sense because it’s the day after Thanksgiving (always on a Thursday) and is the official kick-off of holiday shopping madness. Here’s it appears to essentially be every Friday in December until Christmas. And, in truth, everyone (including the store owners) know it’s just an excuse to give discounts and they are more than willing to honor them on Saturday through Thursday.
Leo Griffin, first child of Anne-Marie and Sean who I visited in Greystones, Ireland to kick off my World Tour
And while it’s fun to send and receive Christmas cards (or whatever holiday you celebrate), it’s the baby pictures that always melt me. When Anne-Marie Griffin sent me these beautiful pictures, I knew this is what I wanted to share today. Sean and Anne-Marie were the first people I stayed with waaaaay back in July 2025, nearly 6 months ago (see related posts starting here about 180 posts ago).
And Leo is one member of the family I did not get to meet. Nor, for this part of the trip, was Violet with me, so it seems the Carmodys and the the Griffins have some unfinished business to attend to in 2026.
A meme from Will Carmody, my son
I’ve discovered the true power of text messaging while living halfway around the world from my family. “The Wreath of Khan” caught my son Will’s attention and so he forwarded onto me. He knows I like Star Wars as well as Star Trek and shares when something captures his attention. If this meme is totally confusing you, it’s a play on words for the movie Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. It came out in 1982 (that’s 43 years ago) when I was 10 years old.
I’m adjusting to warm weather holiday spirit. It seems that Saigon has caught the holiday shopping bug and is playing into all the elements you’d likely see around the world. Lights. Music. Douglas Fir trees (real and fake ones). And many blow-up Santas hanging off buildings.
This is getting me excited to be home in New York to reconnect with all my family members, friends and local community. I think a three-week break from global travel will do me some good and help me refocus for the next six months and decide how I wish to conclude this journey. In the meantime, wishing you all the holiday cheer you can handle as we inch closer to the end of 2025. What a year.
