I was down in one of the big supermarkets this morning, doing the usual Thursday shop. I was looking around for a few things suitable for Christmas dinner, as we won't be leaving for Kenya until the evening. I picked up a couple of bottle of Appletise and a few chocolatey things and then I noticed a display of Cadbury's chocolates in a basket by the checkout. It was almost like the stocking-filler chocolates that I used to get as a child, full of about 8 different bars of Cadbury chocolate. This one was just a cracker-shaped tube of chocolate buttons. Anyway, it was good for the kids so I got them one each. I noticed that, on most of the tubes, the Arabic translation of the ingredients had been carefully placed in order to cover the picture of Santa in the corner. Oh well, I thought. Western decadence is creeping in but they are still being careful.
Then, when I went around the corner to the next aisle I saw this:
Now, as you know, it's the 21st of December today. So these sweets should have been sold before the end of October. I wonder if they have been held up in customs since then and, if so, can we look forward to loads of Christmassy chocolate in March and Easter eggs in June?
2 comments:
It's not unusual to see Easter candy in November or Halloween items in July. The merchants here have no problem holding merchandise, for example, there's a store nearby that has brand new, in-the-box, 1986 Barbie Dolls on the shelves! Apparently they weren't big sellers, but rather than sell them for a song, the guy keeps them in inventory just in case. Once you've been here long enough, you'll be like the rest of us who buy holiday items whenever and wherever we find them, then squirrel them away until the appropriate holiday rolls back around! MMmm come to think of it, we're not that different from the local merchants now are we?!
I'm a bit confused. Are you and your family Muslims or Christians? Your title says Jesus is the reason for the season but in the next entry you say you are Muslims. Just curious because we are looking to move to Saudi and wanted to connect with other Americans and other Christians. Great site. Beautiful family.
Esperanza in Qatar
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