In Reply to: Christmas in Bali posted by samgraham on Thursday, 23. April 2009 at 20:29 Bali Time:
we spent last Christmas in Bali and loved it, we met up with the most of my side of the family for 5 nights over Christmas so the kids had some of their cousins around and I had my Mum and sisters that helped make it a real Christmas.
The very small hotel we stayed at couldn't provide a traditional lunch but we had no trouble finding plenty of restaurants that would deliver a feast, we had roast pork, beef with traditional veg's gravy etc. amongst plates of satay and nasi goreng yum!
My youngest was a bit sad that we didn't do all the usual house deco's etc. and missed Santa who drives around our suburb on Christmas eve giving out lollies, so we went to Hardys at Sanur and bought Decoration to do up the hotel, the place was full of Christmas stuff even tins of biscuits and lollies covered in Christmas patterns and there were carols playing on the speakers.
Every hotel we stayed at, even the remote ones, had some form of tree decorated in tinsel, and decorations strewn about, everywhere we went locals would call out "Merry Christmas" same went for New Year, I think they love Christmas it seemed to be their best sales pitch of the season LOL. You know "Merry Christmas for you, Merry Christmas for me" kind of thing!!
So although it might not be a religious holiday for most of the locals, they are more than happy to make sure those who are celebrating it have a wonderful time.