Christmas is a big deal in Costa Rica.

While in the US we have Halloween, Veteran’s Day (huh?), and Thanksgiving to keep us occupied in the run up to Christmas, CR doesn’t have those holidays. Additionally, being in the shadow of the giant and infected by the consumerism we spread everywhere doesn’t help.

So, Christmas decorations go up in businesses in October and start appearing in homes in early November. This includes Christmas music in homes and Christmas commercials on TV (interspersed with Black Friday commercials).

(It doesn’t help that WalMart has raised its ugly head in my province, and so every third commercial is precios a la baja.)

Ivanny is really creative and has great taste, but it’s still kinda jarring for it to be 85F and be hearing Feliz Navidad covered by every Latin singer except Jose Feliciano (wadda they got against him?!)