Decorating for Christmas in Mexico

My first long term trip to Chelem was in late October to mid-November and I was amazed at how early the stores were bringing out Christmas decorations and gifts. My thought has always been the stores should at least wait until after Thanksgiving to start on Christmas. After a little thought it finally hit me, I am used to Thanksgiving in the U.S. which is not a holiday in Mexico. So my thought of early Christmas didn't apply here. Not that they don't have fall holidays in Mexico. There was just a celebration of Revolution Day here in Mexico, which some called Labor Day but said they were the same thing.

Since we are not here for Christmas there's no decorating the house. Instead our small palm has decided to decorate itself. I've written about the little palm in the Mexico garden before in the post The Amazing Palm Tree.

Toward the base of the tree you can see what reminds me of Christmas bulbs or the old (now probably antique) Christmas lights used to decorate trees for Christmas.

The ornaments start out as small buds some of which grow to the size of the end of my thump and have the appearance of a large acorn. The green color eventually gives way to red as it matures providing an assortment of red and green "bulbs" for the Christmas palm.

In actuality, these aren't decorations for Christmas but will be with us year round. Our small palm that was only about 3 feet tall when we bought the place, now has reached 8 feet tall and has entered adolescence producing seeds. With adolescence has come the desire to reproduce. Like many human adolescents, our palm is approaching the desire to reproduce enthusiastically. Well, maybe human adolescents might not have the desire to reproduce as much as the desire to practice.