Haha. Clever. We used to celebrat everything, local or foreign. Santa, Baby Jesus, the three magic Kings, you name it. Then, we got the latin american version of the holocaust and, speaking of plotting and planning, that was the end of celebrations for us. It has saved us a lot of money and worries. People got used to not even painting their houses or buying new clothes. You someone see pictures of you drinking on your whatsapp status or on social media, consider yourself kidnapped :)
Ouch... it must have been a shock to the system to go from millions of celebrations of everything under the Sun to nothing. Sorry to hear that it was such a drastic change... I'm sure that people will still celebrate in private anyway?
Yes, some people still find ways to celebrate, at a smaller scale. If there are relaties in other countries sending money, that helps. Many people refuse to let traditions die and find ways to keep them alive, but it is very painful not to be able to do much.
Last night, coincidentally, I attended a sort of xmas musical one of my daughters participated in. She is part of a chamber choir. There were some characters interspersing monologues about the beauty of xmas and the importance of celebrating it without the consumerist mentality dictating what to do. I can understand the value of some of that, but I sensed that the organizers of the event had some hidden agenda behind and it had to do with ameliorating people's anger and frustration by pitching the idea that xmas is more than buying stuff you probably do not need. The thing is we can't afford even the most basic things that we badly need now.
There was this monologue of an "old man" reminiscen reminiscing the different traditions and typical dishes (*hallacas, home-made drinks, chicken salad, ham bread, etc) at some point i felt like yelling shut-up at him. It was torturous to picture all those delicious things anyone could afford some years ago and which are now a luxury.
I stayed only because my daughter was singing