Bill Lynch: Home for Christmas

Dottie and I arrived home Nov. 16 after a day/night long flight from Singapore after having spent three weeks touring Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore.

The weather there was hot and muggy. Yet, just about everywhere we went we were reminded that back in our hometown, traditional fall events were being celebrated.

It started in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) where, in late October, Halloween is celebrated pretty much American style. In fact, while we strolling through a park near our hotel, scores of Vietnamese youngsters were participating in a Halloween costume parade. We saw many Spider-men and other superheroes, along with princesses. Our guide told us most of the local kids, including his, would be going trick-or-treating on the 31st.

The number of stores and open market booths selling Halloween decorations and costumes was amazing. On Halloween night, the staff of our hotel in the old Imperial capital of Hue hosted a huge party complete with live band, special drinks and a costume contest. The most avid participants were members of the staff, many of whom dressed in costume and came even though it was their day off.

And no sooner had Halloween ended than our hosts brought out Christmas decorations. Thanksgiving, however, was pretty much ignored.

But, by the time we got to Singapore, not only was our hotel decked out for Christmas, the entire city was a Christmas light show based on a Disney theme.

The temperature was in the low 90s, and the humidity near that, but images of winter wonderlands dominated many store displays.

So, with “Here comes Santa Claus…” ringing in our ears, we boarded our Singapore Airlines jet for the long flight home, our flight made even longer than usual by the heavy smoke hanging over San Francisco International Airport.

Landing in that stuff, and knowing how the poor residents of Paradise suffered in the Camp Fire, took a lot of the joy out of our homecoming.

We slept most of that day and the next, waking just in time to join our fellow Sonomans for the annual Plaza lightening celebration. Although the foul air and jet lag were still weighing us down, being home celebrating the beginning of this special season lifted our spirits.

The decorations we saw during our travels made us smile, and everywhere we went the people we met were friendly, kind and surprisingly fond of Americans and our holidays.

But as nice as that experience was, and as surprising and dazzling as those decorations were, they didn’t mean as much to us as the lighting of our Plaza, highlighted by our own wonderful, talented artists from Transcendence Theatre Company.

Truly, there is no place like home.