Christmas in Guatemala

Well, technically it's not Christmas yet, just the morning of Christmas Eve. I hopped on here to update my blog (I'm so busy lately and have been falling way behind on posts). Before I go back and write about all the amazing things that happened this week, I wanted to put my two cents in about Christmas here.
This is the first time in my life that I'm not spending the holiday with my family, and also the first time that I'm not spending it in the US. That being said, I understand that there are a lot of variables playing into this, but I just don't feel like it's Christmas. The take on Christmas here is very different than in the US, people aren't caught up in all the consumerism. You don't see signs for sales in the stores, there aren't any Christmas lights up or decorations on the houses. Most people don't have Christmas trees. The television isn't even running many Christmas-themed commercials or shows. Instead, this entire month is dedicated to religious holidays leading up to Christmas: El Dia del Diablo, las diez dias de la Posada. There's no doubt that this is Jesus' day, there's not a Santa to be seen. It seems like while the people here are happy for Christmas, it's not the same brain-exploding build-up of excitement that I'm used to being associated with the holidays. People seem pretty nonchalant when I ask about it. Me:"Are you excited about this weekend??? (with my customary CHRISTMAS-IS-HERE!! ear-to-ear smile)" Everyone I know here:"Excited? Um, yeah, sure... It'll be nice to see my family." It's just a very different feeling than I'm used to. I'm interested to see how the celebrations this weekend go.
Its kind of enlightening to realize just how much of my holiday spirit is dependent on seeing inflatable Santas on lawns with a bunch of blinking lights. I'm sure the warm weather and lack of hot cocoa has something to do with it to. And naturally not being with my family. All of my Christmas memories involve enjoying the fire at mom's house, sitting next to the tree and drinking eggnog with everyone. It just doesn't feel like the holidays without that.
I asked my teacher what he was getting his son for Christmas and he said that he had gotten him a plastic toy truck. My gut reaction was, "Oh my God, this three year old kid is only getting one toy for Christmas because his parents are poor, I should go buy him a few things." But I realized I'm only thinking that way because I've spent thirty years being told that more is better; the kid will get one present and he'll probably be happy as anything because he has a new toy. Besides, his parents worked hard to get him that toy and all I would be doing is distracting him from that. Kids here don't believe in Santa, they know that their parents are busting their humps to scrape up money for them. I'm sure it makes them a lot more appreciative than some of the kids back home.
I might have mentioned this already, but most of the celebrating here is done on Christmas Eve, not Christmas day. They have a big dinner at midnight and set off a ton of fireworks. The traditional food for Christmas dinner are tamales; a lot of women will cook them all day long and then sell them to people passing by on the streets. They hang a red lantern from their door to indicate that you can buy tamales there, you just need to knock. My host mom Lucia has been doing that all day, hopefully she has some leftover for us for tonight :) I'll take lots of pictures regardless! Hope everyone is having a great Christmas Eve back home.