Christmas | Christmas Spirit | Starbucks

How Starbucks Ruined My Christmas Spirit

In Antalya, Turkey.

Photo by author edited on Canva.

I previously included this story in my last weekly wrap-up, so some of you may have read it already.

My partner and I are currently staying in Antalya, Turkey. We have been here since the first week of December.

Knowing that we were heading into a Muslim-majority country meant that I didn’t have high hopes for any sort of Christmas celebration, but as the days wore on through the month, my anticipation of Christmas was growing a little bit.

There were Christmas lights and trees hung up around the city, so I felt like there could be some sort of a Christmas celebration possible.

We are staying in a hotel that is owned by Russians and are painting some artwork on the walls for them. I figured that Russians would be into celebrating Christmas, but as the days wore on and nobody was mentioning it, I started to ask questions.

“Do Russians celebrate Christmas?” I asked our friend one day.

“No, not really. Our big holiday is New Year.” He said.