While we were in the USA, Brooks and I wanted to give our boys every opportunity to experience Christmas in any way since we knew we'd be in Saudi for actual Christmas day. Gavin's at the perfect age of recognizing & understanding Christmas images so this was fun to teach him about all the things that come along with Christmas, which of course, we're always telling him why we celebrate Christmas and he knows that it is Baby Jesus' birthday! He loved when we drove around town and saw all the lights, would look for Christmas trees at every business or mall or restaurant, and would wave to all the blow up Santa's that were on top of car dealerships, outside homes, etc. Fun. Fun. and More FUN.
We had an elf come visit us and Gavin has been attached to his elf ever since he showed up on my parent's door step. The door bell rang one night before bedtime and we asked Gavin to go answer it. When he opened the door, he knew his elf had come (we had just watched a TV special on Santa's Elves). We read the book, choose Zippy's name, explained what "Zippy" was going to be doing the next few weeks, and Gavin was hooked! Zippy traveled with us from Lake Charles, to Houston, to Arkadelphia, & to Hot Springs and was a piece of normalcy/familiarity for Gavin every place we went. He loved searching for him in various places every morning. He's not THAT into talking to Zippy, but we did manage to get him to say a few things that he wanted for Christmas. 
We went to Houston for a few days (more on that trip to come) and made a trip to see the Santa at our old local mall for a picture. Gavin was scared to death of the Easter Bunny back in April so I really had no idea how he was going to respond to Santa. When we arrived we walked him around to see Santa, let him wave to him, and just to feel him out. Gavin was excited and beside himself so we jumped in line to get a picture with him. Brooks helped me get the boys dressed in some nicer clothes while we waited our turn, while Gavin kept yelling Santa's name and waving to him. Thankfully, there was hardly anyone there and Santa graciously acknowledged Gavin when he could until it was our turn.
Gavin learned a few days before that Santa lived at the North Pole so the first thing he told the big guy was that he lived in Saudi Arabia. Santa was a little confused. Gavin then preceded to tell Santa he wanted a pow pow and bow and arrow for Christmas. After a few minutes of them talking, putting Miles on Santa's lap (who was mesmerized with his beard and not affected one bit by Santa), and taking their picture... Santa asked me if he comes to Saudi Arabia. I responded with you will come to our house. He laughed. He was smart enough to know that Christmas probably isn't celebrated in Saudi Arabia.
This wasn't how our picture turned out, but just the one I got with our camera. The boys both did great with Santa, smiled, looked at the camera, and now we have a cute picture to hold this memory!
Another fun Christmas activity we did was took Gavin to see Arthur Christmas. We went to the morning showing and NO ONE WAS THERE. Woo hoo- Gavin really does great in the movies but it was nice to not have any pressure on us to keep him entertained or sitting the whole time. The movie was precious and Gavin was all into the space ship and a flying dog. (I have no idea what he's doing with his shirt- sorry)
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