Ezra Mannix

A Very Merry Secular Syrian Refugee Christmas

Sixty five children with Santa hats laughing and singing Christmas carols, hollering with excitement after opening gifts, running around with glee. If you grew up in the U.S. or Europe, it’s easy to imagine such a mirthful scene at Christmas.

But this wasn’t at a school or family gathering in America, it was at a Syrian bookshop in Fatih.

“Happy Christmas hour with Syrian children,” as it was known on its Facebook invitation, attracted dozens of Syrian refugee children from across Istanbul — and at least 15 mostly expat volunteers who brought gifts, ornaments, face paint, puppets, and lots of enthusiasm.

Since opening six months ago, Pages bookstore cum cultural center has been written up in blogs and media outlets such as NPR. It’s located in an old, modest home two blocks from Chora church in Fatih’s Ayvansaray neighborhood. The ground floor has a cozy coffee bar, books for sale in Arabic, Turkish and English, as well as Syrian sweets.

But it was up two flights of steep wooden stairs where the thumping of little feet on could be heard on the floorboards.

Maisa, the event organizer, had the kids sing Jingle Bells in Arabic, and unrolled a giant paper for the kids to draw on. She had to ask volunteers to go downstairs on a couple occasions because it was so crowded. Surplus volunteers mingled, hoping they could get a chance to play with the kids, painting each others faces and making faces at children too young to participate. My wife carried a donation box around.

Among the volunteers was a Haitian university student on a Fulbright scholarship, a Venezuelan MBA student at Istanbul Ticaret U., an American English teacher who’s been here five years, a Taiwanese woman working on the third airport construction project.

“The situation in my country is not so good and I know how hard is to be an immigrant in countries without proper planning,” said David, the Venezuelan MBA student. “In past occasions unknown people have given me a hand without expecting back in return so every time I have an opportunity to payback I just do it.”

As I stood there talking to my peers instead of brightening a child’s day, I couldn’t help but have a bit of volunteer guilt. My wife noted that the children there came from more well to do families than those at the border where she worked with Doctors Without Borders, distributing not gifts, but essential non-food items.You feel good about the fact that you did something — anything — at the holiday season, but wonder if these are the people who need it most. How many of us volunteers people could donate a couple days or weeks to work in refugee camps in Kilis or Reyahnlı?

So..Christmas is actually a big thing in Syria

With all the news of large swaths of Syria falling to radical Islamic crazy people who are willing to kill not only Westerners, but Muslims who are even the slightest bit critical of them, it’s easy to forget the place that Christmas has (or had) in modern secular Syrian society, according to Samer, a former book publisher from Damascus and owner of Pages.

Why do a Christmas event? The vast majority of Syrian refugees are Muslim, I implored the slender, long-haired Samer.

“We celebrate it. This is what a lot of people in the world don’t know. Yes. I am Muslim, for example, but every year I make the tree at home. It’s a good idea to celebrate with the tree. in Syria, all people put up a tree. I take it as something good,” he replied. He noted that there are far more Christmas decorations on streets, businesses and homes in Syria than in Istanbul.

From Japan to Turkey, India to Malaysia, beyond the obvious capitalist motivations, it’s easy to see why malls and homes in non-Christian countries are adorned with the Christmas spirit. The broad inter-cultural appeal of Christmas/New Year’s transcends cultural barriers, and gift giving — it’s a proven fact that gift giving increases happiness — is something we all love to take part in.