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How to "do" Christmas in Doha ?

DuckyLips69960

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 02 October 2013 - 09:07

I arrived in October with my Christmas decorations shipped from home, minus the tree as I'd always bought real ones. It got to the beginning of December and suddenly Christmas was everywhere in Doha, and I didn't need to panic about buying a fake tree on line and having it shipped! You can even buy real ones here now although they are eye wateringly expensive. The One always has beautiful trees and decorations and there is a great shop near the Thai restaurant (name/location escapes me right now) that has a decent selection of Christmas stuff. When I say 'decent' I mean relatively decent in comparison to most of the shockingly awful stuff. :) MegaMart will sell puds/cakes and mince pies but minus the alcohol :\: so I prefer to make my own. You can buy frozen turkeys easily but the quality is very hit and miss. I think you can order in fresh ones but OMG the price.... <em>edited by DuckyLips on 02/10/2013</em>

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DebK

453

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 29 September 2013 - 15:41

Oh what a treat for you -- your first Doha Christmas where you will get to witness the interesting decorations that get sold in Lulu and Carrefour. (Everyone wants a neon pink or mustard yellow Christmas tree -- right?) Leading up to Christmas there are also some Bazaars and craft sales that take place. Those can be fun to check out to buy those special Christmas bits that aren't on offer at the stores. I believe that Royal Plaza Mall usually has a day when Santa comes to the mall. The hotels are often decorated beautifully. There are actually many Muslims that do decorate for the holiday and do celebrate it -- just with a slightly different meaning than what the Christians might. I've gone out with co-workers for a festive meal during which we wore our Santa hats and took Christmas crackers to the restaurant and we had many Qataris coming up to us and wishing us a Merry Christmas -- just the same as we would wish them Ramadan Kareem or Eid Muburak. You might just be surprised at how festive everything becomes without it feeling as though the North Pole has exploded.

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Gray Girl

168

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 29 September 2013 - 07:59

Christmas decorations can be bought quite easily - Mega Mart, BHS, Carefour to name a few. You'll find mince pies and jars of mincemeat in the likes of Mega Mart and Lulu. M&S have advent calendars, Christmas cake, crackers etc. I have heard Christmas songs being played in shops and on the radio too!! We've always had Christmas day at home so can't recommend any particular hotels but I know friends have been to the Ritz and Radisson Blu - loved both. Depends if you have kids or not as I'm guessing some would give better entertainment than others. Some of the hotels also offer 'takeaway' turkey and all the trimmings - again, never tried. Hopefully some more posters will reply with recommendations for hotels. Keep a look out on the hotel FB pages, eventsdoha website, EW website and TimeOut magazine usually do a feature of all the hotels offering Christmas Day lunches/dinners and events over the festive period. They used to have carol singing at the sand dunes but not sure if that was stopped. A few of the hotels (old Marriott for sure) have carols around their Christmas tree when they switch the lights on. If you want to be organised, email or call some of the hotels and get them to put you on their mailing list (eg I get newsletters from the Intercon & the Marriott regularly) All the hotels have New Year events - buffets, dinners, Eve ball, parties etc. I've enjoyed four Christmases here but this year will be completely different! We're moving to Oz so it'll likely be Christmas on the beach & a barbie! I'm going to miss my turkey ;) I'm sure you'll have a great time over the festive season in Doha x

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salsB

2725

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 28 September 2013 - 22:58

It will be our first Xmas here, we are planning a hotel stay locally, Hotels will cater for all our Xmas needs, but its just deciding which hotel, any ideas, we have no kids.

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Whereintheworld76500

145

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 28 September 2013 - 19:58

Looks like we are staying here for the Christmas and New Year period. How does Doha do Christmas ? As is it so much more conversative here I was wondering how festive it gets for Christians . Carols ? Santa ? Decorations ? I guess the hotels put on things like Dubai. Where is good to go ? Do you need to book far ahead ?

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