In Australia of late, when Christmas time rolls around, there has been a kind of sceptical murmuring going on. It runs a little like this: it's 35c outside, so why in the hell are we steaming plum puddings, roasting gargantuan turkeys and swilling down eggnog?

'Does it make any sense,' we ask ourselves, 'that we're in the middle of a heatwave and yet persist in trimming a plastic "evergreen" and wondering if the fake snowdrift on the front lawn is keeeping up appearances?'

And so it is slowly dawning on us that we don't live in a part of the globe that enjoys snow or even mildly chilly weather at Christmas.

In the past month, as Andrew and I have hung out in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and now Bangkok, something has become apparent to me: this way of thinking remains utterly unknown in Vietnam and Thailand.

The past four weeks have been a little like stumbling into a strange parallel universe of Asian sights, sounds and smells all trimmed with Santas, fake snow and multicoloured tinsel. Styrofoam is working overtime: the little balls you use for stuffing a beanbag? Instant snowdrift! Perhaps the tree is looking a little bare? Not to worry, you can carve up styrofoam into many tiny cubes and string them together to make 'snow garlands' to encircle it.

Ho Chi Minh City boasts an oddly gyrating Santa Claus (fully mechanical, but scarily life size) who bops incessantly just inside the door of a shopping centre, attracting a massive crowd of onlookers daily.

Also in Vietnam, the most ritzy of Phu Quoc island's hotels (the state-run Saigon Phu Quoc which proudly proclaims on billboards all over the island: We offer you 3 star service!) has installed a sultry female shop mannequin all decked out in green eyeliner and long lashes and a long snowy beard as its in-house Santa.

And the backing track to all of this? You knew there had to be one, and yes, it's Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', played at every opportunity in shopping malls and coffee lounges across the cities.

There is something very strange about Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok humming along to lyrics like, "there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas" ... It's hard not to think, 'yes, that's true - but there hasn't been much of a flurry here either'!

Decorating for the season is a task taken to with great gusto in these parts. In Hanoi's Old Quarter, where the atmospheric laneways are named according to the goods traditionally sold in each one, there is one particular street called "Counterfeit Street". This street has sold 'ghost money' (fake paper notes resembling either US Dollars or Vietnamese Dong) for burning in ceremonies since god knows when.

As we discovered a couple of weeks ago, although the ghost money is still in evidence, the street's merchants have donned another hat and are offering a defacto One-Stop-Shop for Christmas decorations of all descriptions:

Kitsch doesn't even come close to describing the torrent of Christmassy schlock that's on offer here - seeing this volume of Santas, tinsel, plastic trees and gaudy flashing Merry Christmas signs all at once truly does induce a kind of nauseous awe.

This emotion carried over when I watched the entire guesthouse staff at our residence in Phu Quoc assemble for the trimming of the tree. A whole afternoon and evening passed while decorations were laid on, considered and then removed as too imperfect. Then the process would begin again ...

After several hours' hard labour, I though the tree looked pretty great, but its full glory was yet to be revealed to us unsuspecting guests. Only later did it become apparant that the entire contraption would light up at dusk in multicolour pinlights and play a medley of Christmas tunes non-stop until the wee hours of each morning. Such a spirited display of Christmas cheer ... just walking past became exhausting ...

So, whether you are celebrating with or without a mechanised dancing life-size Santa in your living-room, best wishes to you for the holiday season :)