In Reply to: x-mas in bali posted by trubluemoo on Sunday, 20. June 2010 at 15:04 Bali Time:
and were surprised at how Christmassy (is that a word? LOL) it was in Bali. Felt weird to be in that tropical setting & seeing so many Christmas trees, decorations etc.
Bali Bakery had an awesome Winter Christmas display & heaps of handmade Xmas chocolates, lollies etc. I assume European ex-pat owners. We took our little girl there for lunch & it was a battle to keep her in her seat, she just wanted to look at everything (& taste everything LOL).
We were away from the main tourist area for Christmas Day (in Balian) but all the western-owned restaurants there had special Christmas lunches or dinners (the European & Canadian owned restaurants did a Xmas Eve dinner as is their custom).
There will be plenty of options for Xmas lunch/dinner if you are staying in Kuta/Legian/Sanur etc but you may find that your hotel has a "compulsory" lunch/dinner which is charged as part of your booking. I gather these are pretty expensive so it's worth asking the question before you book - you may prefer to go to your own choice of restaurant.
We had a "faux Christmas" at home for our little girl as she's got no idea what date Christmas is :o) We just pretended it was Xmas morning the day before we left & had all the family over & we opened all our presents at home to save lugging them with us. We then let her choose a few favourites to take with her on holiday & this worked out really well.
The weather last Dec/Jan was very hot & extremely humid but only a few days of rain (probably 4 days out of the 3 weeks we were there).
That said, I think that it was unusually dry for that time of year - take plenty of DVDs, toys & games for your little one. We stayed in self-contained apartments with separate living/sleeping areas as there was no way I'd want to be cooped up in a small hotel room with an active 3yo! I'd play it safe & book something similar if you can.
Have left my email open if you want any more info :o) We LOVED our Bali Christmas & would highly recommend it. Such a relaxing way to spend it