Heavenly Angels sang at PCEC meeting on Sunday, December 13. The Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) continued its tradition of inviting the Children’s Choir from the Pattaya Orphanage (all little angels) to bring the spirit of Christmas to its weekly meeting. As usual for the Christmas Program, the house was full and the audience filled with Christmas cheer.
Five female dancers, resplendent in traditional multi-color Thai costumes, started the festivities with a traditional dance from Eastern Thailand. Then the rest of the approximately 40 children filed in and entertained everyone by singing several Christmas carols, including “Jingle Bells,” “Joy to the World” “Oh Come All ye Faithful,” “Long Time Ago in Bethlehem,” and “Feliz Navidad.” Two of the orphanage boys accompanied the children on their guitars.
The Pattaya Orphanage Choir assembling outside the Tavern by the Sea before the PCEC meeting for a “photo op”.
The choir finished their set with a rousing rendition of “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” during which Santa Claus made his grand entrance down the stairs behind the choir, much to the delight of both the audience and the choir, who could see Santa Claus preparing to make his entrance on the TV monitors scattered throughout The Tavern restaurant. Santa greeted the children in Thai and then led the choir and the audience in another rendition of “Jingle Bells,” and then posed for photos with the children.
Santa Claus joined in by leading the Pattaya Orphanage Children’s Choir in more Christmas carols to the delight of the PCEC audience and choir.
Judith Edmonds, who, aided by her husband Les, spearheaded the club’s donation drive during the previous months in order to buy clothes and other gifts for the children, introduced Radchada “Toy” Chomjinda from the orphanage and presented her with a check in the amount of $1,000 US from an anonymous donor. Judith announced that the club had spent 20,000 baht on the children’s gifts, and another 25,250 baht had been collected for the orphanage including 10,770 baht raised at the pantomime performance given by the Pattaya Players at a previous PCEC meeting. Each child received a bag full of goodies from Santa, aided by Judith and Santa’s other helpers, Donna Westendorf along with Ann and John Ensell. The children filed out after receiving their “goodie” bag. Toy also received other goodies to take back for the other children at the orphanage so none would be left out.
Judith Edmonds and Santa Claus introduce the next segment of the PCEC’s Christmas Program where Santa leads the audience in singing more Christmas carols.
Prior to entering the Tavern, the children and members of Pattaya Players posed outside for a “photo op”, at which time the Pattaya Players presented Toy with 37,500 baht they had raised at their pantomime performances at other venues.
Toy said the children were very happy to bring the spirit of Christmas to PCEC in appreciation of these and other donations received from the expat community during the year. She said the donations were especially welcome this year because in light of the Paris terrorist attacks and the many refugees, the orphanage didn’t receive as many donations as in previous years.
Pattaya Players collected donations for Pattaya Orphanage during presentation of their Christmas Pantomime. Here they present 37,500 baht for the orphanage to the obvious delight of Toy.
After the children had departed with their gifts, Santa led the audience in a sing-along of Christmas favorites, complete with recorded music and words projected on the screen. The songs included Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, The First Noel, Silver Bells, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and a British song, “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Santa also treated the audience to a beautiful solo rendition of “Oh Holy Night.”
These ladies all dressed up in their traditional Thai garb, pose for their picture to be taken before they began the PCEC Christmas Program with their Thai dancing.
At the conclusion of the program, MC Roy Albiston brought everyone up to date on club and other events and conducted the Open Forum, where questions are asked and answered about expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya.
For more information on the PCEC’s many activities, visit their website at www.pcecclub.org.
