Try as the shopping malls may, the mass consumerism that is and always has been completely out of control in USA and presumably other places doesn't exist in Thailand. I am extremely happy about this.
In fact, the only people that I know that even celebrate Christmas in a traditional "tons of presents under the tree" type way are people who have kids and one of the parents is a Westerner. I would imagine that this causes some stress among their fully Thai friends who don't get this sort of huge gift day, and I also really hope that it doesn't infest Thai society the way that it has back in my home country.
src
The big malls here in Chiang Mai such as Central Festival and Maya try to deck the halls with bounds of spending but thankfully, this is not part of Thai culture. The malls don't see a surge in sales during the holiday season and from what I can see, their decoration probably only results in increased sales for KFC or whatever shop happens to be closest to the outdoor displays.
I do like the displays, don't get the wrong idea - I just really started to hate how we are all but obligated to spend a ton of time and money buying gifts for people every year back home. In the past when I would get together with my family I was buying gifts for people that I haven't seen in months and honestly don't really even know that much about what they would like to receive.
src
I suppose to a certain degree the decorum at the malls does encourage more people to stop by, but you don't really ever hear about Thai families spending a month's wages on gifts for the entire family. In fact, of all my 30 students that I teach in-person, only one kid said that there was any gift giving of any sort at their household on Christmas.
In years past, when Christmas was not on a weekend, nobody even got a day off for it. Our school allowed all of the foreign teachers to have an extra day off last year but this year they are doing nothing of the sort. In that regard we are all a little selfishly upset that Christmas falls on a weekend because it means we are not getting a completely undeserved day off from work.
The main reason why this holiday doesn't permeate Thai society almost certainly has a lot to do with the fact that very little of the overall population is Christian and the shopping all focus on the season is merely emulating what is seen in the west. There is no mass consumerism, there is no fighting over the last tickle-me-elmo or whatever the toy of the year happens to be and honestly, if you were to be dropped off in most places in Thailand around this time of year and not be told what time of year it was, you probably wouldn't even know it was Christmas.
src
The other huge shopping center in Chiang Mai... Maya
I've informed all of my friends to NOT buy me anything because I will not be participating in any sort of gift-giving because I find it all to be extremely superficial. I am more of the type of person that thinks that if I am special in your life, if you like me, just get me a gift on a day that it isn't required by a holiday to do so. I think that would be a whole lot more meaningful than a holiday where it has been dictated that this MUST be done.
There are a lot of things that Thailand has resisted as far as protecting their very unique culture is concerned and I am extremely glad that the resisting of mass consumerism based around a holiday is one of them. This isn't because I don't want to spend money, it is because the nearly mandatory nature of it in the west is something that I really dislike.
You don't need to emulate the other countries Thailand and I am happy that at least for now they have resisted the urge to put this very unnecessary part of western tradition into the minds of the Thai people. You got your own thing going on and I hope it doesn't change.