Happy Christmas

I remember that when I was little, teachers at school told me that everyone around the world celebrated Christmas. They didn’t go to China, cause here the only people who are celebrating Christmas are other foreigners. Though the Chinese do seem to use the opportunity for having some commercial events, they seem to like the idea of a special day. It reminds me of my first week in China, when I was in Beijing and it happened to be valentine’s day. It was far more commercial than in Holland, everywhere you could see couples buying roses going to more expensive (for China) restaurants, and spend their money in other ways.

However it still doesn’t feel anything like Christmas at all. The weather is finally getting colder, but it’s still more than 10 degrees during the day, and of course there are still palm trees outside. There are people wearing Christmas hats in shops and restaurants and you can buy Christmas trees and products in stores. They discovered the commercial side of Christmas here in China, but personally I think that most Chinese have no clue at all why Christmas is a holiday.

We will have a Christmas dinner at a house of French friends, so I suppose the food will be at least somewhere similar to Christmas food. Tomorrow morning I will earn some money by playing for Santa Claus at one of my Kindergartens. For tomorrow we’re also going to a Western restaurant for a Christmas meal. So the food and drinks will be good or again more similar than the usual Chinese food (which can be delicious, don’t get me wrong.)