Christmas is coming!

The Christmas season is upon us, even in Shanghai. For a country that has outlawed religion, there is a lot of Christmas going on!



Julie, my Preschool boss, will not be here for Christmas break. She is visiting her brother in Switzerland. So she has kindly given us her Christmas tree to use. It is a little fake tree that has cute decorations. Edoukou and I will set it up this evening. We are going to RT Mart (Fred Meyer to you and me) to see if they have lights.



All the shopping malls have Christmas decorations up. They even have a Santa Claus to take pictures with. They were setting up his house in one mall we were at and Edoukou and I were wondering if the Santa is a Chinese Santa or a Western Santa. Huge colorful wreaths, Christmas trees, snowflakes and tinsel are easily found in these malls. Local stores and shops are not decorating, but McDonalds and anything western is. I asked my Chinese co-teacher Wang Mei if she has a tree and does she decorate and she said no. For Chinese people, Chinese New Year is their big celebration of the year. So it surprises me that the retail industry has bought into it. I guess money is money and the more you can make people spend, the better.



There will be quite a few westerners around this Christmas so there are Christmas dinners being planned. My friend goes to a foreigner's church and we might go to Christmas service with her unless we find a Catholic evening mass. To go to the churches here you must present your passport to prove you are a foreigner. Chinese people are not allowed in churches or allowed to hold meetings/services in their houses.



Usually Sundays are reserved for family gatherings and you see many people out and about travelling. Although, since most places are open on the weekends here, many people work on Sundays. Even banks are open on Sundays.