The Blog

I went a little crazy with the Christmas decorations in my dorm room. Note the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Question: Do people in China know about Christmas?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: Yes, but China has a funny way of dealing with the holiday season …

Yes, everyone here seems to know about Christmas. Like the US, China too indulges in heavy holiday-themed consumerism. In Shenzhen, I saw Santa hats, Christmas trees and lights covering nearly every inch of the city.

Even young students are aware of the holiday. The week before December 25, I made a Christmas-themed lesson plan for my first graders. For this lesson, I expected to take a considerable chunk of time teaching them how to sing “We wish you a Merry Christmas,” one of the easier Christmas songs. But as it turns out, most children know this song and “Jingle Bells” long before they reach Grade 1. As such, I found myself scrambling to put together other activities to fill up class time. (Sidenote: Thank God for Christmas tree drawings. You wouldn’t believe how quiet these kids become when they have markers and a piece of paper in front of them).

A considerable number of Chinese people know about the religious origins of the holiday as well. But when you try to explain to them that you’re going to church to celebrate, they usually don’t understand. “What do you do at church?” is a question I’ve been asked many times. I often explain that there is a lot of singing, but other traditions are too difficult too explain, as organized religion isn’t very prevalent here.

But actual observance of the holiday in China is a completely different story. Here, you most likely won’t get days off from school or work like you would in the Western world. In fact, my school still had classes on December 24 and 25. New Year’s is similar. You might get a day off on January 1, but you’ll likely have to work or go to school before and after that.

And you can forget about giving people Christmas presents here (unless they are a foreigner). Most people don’t participate in gift exchanges.

So how did I celebrate? On December 24, CTLC, in conjunction with the Shenzhen Education Bureau, held a Christmas banquet at the Silver Lake Resort Hotel. The event was pretty fun, and we even did a Secret Santa gift exchange among the foreign teachers! My Secret Santa gave me an awesome Chinglish t-shirt that read “Michael is coming … do it luai.”

Then the next morning, I went to an English Christmas Mass at St. Anthony’s Church (the only Catholic Church in Shenzhen).

The next week, I traveled to neighboring Hong Kong (a SAR less than an hour away from Shenzhen) to celebrate New Year’s. I also had a lot of fun there, but I could only stay for a night because I had to work the next day.

Chinese New Year is the big holiday here. My break just started today, and classes won’t resume again until March. And what perfect timing it is — I haven’t had a real break since National Day … in October.