Dec' the Walls with Rolls of TP
fa la la la la la la la la
fa la la la la la la la la
finding CHRISTMAS in 槐芽
We really go all out for our big holidays, don't we? We don't just celebrate Independence Day with a nod and a wink to our foundations... oh no... we come together as a community to eat and enjoy expensive but impressive displays of fireworks. It's special. For Thanksgiving, we give ourselves plenty of time off to travel great distances to be together with family(s) to watch football and movies together, to do the insane Black Friday shopping together, and of course to eat the most splendid meal of the year together. It's special. And we really jump off the deep end at Halloween. Our neighborhoods and our children are transformed into the imaginative pluckings of our fantasies and nightmares. It's special. And then there is Christmas, a holiday season that is an ocean of culture wider and deeper than the Pacific.
Christmas has....
- Christmas music
- Christmas cookies
- Christmas cards
- Christmas lights
- Christmas decorations
- the Christmas tree
- Christmas gifts
- Christmas food and drinks
- Christmas dinner
- Christmas games and activities (Gingerbread house, etc.)
- Christmas movies
- the sacred and treasured Christmas snow (the only time we enjoy snow)
- the Christmas characters (Santa)
- the Christmas spirituality
- Christmas charity and volunteerism
- Christmas shopping
- Christmas greetings
So I'm in China, ya know. China has an emerging Christmas culture. Most people know about it. More and more people celebrate it (at least the Santa Claus part). How much of the above Christmas culture am I able to find here?
- Christmas music: check. I have been listening to Christmas music via Youtube since about September. And now it's on regular rotation at that foreigner's flat.
- Christmas cookies: no... no oven... no dough.... no knowledge of how to bake
- Christmas cards: check... thanks to the Fam and FedEx ;-)
- Christmas tree: check... thanks to the foreign teachers before me
- Christmas food and drinks: no... but there is this walnut flavored milk that tastes enough like Egg Nog to give me the special feeling
- Christmas movies: yes and no... no, I haven't found... but yes because this is China, the piracy capital of the world where even the rarest movies can be found and purchased for less than $1
- snow: that's a no
- Christmas characters: Santa is everywhere, but they don't know him by that name... he is called ChristmasMan in Chinese... or Old Man Christmas.
- Christmas spirituality: no Christian church in HuaiYa, but it's okay. Mariah Carey sings O! Holy Night to remind me of the message.
- Charity and volunteerism: No Salvation Army bells at any of the supermarkets... so this is a no
- Christmas shopping: oh there is mad shopping of the kind you witness on Black Friday and Christmas Eve... but no one is shopping for Red-Ryder BB guns, hippopotamusses, or other random things. Just your day-to-day shopping.
- Christmas greetings: no, not yet at least.... same old "hello? I'm fine thank you, and you?"
- [skip 13 because it's unlucky]
- And then, finally, there are the Christmas decorations. I have really gone to great lengths to make this happen, partly for myself and partly for the students who come to my flat each night for English Corner. Yes, there is TP... toilet paper "snow" and toilet paper snowmen. But then there are professional decorations too. Every other supermarket has a random assortment of Christmas decorations (minus Christmas lights... they never have Christmas lights... luckily Xi'an at long last delivered those). With what the other foreign teachers had left and what I have purchased since, the Christmas collection is now sufficient, I think, to say that my apartment is Dec'd for Christmas. Have a look see here:
The Christmas Tree
a TP snowman
Snowflakes hang from the ceiling to make it look like it is snowing in the living room... nice effect that the camera does not capture well
Christmas lights in the patio windows... but this particular string fizzled out after 2 days
remix: Santa Claus is coming to HuaiYa
that Christmas Glow warms the apartment
Silent Night... Holy Night... all is Calm...
So, have I found Christmas in HuaiYa?
You tell me!
3 comments:
very well done...I'd say it looks pretty "Christmas-y".
Awww Aaron we will miss u this holiday season!!!! Ur decorations look great. very festive!!!!
Crap dude. Huge props on making all that happen. That had to have taken some time and dedication. Me. I'm not much of a Xmas person. I tried to do the whole Xmas music and stuff in class and my kids just HATED it all. Xmas seemed to come flying up on us here and it still feels like we're in October, so we haven't decorated or anything like that. No one comes to our apt so no point I feel like. But the school is throwing us a huge party next week so that'll be sweet.
Hope you have a great Xmas! Look forward to the mass amount of gifts your students will buy/make for you ^_^
Post a Comment