A Holly Jolly Christmas
Where does this import come from?
Why did Christmas never evolve into a real family celebration? This position is already occupied by the Chinese New Year. And as a Western and modern import, it is eagerly picked up by younger Chinese, but most Chinese do not care. They may have heard about it, but they connect nothing with it.
Westerners would recognize it as Christmas. But also suspect a kind of carnival. Because many dress up and wear reindeer antlers and Santa hats when they go to karaoke or cinema in the evening.
Some suspect, that the trend to send the kids to the English-speaking world to study, has led to this import of Christmas. Although most Chinese do not adopt the religious aspects, they do take on individual elements and create something new, typical Chinese festival.
Christmas is Chinese
As in many countries, there has been a Christmas post office in China since 2009. Many Chinese children send their letters to Santa to the south Chinese province of Guangzhou, from where Santa answers letters and stamps them with his own Christmas motif stamp.
In the hot south, in Sichuan, some even built a Christmas village, a copy of the Christmas village in Finland, where President Xi once made a stop on his visit to Europe a few years ago. Funny and for western ears not very Christmassy also its name: Floraland!
A more wintry Christmas village was built in the village of Beiji. China’s northernmost Christmas village, where you can even look at the northern lights, ride Santa’s sleigh and then stop at another Santa post office.
And the absolute mega-spectacle takes place in Yiwu. All year round! This southern Chinese city is the largest production site for everything Christmas. Worldwide!
Sixty percent of the planet’s Christmas fix come from this one city! Santa´s Chinese helpers let the dreams and desires of millions of children worldwide come true, for 500 dollars a month. Maybe that is something to think about. (fun fact: China is also the biggest manufacturer of Bibles!)
The Christmas village in Finland, which already had Chinese statesmen as visitors, has been recording a steady increase in letters to Santa Claus from China. Currently they receive more than 15,000 each year. Chinese children also send their letters to many other Christmas post offices in all parts of the world.
While Christmas does not officially exist in the People’s Republic, it is a two-day public holiday in Hong Kong and Macao, which are historically much more influenced by Western culture.