Christmas is coming!  Although it is not a traditional Chinese holiday, it seems to be one of the most popular holidays in China.  Almost everyone here knows about it.  Don’t be surprised, Chinese people do celebrate Christmas.  During the month of December, you can find various decorations all along the city, big Christmas trees in shopping malls, pictures of Santa Claus painted on the windows of coffee shops, posts of ‘Merry Christmas’ here and there, etc.  All of them are about one theme—Christmas!  Besides the decorations, giving Christmas cards and gifts is becoming a tradition in China as well, especially among the younger generations.  And “Christmas party” is not a new word to many of the Chinese on this day, either.

However, I am not sure when us Chinese began to celebrate Christmas.  As far as I can recall, the first Christmas I celebrated (if it could be called celebrating) was back when I was about 7 years old.  Some of my relatives bought my twin sister and I some Christmas candles which were formed with the shape of a Christmas tree and Santa Claus.  On that Christmas Eve, the hat of the Santa Claus was lit.  No Christmas cards, no other gifts, not even a greeting of ‘Merry Christmas’, but the light of the Christmas candle that year made known to me a western holiday–Christmas!

As we all grow up, sending cards with heartfelt greetings to friends has become a necessary process during this holiday season.  And Christmas parties, exchanging gifts has also become one of the highlights of the year.  2 years ago, while I was in college, an overseas teacher invited us to watch a movie named ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ on Christmas Eve.   It is a story about a depressed man George who lost all hope in life and wished he had never been born.  With the help of an angel he was shown how the people around him would be if he never existed.  The man finally found the beauty of his life and as he returned to real life, he even yelled: “Isn’t it wonderful? I’m going to jail!” What a change of perspective!  Well, like George, everyone has a life to live, but not everyone realizes how wonderful their life is before it is going to the end.  If you are not in the stage of being capable of yelling “Isn’t it wonderful? I’m going to jail!” like George did, why not review this movie before Christmas and seek the neglected wonderfulness of your life?

Last but not the least, wish you a Merry Christmas, and remember the line, “No man is a failure who has friends.”

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Cher Feng is a resident of Shanghai who works for a multinational company.  She wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  She can be reached at: Cher@mandmx.com

This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.