Christmas in China
China does not celebrate Christmas as a public holiday (less than 5% are Christians) and the Christmas season in China actually feels more similar to Valentine’s Day. Most people celebrate Christmas Day with friends or significant others rather than family. Young couples make it a day for dating and going to the mall or ice skating together. Since the word for apple, “pingguo”, and Christmas Eve, “ping'anye”, sound similar in Mandarin, individuals might give an apple (often beautifully boxed and typically contaiingn unique and fun sayings much like Valentine’s hearts) to their loved ones as a sign of Christmas and peace.
In addition to romance, Christmas is a time for shopping in China. Large shopping malls are open late to cash in on the Christmas craze. There is a fascinating tradition in China known as the “Saxophone Santa and His Sisters”. It was so tempting to make an entire day featuring just them but we decided to broaden to all of China. This interesting Santa combines holiday music from his favorite instrument, the saxophone, with holiday cheer as he visits shopping centers. However, instead of elves traveling with him, Saxophone Santa is often surrounded by female helpers known as his “sisters”. These “sisters” are typically women dressed in red and white that follow him around in shopping malls or on the street
Besides Saxophone Santa, one of the things that most fascinated us was that most of the world's plastic Christmas trees and Christmas decorations are made in China, but the people making them often don’t have anything like them in their own homes. If they do have a Christmas tree, it would be called a “Tree of Light” and often decorated with paper flowers, paper chains, and paper lanterns.
So for us Sommerfelds, the two of us parents got away for a quiet date night going ice skating and visiting a local mall . Ben prompted the date by crafting an invitation in Chinese that Bekah then had to translate in order to learn the details for the day. While we were away on our date, the kids loved playing with their own Saxophone Santa (which was too cute to resist buying during our research) as they were looked after by (conveniently) a pair of neighbor sisters.
We kept food simple for the day with a visit to a Chinese buffet in commemoration of the visits by many Jews (and also the “A Christmas Story” family) to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. We learned the history for this in that these restaurants are not only the only ones often found to be open on Christmas Day but also are relatively kosher with not mixing proteins and dairy.
ACTIVITIES:
Date Night: Mall & Ice Skating
Saxophone Santa Figurine
Christmas Saxophone Playlist
Paper Lanterns & Apple Painting
FOODS:
Chinese Buffet
Cellophane Wrapped Apple
INTERESTING READS & CONTEXT:
