Beijing says: "We will out-Christmas yo' arse!"

This is a post I've been preparing for a while, slowly collecting evidence and material to really get the idea across. That idea being Christmas in Beijing. Not "the holidays," as it is now known in the States, but Christmas. Yes, Christmas, and the holiday greeting of yore, "Merry Christmas," lives on...in China of all places. Apparently Beijing department stores have caught on to the commercial opportunities of the holiday season but no one told them it was so very un-PC to breathe the word Christmas. And, apparently, there aren't enough emphatic non-Christians in China to tell them otherwise. So the watered-down greeting of "Happy Holidays" is nowhere to be found.

I find this all incredibly fascinating because of everything I've read (and seen) about post-Cultural Revolution China being spiritually void. We talk about Christmas as totally commercialized and devoid of meaning in the States, just an excuse to spend a boatload of money on presents, and get together with family, and assuage our yuppie guilt for the less fortunate by unburdening ourselves of old clothes and canned foods. And maybe some portion of the population holds onto the idea of Christmas as it was originally celebrated--the birthday of Jesus.

But here in China, it's like they take the commercialism to a new level because even fewer people, if any, really believe in Christmas... and the idea of the holiday's origins is only a vague and distant novelty of a notion. To my coworkers and friends, it's just an interesting Western import, like KFC or McDonald's, a fun festival time and an excuse to have lots of sales and go shopping.

And yet Christmas is everywhere! Every hotel, shopping mall, restaurant, club, tourist destination is totally bedecked in Christmas decor. Observe the following.

Exhibit A: Christmas tsotchke hanging from the foyer of the Xinjiang restaurant. Xinjiang. As in, "Christmas Greetings from our Muslim family to yours."

Exhibit B: Christmas display in front of Cargo club, plus detail of some odd but strangely cute snowmen. But of course, the one thing you want to see while stumbling around tipsy and half-deaf is a bright and cheery Christmas display!

Exhibit C: Christmas paraphernalia adorning the entire front facade (five floors!) of a department store off of Third Ring Road:


Exhibit D: Gigantic white Christmas tree in the lobby of my apartment, with gigantic banner proclaiming "Merry Christmas." Followed by decorations on the revolving doors:


Exhibit E: Scary-looking Santas and sparkling reindeer in the hallway at 中八楼 restaurant near 新中关：


Exhibit F: Christmas tree at Alba in Nanluoguxiang. Yes, it's got color-changing fiber-optic lights woven throughout! So high-tech:

Exhibit G: More scary Santas at the door of our cafe at work, and full-on life-sized gingerbread house display in the lobby of the office building next door:


Exhibit H: Bored-looking worker at the food court in Zhongguancun shopping mall, complete with Santa hat (in fact, all the workers there were wearing Santa hats, even the women clearing the tables of dirty dishes).

Yes people, I do believe the Christmas spirit in Beijing is even more pervasive and replete than in California. I remember years where, if I didn't happen to go to a shopping mall in December or tune into KOST 103.5, it wouldn't feel like Christmas at all until maybe Christmas Eve.

Here, do you know how they've been answering the phone at the reception desk in my apartment? "Hello, thank you for calling ______, Merry Christmas, how may I help you?" They play Christmas carols in the elevator and in the cafe at work. And probably the most bizarre display of misplaced Christmas spirit was when I entered a mall in Chaoyang on my way to South Beauty restaurant, and was surprised by no less than six Chinese girls flanking each side of the entrance, all dressed in identical short-skirted Santa outfits, who bowed at us in unison and exclaimed, "Merry Christmas!" I hardly knew how to respond and now I wish I'd gotten a picture of them for Exhibit I.

And yet, all of my coworkers will be working through Christmas Eve and Christmas. I will surely take Christmas Day off, but I think I will go into work tomorrow. Kind of sad, and I'm not even sure if there are church services to go to on Christmas Day. Note to self... always try to be home for Christmas from now on. It's just not the same.