It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Where there is a will there truly is a way. Saddened by the lack of trees and decorations at Wal-Mart (overpriced Charlie Brown trees and limited selections of ornaments) and determined to make our first Christmas away from home a memorable one LaWanda set out on a mission. Aided by our friends in Tianjin (see previous three posts) she found a winter wonderland of everything Christmasy (well . . . not quite everything). Thrilled to tears (literally) she kissed the store clerk (literally), told her she loved her (in Chinese) and came back with a bag of Christmas stuff that slightly resembled the bag of stuff that the Grinch stole from Whoville. So we loaded our seven foot, twelve dollar Christmas tree and extra suitcase (donated by our gracious hosts) onto the plane and carried it to our humble abode. It has been quite the attraction for Chinese and foreigners alike.

As China does more and more business with the West there is a higher demand for all things Western including holiday items. Since the first shopping spree in Tianjin we have found a boat load of Christmas goodies. You have to know where to look or be gifted with and incredibly keen sense of Christmas radar (such as LaWanda) but Christmas is beginning to hit China. Here's the catch . . . in all of our Christmas endeavors we have seen dozens of trees, hundreds of snowmen, thousands of Santa's, about 3 million ornaments and one Jesus . . . a nativity calendar that now hangs on Rachel's bedroom door. You can't blame China though. Remember Christmas is not a Chinese holiday, ten years ago you wouldn't have found a trace of Christmas here . . . they just borrowed it from us as a gesture of kindess for foreigners living and doing business in their country. I guess the Christmas they got from us was heavy on the Santa and light on the Jesus. Hmmm.


Our living room


Not actual presents (I already snooped)


The dining room window


Christmas with a smile