Chinese Christmas

Our friend, Don, with Kirk

Our apartment complex got in the spirit of Christmas by putting up lights and a couple of Christmas trees outdoors.  The little children were so enthralled with the ornaments, and we often walked by seeing them pointing at them and touching them.  By the end of the season, all the ornaments had been taken and only the lights were left on the trees.




 

Kirk and I were in charge of the Christmas Party for the English Teachers and the Chinese faculty English teachers and their families.  It was lots of fun with the cute little kids--made us feel like we were creating special memories for these families.  We had games to play, and a power point presentation about celebrating Christmas in America.  It gave us a chance to legally tell about Jesus Christ's birth and play Silent Night by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  (Not proselyting, just explaining American culture.)

First, a coloring page with Hello Kitty--popular here still!

A fish pond where they got a lollipop.

Decorating the tree with snowflakes.

Snowman bowling.

Pin the mustache on Santa.

We did some caroling--the kids wanted to dance and skip during Jingle Bells!

Chinese fare--peanuts, sunflower seeds, tangerines--and American fare--cookies and soda!

Then we had to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" to see if he would come.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

He came, and the children were delighted!

Around town, the malls had huge Merry Christmas signs and displays with trees, gifts, snowmen and Santas.

Yes, that's a Gucci store--there's big money in Chengdu (but not teaching school!)

Have you ever seen elves like these?  Evelyn said she thought they were so scary they'd give you nightmares!!  This Santa was actually part of a "Doomsday Celebration" that was being sponsored by a neighborhood development.  Many people in China were certain that Dec. 21 was going to be the end of the world, so the marketers capitalized on it and had a party!

The nutcrackers reminded us of our Weihnachtsfest in Germany.

See Santa on his parachute?

Anshun Bridge

These cut-outs were on Chenxi Road--the huge pedestrian shopping mall.

For Christmas Eve, we went to dinner on Anshun Bridge, mentioned by Marco Polo in his writings.  I'm pretty sure he didn't eat here, though. 

Very pricey, but you have to pay a lot for good sweet n' sour squirrel fish!


We went home and got our Chinese jammies on to wait for Santa.
 

In the middle of the night, "I Saw Nonny Kissin' Santa Claus!"

 
 He must have liked my kiss because the next morning, I had treats!

Christmas night, we went for dinner with friends from the ward, Don Mason, and Barrie & Melinda Cheng.  We went to Peter's Tex/Mex where they served a traditional Christmas turkey dinner!!  Yummy!

And in case you haven't seen it yet (I hear it's gone viral!) here's our special Christmas video:

Christmas from Tianfu Square in Chengdu

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!!