Christmas in China

December 2013 

I absolutely love Christmas. It is and always has been, my favourite time of year. There is nothing quite like getting cosy in front of the fire, watching Christmas movies, eating amazing food and spending some quality time with your family. Plus, you get an obscene amount of presents for doing nothing! 

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year and it is something I eagerly await, so when I was faced with spending Christmas in China I was pretty devastated. I won’t lie, I did consider quitting my job and flying back in time for turkey but apparently grown-ups don’t just quit their jobs and go home to eat niceys! While we only got one day off to celebrate the birth of Christ/stuff our faces, we decided to make the most of it!

The Decorations

In an attempt to keep costs down Rory and I decided not to buy a Christmas tree but we’re not total Scrooges, we did some decorating...

Our Christmas tree and lone bauble.

Our secret Santa presents from work!

The Presents

There is nothing quite as exciting as Christmas morning. I am always the first one up and each year I patiently wait until it is socially acceptable to wake the entire house. Once I have literally dragged everyone out of bed we unlock the living room door and I finally get to see what Santa has brought me. Old habits die hard and when 5.30am rolled around I was wide awake. However, it seems that Santa got lost this year as there was hardly a present in sight. Thankfully Rory saved the day and had my favourite chocolates sent from home. 

Christmas morning hot chocolate!

The Festivities

 I love Christmas traditions. Every Christmas Eve we walk to Crawfordsburn and take family pictures, unfortunately a walk in smoggy Beijing wasn’t just as appealing so instead Rory and I watched movie after movie. We also went carolling – well, we were roped in to singing carols in the local mall as a promotion for work. It was actually quite fun; I had no idea my Christmas carol knowledge was so extensive!

 

Santa's coming!?

I know him!

The Food

If you have ever met me you will know that I love food. Why eat to live when you can live to eat? I am particularly fond of Christmas dinner; Esther is the best cook in the world and she pulls out all the stops for Christmas. Rather than journeying downtown for what would be an overrated and overpriced Christmas dinner we went to our local and had some tasty Chinese food. While it wasn’t quite as good as Esther’s dinner, there wasn’t a chicken foot in sight so I consider our first Christmas dinner in China a great success.

Chinese food, terrible decorations, a few rubbish presents and there you have it; our first Christmas in China!