How to Celebrate a Chinese Christmas

In China, it's mainly Christians who celebrate Christmas, although the commercial aspect of the holiday is spreading. For everyone else, the Chinese New Year is the big event of the season.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Christmas Trees
• Muslin Christmas Stockings
• Notebook Papers Lanterns
• Oranges
• Tangerines
• Bowls
• Bowls
• Oranges

1. Make paper lanterns to decorate your house.

2. Set up a Tree of Light, or Christmas tree, and adorn it with paper chains, paper flowers and paper lanterns. These trees are usually artificial.

3. Help your children hang muslin stockings to be filled with small presents.

4. Expect Dun Che Lao Ren, or Christmas Old Man, to visit.

5. Participate in local festivals (like Hong Kong's Ta Chiu festival), which happen in many parts of China. They may or may not be directly associated with Christmas.

6. Go to church if this religious tradition is an important part of your Christmas celebration. Midnight Mass is popular with the small Catholic population.

7. Prepare for the Chinese New Year, officially called the Spring Festival, which marks the beginning of the new Chinese calendar year.

8. Buy your children new clothes and toys for the occasion.

9. Understand that it's appropriate to honor your ancestors during the New Year's celebration; hang portraits in your home of relatives from past generations.

10. Display bowls of oranges and tangerines, which symbolize wealth and good fortune.

Tips & Warnings

• Give friends and relatives red envelopes containing lucky money as a gift for the Chinese New Year.
• Only a small part of the Chinese population is Christian, as Christianity is not an officially sanctioned religion in China.
• China is an enormous country made up of many ethnic and cultural groups, so Christmas traditions are quite diverse and cannot be generalized. The preceding steps are simply a few examples of local traditions that may or may not be appropriate for your personal celebration of Christmas.

Resources

• Santa Mail
• Christmas Recipes

[elliesmom]

on 11/1/2008 what adorns the top of a Chinese Christmas Tree of Light?

on 1/2/2006 Brightly colored cloisonné ornaments have been available for several years. They are usually priced individually and aren't inexpensive, but even three on your tree would give an Asian flavor.

on 11/22/2005 Create small origami decorations, such as stars and birds, from red and green pieces of paper for displaying on your tree.