To all of you a very merry Christmas, pleasant holidays with your families with lots of peace and joy!

Here in China, Christmas is quite a curious thing!

First thing to note is the apple: everyone here associates apples with Christmas, thus Christmas is a heyday for fruit sellers! The reason? Part of the word “apple” in Chinese has the same character as “peace” which is part of the word “Christmas” in this language. Therefore apples are the most common gifts on Christmas!

Secondly, as we are talking about gifts already, let me tell you how Christmas gift shopping works here in China. While in the West, everyone tries to get the Christmas gifts before the holidays, in China, the day of Christmas-gift-shopping is just that: on Christmas. So, on December 24, everyone rushes out in search for some nice little gifts and the streets and stores on campus go crazy, especially the later it gets in the day!

For us Westerners, though, we get to celebrate with our friends, and so we get to enjoy our own, merry, little Christmas!

Happy celebrating everywhere!