To say we were a little apprehensive of our first Christmas here in Beijing is a bit of an understatement. It was Meryl’s first Christmas away from family, and with no decorations in sight and lots of work to be done at this time of year, we thought the 25th of December was going to pass by without a mention. We had it all wrong though, as this Christmas was "different" and wonderful in all the ways that mattered!
Up until just about a week before Christmas, you couldn’t even tell it was the festive season here in Beijing. But one blistering cold night Meryl got inspired and we set off on one of our regular wild Beijing goose chases in search of some Christmas spirit. We were pleasantly surprised when down a dark ally over the road (yes you can go down those here in BJ) we discovered the smallest and cutest Christmas trees we had ever seen; that would not only serve as decoration for our home but could also double up as décor for the scheduled Google Christmas party Meryl had planned with her students for the 26th. We were even more surprised when the 25 RMB Christmas tree (works out to about R20) came with a stand, a plug, 2 Santa hats and a snowman decoration! The thing lit up (only in China) and added some great festivity to our home! We weren’t that fortunate in our search however to have found tinsel or Christmas balls for the tree although we have no doubt that all of yours were “made in China” Meryl was therefore forced to dig deep into the crevices of her artistic background – and – with little more than a broken necklace, red paper, toilet rolls and some beads, managed to ‘string’ together some very original tree decorations, Christmas hats and crackers! Kyle, despite not being the kind of guy who cares too much for these things (after all he spent last Christmas under water in a bell), really went all out. The day before Christmas, without any prompting, he went shopping for a few things to go under our tree and then wrapped them in whatever paper he could find lying around the house (it happened to be winnie the pooh wedding paper but who really cares). On our morning off on Christmas day we woke up to a lit up tree with presents underneath and spent the next while opening them and enjoying…chocolates and Grey’s Anatomy Season 4 ep10…followed by the most delicious breakfast our tiny kitchen has ever managed to pull off.
At lunch time we started the great trek across town to meet Meryl’s colleagues for a traditional Turkey dinner, because we have discovered, that anything worthwhile in Beijing takes at least a 1 hour commute. Starving upon arrival we tucked into the best chicken this side of the equator and put on Christmas hats while eating it just to feel like home. Everyone really got in the spirit and we had a fabulous 3 course western meal – something that has been hard to come by for a while, and stimulating English discussions (something else that’s hard to come by) around a table where 4 nationalities were represented. Completely stuffed, instead of fighting the hordes at the bus stop we treated ourselves to a taxi to get home; it really was a day of indulgence!
The moral of the story is that it took all that effort to fight for a Christmas that really was our own. Not many things are neatly handed to us the way we are used to, in fact things seldom arrive the way we expect in this seemingly ‘backward’ country. This Christmas was the hardest work we’ve ever had to put into, it took a lot of effort and hours of preparation, but the result was something you could not buy in a box from Woolworths or pick off the shelves of your local supermarket. It was Christmas, our very first one as a married couple, in this weird and wonderful place – and it was unforgettable.
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