a few thoughts on christmas
There are certain things that I particularly miss while I'm living out here in China, and one of them is the spirit of the holidays. Mind you, this was always intensely stressful time for me. Worrying about how I was going to pay off my credit card bills once I had bought all my gifts. Worrying about how I was going to fit in all of the Christmas parties I was invited to. Worrying about the plans for my own Christmas party, because you know, even when my roommate and I had a potluck Christmas party one year, we still did chicken kebabs marinated in orange juice and curry and latkes with apple sauce. Worrying about getting everything done before I flew home to Los Angeles for Christmas.
All the same, I loved it because there was something so magical about New York during the holidays, with all the lights and the trees. It was always wonderful to spend that time going to parties with my friends, two of whom have birthdays in December (aka olliphant and off_that_bridge. There was always lots of booze and wonderful times full of that warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness. Then it was always lovely to go home and see my family and get a whole year's worth of hugs in a week.
I don't like receiving gifts, but I love giving them, and what better time than Christmas and Hannukah? I know, I'm really strange that way. It's because when I receive a great gift, I always feel terribly inadequate--I mean, is a "thank you" enough for a really thoughtful gift?
Christmas in Changchun isn't anything special. I don't get the day off for it, and this year it's very likely that I'll work and go to class on that day. My students will have parties, and I'm sure that my friends and I will go out to dinner. The shops will have "Merry Christmas" signs, but I think that it's mostly an excuse to just get people to buy gifts to celebrate a Western holiday. My students, for instance, have no real idea of what this time of year means. They just know that it's a Western holiday with Santa Claus and this guy Jesus Christ. I tell them that it's Jesus' birthday, but I refuse to get into it. Talking about religion in the classroom? Please, that's a one way ticket out of here.
My family has always celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree--my sisters decorate the shit out of it and it always looks fantastic. We usually go out for dim sum in the morning; you can take the Cantonese people out of Hong Kong...and you know the rest. We almost always argue, because we're like that. You know, it's family! We'll listen to the 24-hour Christmas songs playing on the radios. We watch a lot of television and usually pop in the DVD that we received as a gift. It's a nice, relaxing, fairly predictable day. I like it. I miss it.
So let me ask you, dear international flist, what does the December holiday season mean to you, if anything at all?
All the same, I loved it because there was something so magical about New York during the holidays, with all the lights and the trees. It was always wonderful to spend that time going to parties with my friends, two of whom have birthdays in December (aka olliphant and off_that_bridge. There was always lots of booze and wonderful times full of that warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness. Then it was always lovely to go home and see my family and get a whole year's worth of hugs in a week.
I don't like receiving gifts, but I love giving them, and what better time than Christmas and Hannukah? I know, I'm really strange that way. It's because when I receive a great gift, I always feel terribly inadequate--I mean, is a "thank you" enough for a really thoughtful gift?
Christmas in Changchun isn't anything special. I don't get the day off for it, and this year it's very likely that I'll work and go to class on that day. My students will have parties, and I'm sure that my friends and I will go out to dinner. The shops will have "Merry Christmas" signs, but I think that it's mostly an excuse to just get people to buy gifts to celebrate a Western holiday. My students, for instance, have no real idea of what this time of year means. They just know that it's a Western holiday with Santa Claus and this guy Jesus Christ. I tell them that it's Jesus' birthday, but I refuse to get into it. Talking about religion in the classroom? Please, that's a one way ticket out of here.
My family has always celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree--my sisters decorate the shit out of it and it always looks fantastic. We usually go out for dim sum in the morning; you can take the Cantonese people out of Hong Kong...and you know the rest. We almost always argue, because we're like that. You know, it's family! We'll listen to the 24-hour Christmas songs playing on the radios. We watch a lot of television and usually pop in the DVD that we received as a gift. It's a nice, relaxing, fairly predictable day. I like it. I miss it.
So let me ask you, dear international flist, what does the December holiday season mean to you, if anything at all?