Merry Christmas from Suzhou
This has been a strange year, and many people are now facing the strangest Christmas of their lives, as they won’t even be able to celebrate with their loved ones. Here in Suzhou we are lucky that we’ve been virus free for a while and we will be able to meet with friends for Christmas. On previous years I’ve arranged dinner at home just for us and my in-laws, but this year I’m working on Christmas day (Friday) and even on Saturday morning, so we will be eating out. On Christmas Eve we’re having dinner at a Turkish restaurant with some Spanish speaking friends and on Christmas day we are going to a Mexican restaurant with Chinese friends. Not really Christmasy food, but works for us!
I’ve even been able to attend several Christmas events. We went to a Christmas bazaar at the beginning of the month, although several others that are usually done every year were not arranged this time. The one we attended was in a big hotel and the decorations were very fancy.
As you can see, there was quite a lot of people.
Then there was a lunch arranged by the women’s WeChat group I’m in. It was in a very posh Spanish restaurant where we had a delicious lunch. We also played games, exchanged ornaments and won prizes. I won a small hamper with Greek products!
The dress code was white!
I also attended a Mexican Christmas event last Friday. It was organized by my coworker and we had tacos, played lotería (like bingo but with pictures instead of numbers), sang a traditional Mexican Christmas song, lighted sparklers and assaulted a piñata. I’m sad that I didn’t take any pictures as it was a lot of fun!
The malls in Suzhou have all put up their Christmas decorations:
Macaroon tree in Suzhou Center.
Huge crystal ball in Eslite.
Did you know that in China people gift apples on Christmas Eve because the pronunciation is similar? My husband got this today:
Yes, it’s a huge apple inside a fancy packaging.
I wish you a very merry Christmas! Celebrate how you can and enjoy as much as you can!
How interesting. My Chinese student from Suzhou told me that the government has banned Christmas as of last year. He said there were no decorations, but that everyone pretty much ignored the govt and secretly celebrated anyway. But your photos make it look as if everything is the same as it ever was… Surely, he didn’t lie to me?
I’ll be waiting for you to clarify things, Marta! :P
Anyway, glad all is well in your world. Enjoy the good food, and Merry Christmas :)
Well, as you can see, there are Christmas decorations, bazaars, parties and even masses in churches :D Is your student there or here? There were news reports of “China banning Christmas” a couple of years ago but it was the idea of local officials in some cities, not something widespread. I have to mention though that “the government” in general wants people to give more importance to traditional Chinese holidays, so in recent years some traditional festivals have been made national holidays.
Christmas is not really a holiday here, just an excuse to eat outside, buy things and spend money in general. So the malls always want to make a big thing of it, to encourage more spending!
That’s what I thought. I asked why and he said b/c they wanted ppl to be more ‘nationalistic’ so … Well, he claims to be in Suzhou so maybe he’s not really. I had Ss in Shanghai but never asked because it’s not something that I think of! Hmmmm. I’ll get to the bottom of this the next time I speak to him!
I am jealous of all your parties! The most I will have is a socially distant Christmas tea on my patio with a friend. But I am desperately looking forward to it after being at home except for dog walking and essential supply collection.
Put your mask on and enjoy your socially distanced tea party! :D
Merry Christmas, Marta! Hope you have a lovely one. I shall go take pics with all the mall decorations here in Hong Kong too, haha! ❤️✨
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
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Merry Christmas, Charmaine!!
Marta – We always enjoy seeing how you are celebrating a holiday. Wonderful that you have been out and about. Beautiful photo of you and all the WeChat ladies. Wishing you a Merry Christmas.
Thank you! I hope you have a fantastic Christmas, given the circumstances :)
Looks like you’ve managed to have some fun. I am also jealous of your parties. We are in a semi-lockdown here with restaurants only open for take away. Hopefully we’ll all be able to get back to enjoying our friends and families soon. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!
Stay safe and have a cozy Christmas!!
Merry Christmas, Marta. I love seeing all your pictures and hearing about your parties and dinners. My family will be meeting on Zoom this year. We’ll have more fun next year.
That’s the spirit! Next year will be better! (It has to!!)
This looks so nice!!! And wow, that restaurant is really posh — everyone looks so nice in white.
Hope you had a really nice Christmas!!
Thanks, Mary! Happy New Year!!
So there wasn’t masking at the time of these photos?
Many people still wear masks in the street (maybe also because it’s very cold). Masks are compulsory on public transportation and also when entering malls (but people usually end up taking them off inside malls).
Felix Navidad! Feliz Año! Y Felices Festias as there’s Cago Tio, Papa Noel as well as the Kings in Cataluña!
My local Mall had the best decorations in a few years this year. No see Santa or The Kings as usual instead they had a cool winter mountain scene under the huge 3 floors high Christmas tree.The best were fake evergreen arches at the top and bottom of the escalators.
Barcelona city council held Christmas Events throughout the city mostly for the kids as there’s no Cabalgata this year. The one I want to go to sold out in minutes: the Christmas Village to see the Kings! I saw bits of it being set up on my runs. Old skool buses. Think it was more like the Kings workshop. Most gatherings are 6 people max in Catalana so the kids got to see something festive!
Oooh, it must have been the first time in ages without cabalgata! Thanks for the update and feliz año nuevo!
:) Feliz Ano!!!
Bit late but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Those are some really lovely Christmas decorations there in the malls at Suzhou. I think they are even better than the ones we have every year here in Australia lol. Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, and COVID hasn’t been too bad for you too so far this year. Over here we had a normal holiday and break as things aren’t too bad here – and it is summer too :D
Hey Mabel, nice to hear from you! Thanks! It’s great to hear that things are not bad there. Here there have been some small outbreaks in several cities and we are preparing to spend Chinese New Year at home… like last year.