Christmas in China is...different. They have embraced the decorating aspect of it whole-heartedly, though with interesting twists. Because Chinese New Year follows so closely, many malls and stores decorate for both--at the same time. Such as this display at Garden City Mall--Alice in Wonderland meets Santa.
If you're wondering about the Alice in Wonderland bunny, 2011 is the year of the rabbit. So many of the displays look more Easter-ish than Christmassy this year.
Their tastes in decorating runs towards kitschy and bizarre.
For instance, check out this Santa. Really like his eyelashes-and love his earring!
Tracy thinks we can't LIVE without one of these babies!
Pick your Santa--they have them all!
Oh--should I get a life-size reindeer for my room? Or perhaps a fuzzy snowflake...
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| Outside the stationary mall |
There's a shopping area we call the stationary mall (because it has all kinds of stationary type stores in it) in the Luohu area of Shenzhen. During the Christmas season it becomes the Christmas decoration mecca--though much of what is sold there is for large-scale decorating like malls and stores. And much of it is cheap, tawdry and tacky.
But there are occasional good finds to be discovered. (Heavy emphasis on the occasional.) Last year I found a few Jim Shore Santas, and snatched them up for about $10 US. Haven't seen any this year though.
Check out the new way to put balls on your tree--
Instead of hanging them, you pull the ends off and stick them on the branches. Clever, eh?
Walmart has a good selection of trees--in every color!
This giant snowman had a large whole in his side--perhaps he was melting.
Me and Santa at KK Mall--a rather upscale new mall where we went to see HP7 in IMAX. (The snake scene was horrifying on that big screen.)
This ten foot pink lady was at the KK mall too. Her dress is made of KK mall bags, and her wig seems to be a giant shower scrunchie. Very Christmassy, don't you think? As I said, Christmas in China is a bit different.
Santa Chef...
And Santa Knight. He was very elegant.
To balance things out though, I also bought both of the following nativities here.
This one in Hong Kong--isn't it lovely? I love the Chinese trees, and the Aspara angels.
This one is from Taiwan.
This is our tree. I bought the tree skirt in Shanghai-- Chinese silk--golden dragons, symbols of luck and prosperity. Merry Christmas!
4 comments:
FUn to see your pictures cause it is so Asia. I hope you got one of those life sized reindeer for your room! Love your nativities too. I have my taiwan and china ones set-up and love them! Merry Christmas
I love how bizarre everything over there is- I miss laughing over stationary cards, wacky billboards, and the random combinations...I really miss Asia! Guess it doesnt really matter how you decorate, as long as the heart of your focus is Christ. Thanks for sharing! Merry Christmas Momma!
Thank you for the lovely Christmas card and for remembering us during the holidays. Thank goodness for blogging and FB...helps us all stay in touch.
Jeri
I have definitely noticed that what we view as lovely and elegant is not necessarily the same as our Asian friends. The more colorful and overdone, the better, seems to be what goes over in Taiwan. The the Taipei 101, the banners were tying together Chinese New Year with Valentine's Day, bunnies and hearts. That didn't seem as odd as the Santa and bunny combo there. I like your new nativity sets.
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