Without family in Beijing, a bittersweet Christmas feast
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Olivier Jacques is a local expat from Quebec, Canada. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com] |
"It feels strange, particularly here in China because they don't have a tradition of celebrating it. There are some decorations and of course shops, restaurants and hotels try to make business with it by having special "Festive Season" offers, but to be honest I don't feel anything warm like home," says Sonya Bouyakf, who won't be returning back to her family in Germany this December 24.
Even taking into account that some families that don't celebrate Christmas as much, it's still hard to realize that Christmas is still happening in your absence. More critically, many families observe Christmas as a pretense to get everyone together during the vacation.
"In England, Christmas is quite a big deal. I certainly miss the Christmas build up a lot; my brother is a lot younger than me, so he's still a child. I miss the excitement I get from him, it's still a huge hype for the younger kids, so not having any younger family here is hard," says Abi Brown, who has spent a total of five Christmases away from home.
Abi recalls spending Christmas last year in Australia, which she says was a bit odd for her because of the seasonal differences. She found it a bit strange to have Christmas in the summertime instead of the usual winter that she's used to in Britain.
Sitting around the Christmas dinner table with friends in China, mobile phones are buzzing with international SMSs and every few minutes the phone rings and someone rushes to the other room to intercept his or her mother's Christmas call.
Everyone is quite grateful that technology has improved and it is possible to send an international Christmas wish instantaneously or use Skype to have a live video chat with the whole family.
It just takes a bit of coordination, since many point out that Europe is usually 7 hours behind while many places in the Americas are 12-15 hours behind which can be a bit tricky. As a result, many families overseas having their morning coffee are likely to reach their son or daughter in the middle of a Chinese Christmas dinner party when they call.
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