Christmas decor--Asian style

Well, we knew that Christmas over here in China would be different that what we are accustomed to in the US, but it was a bit sad to see so much plastic junk everywhere (okay, we see that at home too, but not exclusively). Apparently Christmas means snowmen and trees and Santa; again, not completely different than at home, but clearly there is no religious connection made whatsoever in the Middle Kingdom. Not so in the Philippines, which was part of why we wanted to go there during this time of the year. Not only do they speak English, the country is also predominately Christian and very into Christmas! Enjoy the following Christmas ornamentation... Since I'm not as tech-savvy as I'd like to be, I cannot get the pictures on here to change order once they've been uploaded. I do not like this...but I don't want to make it disappear all together. This is from our post-Christmas shopping trip to Zhongshan lu, a big pedestrian shopping street in Xiamen. We were on a hunt for Ugg/Bearpaw type boots for the girls and were thrilled to find them in the colors and sizes we wanted for a decent price. This lovely pink and silver monster of a tree is in front of the swanky PCD department store (of trick-or-treating fame...)
The PCD display in the front entry of the store--no crowd to dodge this time like we had at Halloween.
We decided that a tree was a must, even though it ended up being a rather small, plastic one. We really missed going through our large box of decorations, remembering who gave them to us/when each child made them as each is unwrapped and carefully hung. It has become tradition for us to do that each year, so hanging a few little cell-phone charms and star- and Rudolph-painted clothespins just didn't have the same feel! But it was better than nothing, as we told ourselves repeatedly.
The girls' school put on Christmas concerts for the parents (I was less than thrilled that the lower school started at 9 a.m. and the upper school at 2 p.m., meaning that I had to mill around the school all day long, but it gave me the chance to have lunch with Amanda and relax in the library between shows). Interesting that there were many Christian-themed songs sung...not sure how many religions are represented at this school, but I'm guessing there are at least a few.
Look closely and you....won't see either of my kids. Choosing the pictures requires a bit of squinting on my part as the thumbnails don't want to be enlargened. Why is it that I can delete a picture on accident, but not when I try to intentionally?!
Very prominent Christmas tree and sea of poinsettias displayed in the courtyard of the school.
More poinsettias in the Xiamen airport.
I don't think we're in China anymore...tropical nativity scene, set up in the Manila airport.
I know that nuns are not actually decor, but we see them so rarely in China or elsewhere that I couldn't resist. It also struck me as funny to see them making calls on the payphones, though I couldn't explain the joke if I had to!
The international school on Boracay's island hosted a Christmas bazaar right in back of our hotel and a sandal-clad Santa indulged us one photo.
Sand-sidewalk Christmas lights display at one of the hotels.
Our hotel lobby tree (as an aside, can you believe my 13 year old is almost as tall as me now?!)
Our apartment complex erected a tree while we were gone. We were so surprised to see it...it was cute but we didn't really love the big Santa heads!
Our little tree got a bit more festive after a last-minute trip to Metro (the French version of Sam's Club, stocking mostly Chinese stuff but also a good bit of Western things). We found a bucket of silver decorations that weren't too junky to help our tree be less anemic. Tree skirts do not exist here and I never made it to the fabric market to get a length of cloth as I had intended, so a newly-donated striped towel did the job (thanks again, Tina and Mark!). I can't help but think of our time here as being similar to camping--an ill-equipped kitchen, no central heat, primitive-ish clothes-washing, no dish washer, and the need for multi-purposing at every turn! But we like camping, so it's not completely unfamiliar.
Yes, that is a gift wrapped in a page from a magazine. We got desperate after running out of wrapping paper (the rolls are really tiny here and rolled so tight that the actual act of wrapping was beyond frustrating). Actually, we were quite pleased with the results!
We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas this year!