Beware green hat gifts or Yule be very sorry

On Christmas Eve last week, Beijing's restaurants, hotels, clubs and bars were busier than a local traffic cop during rush hour. My Chinese friends were really putting the jingle in Beijing.

There were long queues outside eateries, waiters ran around in Santa hats and the bigger hotels enjoyed even bigger business staging elaborate, star-studded, 1,000-yuan a head parties.

China's A, B, and even C-list celebrities were all gainfully employed hosting gatherings, telling jokes and popping champagne corks. Lucky draw competitions were as popular as ever. Winners walked away, for instance, with two return tickets to Rome, plasma TV sets and the latest video cameras.