Hiding for Christmas scrooges

Between now and Dec 25, Western expats in Beijing will be counting the days until Christmas. They happily buy and wrap gifts, decorate Christmas trees and plan holiday meals, cheerily humming Christmas carols all the while.

Some of us, however, find it a great relief to be thousands of miles away from our Christmas-saturated homelands. We love the fact that Chinese businesses won't subject its customers and employees to a relentless repetition of Christmas songs. It's a limited genre, so at home, each song gets played hundreds of times, day after day, week after week in elevators, gas stations, offices, bars, restaurants and stores, from Thanksgiving in late November until Dec 25.

By Dec 26, some of us hope to never again hear about Santa, Rudolph or jingling bells.