Reveries of Christmas - Chinese style

Christmas with Chinese characteristics may bewilder purists, but it actually follows the pagan tradition of the holiday and is updated for the gilded age.

Christmas in China is a unique experience like nothing you've seen in other countries. It is not the height of the holiday season. Rather, it marks the beginning, which leads to the climax of the Lunar New Year a month or so later. In a sense, it is an exotic prelude to the real festival to come.

A decade ago, there were debates about the appropriateness of importing a noticeably foreign holiday into China.