Christmas is an actual holiday here in Hong Kong thanks to the British colonial legacy. December 25 and 26 are holidays. December 26 is called Boxing Day and is celebrated in the United Kingdom. The kids have off about 10 days from school, the same as in the USA. Some people celebrate Christmas, but the Chinese New Year holiday in late January to early February is the big Chinese holiday.

Stores, malls and public areas have Christmas decorations. This year the decorations went up early, around the first week in November, because stores are trying to attract customers in the economic downturn. The weather is usually not bad with the temperature in the 50s to 70s. I am inviting some students from the seminary here to bake gingerbread cookies the week before Christmas. People don’t usually have ovens in their homes here, so they don’t bake desserts. We are going to bake and decorate cutout cookies.

The churches here usually have Christmas services the Sunday before Christmas, although one of our churches has Christmas Day services this year.