Christmas – 圣诞节

Do Chinese people celebrate Christmas? As you probably know, the biggest holiday in China is during the Lunar New Year, which usually occurs around February. Christmas is not an official holiday in China. When it lands on a weekday most activities will occur in the evening. These could include shopping, dining, gift-giving between loved ones and going out to some events. Traditionally, Christmas is not celebrated in China, but some young people also enjoy buying a Christmas tree to celebrate with their children. For Chinese the holiday is generally more commercialized and not so much of a religious holiday.

Let’s learn how to ask “Do Chinese people celebrate Christmas?” in Chinese, so that you can ask your Chinese friends. Perhaps you could invite them to celebrate Christmas with you in whatever way is more traditional where you come from.

The majority of Chinese people spend Christmas together with their friends or lovers, and like to give each other apples during Christmas. This is because the píng in “apple” is pronounced the same as píng in “peace”. Since Chinese people call December 24th “peaceful night”, apples given around that time are also known as “peaceful fruit”. 🍎

Perhaps you can give your Chinese friends apples for Christmas as a way to wish them peace.

Let’s learn how to say “Christmas eve” and “peaceful fruit” in Chinese.

Every year during Christmas apples become very expensive; especially apples which have Santa Claus or Merry Christmas engraved in them like the ones in the picture at the top of this article. These apples are made by placing paper on the apple to block part of the sun’s rays, so that when harvested the apple has the pattern imprinted on it.

This is the accompanying blog post for our elementary lesson “Does China Celebrate Christmas?“.