REUTERS/Bobby Yip An artwork of a yellow umbrella, symbol of the Occupy Central movement, is seen on a road sign next to a protest site in front of a commercial building with Christmas decorations at the financial Central district in Hong Kong December 4, 2014.
CITIES across China blink with fairy lights, fancy hotels flaunt trees and tinsel, and glossy magazine covers display festive recipes and table settings. "Joy up!" reads a sign (in English) on three illuminated trees by a shopping mall in Beijing. The Chinese are doing just that.
In the first decades of Communist rule in China Christianity was banned, along with other religions. Now there are tens of millions of Christians in China and faiths of all kinds are blossoming.
But this has little to do with the country's fast-growing fascination with Christmas. In the West the holiday is a commercialised legacy of Christian culture; in China it is almost entirely a product of Mammon. Father Christmas is better known to most than Jesus.
REUTERS/China Daily A worker holding a newly made Santa Claus model is surrounded by students in Yiwu, Zhejiang province December 4, 2014.
Well before Christmas took hold in China's cities, its factories were churning out Christmas essentials for consumption in the West. Industrially, China is now the Christmas king. According to Xinhua, a state-run news agency, more than 60% of Christmas trinkets worldwide last year came from a single "Christmas village"--Yiwu (in fact, a city), in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
REUTERS/China Daily A man wearing a Christmas hat poses for photographer at a factory producing Christmas decorations in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, December 4, 2014.
But ever more of these goodies now stay in China, to satisfy a domestic craving. Some are tailored to Chinese tastes: Father Christmases playing the saxophone, for example, are a common decoration--no-one quite knows why.
This year some shops are putting Santa hats on sheep; the Chinese new year in February, another excuse for hedonism, will be sheep-themed. A shop selling sex aids in Beijing displays a mannequin with a short Santa hot-pants suit, complete with white furry leg warmers.
REUTERS/Bobby Yip Dancers perform in front of a Christmas decoration in the shape of a steam locomotive, during its launching ceremony outside a shopping mall in Hong Kong November 24, 2014.
Christmas in China never really ends. Decorations sometimes remain up year-round. In 2016 the south-western city of Chengdu will host Asia's first "SantaPark"--a giant Christmas-themed amusement park modelled on a Finnish attraction. It will be known as the "official home of Santa Claus" (despite Chengdu's sweltering summers and mild winters).