Not sure if you realize this but….

…I am kind of a Chinese person. As an expert on Chinese people for the past 19 years of my short life I’ve had people ask me all types of questions. One of these questions is:

So, like I have a friend who doesn’t celebrate Christmas. He’s Chinese. What’s up with that?

In my opinion, there are THREE reasons as to why Chinese people don’t celebrate Christmas:

1. Money is awesome

As you notice, the ONLY thing that opens on Christmas, is Chinese restaurants.  So if you want to eat out, Chinese restaurants are just about anywhere! But seriously, who would want to work on Christmas right? Well, a lot of foreign students or “fobs” that came from China often work on Christmas because they USUALLY have no families to celebrate with and also need money to pay off their rents, bills and tuition.

Empty your wallets for us, little Jimmy could use another grand to pay off his loan

This goes out to their friends as well, who are probably working with them. As much as it hurts me to say this but it is the truth. In regards to Chinese adults or families who own the restaurants, they are most likely “celebrating” Christmas by eating at their own restaurant together as a family. Also, chefs who work on Christmas usually do not have an established family here as well and are just trying to make as much money as they can to support themselves. The economy is getting worse and worse everyday so they have to get every single bit they can! We all love Christmas and love receiving presents, but sometimes people aren’t as fortunate as others and money is tight these days! So please do not go around and support the rumour that Chinese people don’t have holiday spirits! We surely do, it’s just that Christmas IS about families coming together and having a nice meal!

2. Jesus who?

Merry Christmas means 圣诞节 (Sheng Dan Jie) in Chinese. It literally means “Sheng” Jesus or god, “dan” Born, “jie” Festival or day. A lot of Chinese people do not believe in Jesus and thus creates a reason as to why they don’t “believe” or celebrate this day. It’s like Jewish people, they celebrate Hanukkah instead of Christmas, or Chinese people celebrating “Chinese New Year” which is in February.

You can’t force people to believe in something that they don’t right? But a lot of Chinese people take this day as an opportunity to reunite with their relatives, to catch up with friends and have lots of food! I noticed a lot of Asians celebrate Christmas due to the fact that they are Christians and wish to celebrate the birth of Jesus! So definitely, religion is a key reason as to why some Chinese people do not celebrate Christmas!

3. Immigration sucks

This is sort of a repeat but a LOT of Chinese immigrants aren’t wealthy enough to celebrate Christmas. I remember a time when my family didn’t celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving or even Halloween because we couldn’t afford it. There was a time where my family would use to shut off all the lights for Halloween because we don’t have extra money to decorate our house or even buy candies for kids that would come to “trick or treat”. The feeling of wanting to celebrate but cannot, sucks. So please take into consideration when you ask your friends what they got for Christmas but instead ask how their Christmas was. And if you have extra money in your pocket, I encourage everyone to donate toys to foundations!

All I got for christmas was this pocket. Maybe next year I'll have one on the other side!

In conclusion,

I still want everyone to know that this is my point of view as to why Chinese people do not celebrate Christmas. There are, of course, many other reasons as well. I always hear people say that Chinese people don’t celebrate Christmas so I hope I cleared up the ambiguity to some of you!

Nonetheless,

I WISH EVERYONE A LATE MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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