Christmas in Hong Kong - preparations

The weeks leading up to Christmas in Hong Kong are always, I think, a bit lame compared to UK.

In London, December is virtually a write-off with parties and long boozy lunches. LIfe in Hong Kong, however, is pretty much 'business as usual'. There are Christmas lights (boy, are there ever Christmas lights!!) and some attempts to submit to Xmas - but it's not the same. Incidentally, I spent most of December in Singapore -- the lights and street decorations there make Hong Kong look like it's not really trying (which is saying something).

We did some fun things in the lead-up of course.

Such as taking the boys to see a live orchestra/singer accompanying The Snowman (Archie of course spent a great deal of the show trying to get on stage etc). And a memorably drunken (and slightly out-of-hand) Friday evening with friends in one of our favourite restaurants (The Press Room - boasts a branch of the Neal's Yard cheesery (hmmmmm Stinking Bishop yummmmmm).

Mum sent us out a few packets of foil-paperchains ... which amused the kids for about 20 mins each ... but nostalgia-ed me back to 1972.

And, as usual, we got right royally ripped off buying a real Christmas tree imported to HK from God-knows-where on the planet. I won't tell you how much our 6ft tree cost -- it'll make you wince. But it looked and smelt great. When we lived in Bavaria back in the early seventies, my parents bought a candle-driven tiered advent carousel. I imported one from Germany this year -- the boys thought it was magical ... as I did with my parent's one when I was about their age. I hope they have similar fond, warm memories of our carousel. Over the years, Joss has been investing in/accruing a hand-made nativity scene which now looks very special too.

As we had a full-on Christmas Day, coupled with the fact that we flew Sofia (our indispensable live-in helper/angel) back to The Philippines so that she could spend Xmas/NY with her family, we could not attend Midnight Mass or the Christmas Day Morning service. So, this time we went to the family Christmas service at St Stephen's chapel in Stanley. It was a bit random and kid-noisy with the usual interjections and interruptions from Archie: e.g. "Why do we celebrate Jesus?" Archie answer: "Coz he was born on Christmas day DOH". etc etc

St Stephen's is interestng -- and the associated War Grave is very moving:

St. Stephen's Chapel was built in the grounds of St. Stephen's College and consecrated in 1950. It was built on the highest point as a memorial to all those who suffered and died in the College, during the invasion of Hong Kong and subsequent internment.

During the Battle for Hong Kong in 1941, St. Stephen’s College was used as a hospital, but on Christmas Day, the invading Japanese troops entered it and killed many of the patients and staff there. After Hong Kong’s surrender, the College became an internment camp for civilians until the end of the war. The beautiful memorial window over the West door was generously donated, and depicts not only the suffering in the internment camp, but the faith, hope and love which sustained so many through those years, and which still inspires us today.

There was much debate about how Father Christmas was going to venture in to the apartment this year - we don't have a chimney or balcony. By general consent, it was determined that he'd land on our roof terrace and make his way in to the apartment by way of the front door, naturally. As a reward for his efforts, he and his reindeer team got the traditional offerings of a Mr Kipling's mince pie; a carrot; a can of the local brew (Tsing Tao) and a stuffed cartoon reindeer to shake hands with. Plus they got handwritten instructions on how to help themselves.

By the way, mince pies are bloody expensive in HK!! ... about 50p each by my reckoning ... despite that, I bought a couple of dozen to share with my colleagues on Christmas Eve (OK, they were on offer) -- there appeared to be several tens of boxes remaining in my local-to-work supermarket @ 11:30 on Christmas Eve. The team were bemused by this -- most of them had never eaten a mince pie before. One person announced that the cakes tasted like the stuff they're given to eat as kids to take the taste away from the foul medicine they take! Clearly they were not impressed.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. I slunked off home about 12:30 ... the office officially closed @ 13:00. I was still getting work emails from my team @ 19:30 that night (and Christmas Day morning). It's kind of understandable (Christmas Day is a public holiday here - but quite a few people work still - it does not mean much to the locals), but weird none-the-less.

Incidentally, a couple of the above pics, together with a number below were take by Archie -- I think he has a talent for photography.

M