My first Christmas with my Chinese boyfriend

My first Christmas with my Chinese boyfriend

Date: 2010.12.26 | Category: Comparing Finland and China, Finnish-Chinese Relationship, Me | Tags:

This was my first Christmas in China, the first one out of Finland. There was no snow reminding me of the festive season so I had to make it up with decorations. I also wanted to make as traditional Christmas as possible to my boyfriend who this year experienced his first Christmas. With traditional I mean the traditions we have at home in Finland.

Not so traditional was that I had to go to the post office on the morning of Christmas Eve, which is the most important day in Finland. I had chased a package that my mom send me from two different post offices, but finally I got it. While hugging the box I went to the store to get some food items. At home I started to make the rice porridge which is traditional Christmas food back home.

We ate the porridge around noon, the same time we would have it in Finland. I have to admit that my boyfriend doesn’t really like Finnish food because in his opinion there is no taste! Later on that day I cooked mashed potatoes and meat sauce which I think was delicious, but my Chinese other half probably won’t be asking to make that dish again.

Besides eating, watching movies is a big Christmas tradition too. My boyfriend doesn’t enjoy watching foreign movies because it’s hard for him to follow the Chinese subtitles. Luckily we have two laptops so he enjoyed his Chinese movie, and I watched a romantic Hollywood comedy. It is almost like watching together, right?

In the evening I opened some presents my friends gave me and my boyfriend was wondering what is the point of giving gifts. Chinese people think that the money is the best gift! But in Finland we don’t like giving money as a present, it can mean that you didn’t want to see any effort in finding a nice gift to your friend or loved one. Of course sometimes it’s appropriate and welcomed.

Earlier in the week one American guy was thinking why Chinese people celebrate Christmas when they don’t know it’s true meaning. He was referring to Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus. But Christmas doesn’t have to have anything to do with religions because the roots of the holiday are somewhere else. As me and my boyfriend doesn’t have any religion, we also don’t have any debates of the reasons to celebrate Christmas or any other holiday.

This Christmas was like a practice round for my boyfriend and I am sure that next year he will get into the Christmas atmosphere for real.

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Autumn

Sara,in my opinion,one reason Chinese celebrate Christmas is young people are fed up with Chinese festival and want sth. different.And I like Christmas,even I don’t know the true meaning of it.Like Chinese traditional festival –Spring Festival.Many of Chinese don’t know what it really mean.We just know it’s the time for reunion and we celebrate it just because this is tradition.

[Reply]
http://www.speakingofchina.com Jocelyn

Sounds like you had a nice Christmas! I can completely understand about the food issues — there are some things my Chinese husband will never see as delicious (for example, just about everything that falls under “Mexican food”) but over the years, we’ve figured out how to find culinary common ground.

Over time, I’m sure your boyfriend will come to love Christmas. My husband certainly does, though I will say he has felt much closer to it since experiencing the holiday in the US.
Jocelyn recently posted..Ask the Yangxifu- Review of Exposing the Myth Behind Why Asian Men Can’t Date White Women

[Reply]
Sara Reply:
December 28th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Thank you for commenting again Jocelyn. It was quite a nice Christmas even I was worried how everything would go far away from Finland. And yes it can be interesting sometimes when couple have a different kind of taste for food, but even Chinese people stress it a lot, it’s not the most important thing. And I have to admit that I hate some Chinese food as well, like 粽子. Maybe next year, or year after that, we manage to go to Finland during the holidays and then my boyfriend could truly see what Finnish Christmas is like.

[Reply]
M

Your Christmas decorations look like you really would be in Finland besides aren’t most of the nice and pretty Christmas decorations made in China. :)

I think it’s funny that you and your boyfriend watching movies together is totally the opposite of me and my Chinese boyfriend. My Chinese boyfriend can’t get enough of Western (Hollywood) films. I think he must be watching movies everyday or many times a week. His favourites are from Sound of Music to Hellboy and something between. I on the other hand would love to watch lots of Chinese movies if they only had English subs. Thank heavens for many websites where I can watch Asian movies.

By the way, thanks to your website I’ve noticed that there are more and more Western women married with Chinese men. I wish our stories will end as happily.

[Reply]
Sara Reply:
January 2nd, 2011 at 7:54 am
M, Yes, everything is made in China and most of the things here in Guangzhou. I do enjoy Chinese movies too but I kind of need the English subtitles, I have slowly started watching Chinese movies and tv shows with Chinese subtitles, but it’s still really difficult. I think my boyfriend would enjoy foreign movies too if there wouldn’t be the language problem between. It is very nice that many women with Chinese guy have decided to write a blog, lots of information and experiences out there. I wish all the best to you and your boyfriend!

[Reply]