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Published: January 5th 2010
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Christmas in Hong Kong is a bit of fun. First, there's a long lead up to it. It begins, as it does in most places these days, with Christmas carols and decorations in shops before you have had a chance to focus on the thought that it is nearly Christmas. Shopping in Hong Kong is a national pastime, so it is not surprising that they have embraced Christmas with some passion. The larger shopping centres have magnificent trees, and often Santas for the children. And so we took Georgia and Byron to Pacific Place to visit Santa in his delightfully decorated house. It was the same Santa as last year, a distinguished, friendly looking Santa. It is not clear what Byron, thought, but he nonetheless seemed pretty impressed with the big guy in red, and Georgia is now old enough to associate Santa with excitement and gifts, both of which Georgia is quite fond of! Santa listened patiently to Georgia and Byron's secret wishes, most of which were told to him in their own secret language. He smiled into their smiles and brought the happiness of Christmas to life. That evening we went to see the lovely Christmas lights on the
trees at St.Stephen's College.
Later that week, at the Consulate's Christmas party, a choir of tiny Australians from the 'Small World Christian Kindergarten' treated our staff to wonderfully sung Christmas carols. They came dressed as angles, elves and other Christmas characters. Everyone loved their songs, especially on which was an Australian version of 'Jingle Bells'. Everyone had a cheat sheet and sang along, led heroically by a great performer dressed in shorts, singlet and thongs. It really made us long for the languid heat of an Australian Christmas. At the end, Daniel, one of our drivers, came as Santa and gave all of the children a gift. The kids were very excited, as was Georgia, who thought Santa was wonderful.
Although we're overseas, the special friendship of Ralte and Ziki and their family makes us feel we are spending Christmas with our family. There's easy comfort and effortless conversation in their company. They love Georgia and Byron even when objectively they may not be so loveable. This is so evident in their patient affection. So we feel really lucky, and Christmas dinner with them was a feast at our place and included the welcome company of our neighbour
and colleague, Christian the French Deputy Consul-General, and his wife, Brigitte. There was French Champagne, Australian wine, turkey, ham and everything that went well with them. The dinner finished late, but still too early, for it felt that it could have gone on till morning.
But morning came soon enough. The body clocks of Georgia and Byron, not especially tuned to Christmas, just habitually early, meant there'd be no sleeping in. Georgia and Byron had a look in the lounge, and seeing the brightly wrapped gifts, decided it was an exciting place. While Simone and Joggy got breakfast, G & B came out to give some Christmas gifts to the staff who uncomplainingly work on Christmas Day where we live. We found a few, and Georgia and Byron's happy Christmas wishes seemed to brighten their morning, and the rest was left to Simone and Santa's helpers to find later in the day. Back inside, Georgia couldn't believe her luck as she opened gifts of beautiful and fun things. Byron couldn't believe his eyes, and thought ripping the paper and trying to eat it was a special treat. Less excitingly, their parents gave them 'Oxfam Unwrapped' gifts of community projects
See Joggy, its easy.
Georgia helping Joggy decorate a Hong Kong house sized tree. in developing countries, and a donation on their behalf to a local disabled children's centre. Probably not what they were dreaming of!
After such a full-on introduction to the day, we waited till latish in the afternoon to descend on Ralte and Ziki's for a wonderful Christmas lunch. Ziki's cooking is delicious at any time, but at Christmas it tastes especially good. Georgia and Byron clearly felt at home, and behaved accordingly! They ran and crawled with abandon, investigated everything, and when inclined to return to human company, reclined in the arms of Ralte for fun and reading, and Ziki for endless hugs and attention.
And then later that night, we bundled into the car sleeping children who could no longer resist the need to sleep, and drove home to a house filled with a swag of toys silently waiting for the next morning and the return of the Christmas kids.
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