Chinese Thanksgiving

In the middle of our traditional American Thanksgiving -- baking pies and admiring the robust browning turkey -- my husband and I were musing about our last Thanksgiving in Beijing. The managers of our apartment building always tried their best to accommodate the holidays of their diverse, international clientele. Thanksgiving was one of everyone's favorite holidays, but as it comes sandwiched in between Halloween and Christmas, preparations put a particular strain on the staff.

The clever Chinese solution was to bundle all three holidays into one. So, as instructed, all apartment residents came to the Thanksgiving dressed in our Halloween costumes, and we enjoyed the spread of stir-fried turkey and tofu and sweet-potato pies (of a sort) all washed down with warm Yanjing beer. In the midst of celebrating, who should march in to surprise us all?

SANTA!

We missed the costumes and Santa this year, but remember with warm hearts how hard our Chinese hosts tried to please us and tried to get it right. 

(image from blog.yoyoor.com)