Bringing a White Elephant to China

Sometimes I feel bad for the Chinese. Holidays are what get me through the winter--and they don't have many. No Thanksgiving. No Christmas. No Easter. None of the great holidays we celebrate! They may not get to celebrate exactly like we do, but gift giving is an integral part of their lifestyle.

It's actually a pretty big deal from what I understand. There are certain expectations for the type of gift you should give depending on your status, the relationship, the occasion, etc.

-Our friends received a large paint-by-number when they hosted a dinner for a Chinese couple.
-We got a huge cake, you probably remember, when our neighbors came over for dinner.
-My tutee's parents (my employers) gave us a beautiful Chinese style blanket for our soon-to-come son.
-Our friend's husband was expected to give a large sum of money for his employee's wedding present.
-When a gift is given, it is often expected to give one in return. (We were told to bring lots of gifts from the US so we wouldn't be caught empty handed in a situation like this.)

In the spirit of Chinese culture and our own Christmas tradition, we had a White Elephant gift exchange with some Chinese flair!

Almost everyone packed in our apartment for the White Elephant exchange.

Some of the gifts:

-chinese style electric hand warmer (think quarterback hand warmer, but fluffy)

-toilet golf

-socks, scarfs, hats

-chinese animal slippers (shown in the middle of the above picture), mouth covering, and phone chain

-Chinese spinning top

-Chocolate

Here is Miss A showing off the lovely mouth covering (these are very popular here, seriously). In the back you can see the toilet golf gift. Mister found this on Tao Bao-who thinks of these things?!

The Chinese children don't go without either--at least Miss A doesn't. Almost every time we go out she gets some sort of gift. Her stash from strangers includes: 2 regular balloons, 2 flower shaped balloons, countless pieces of fruit, little packages of gummy food things, a heart shaped "diamond" ring, crackers, candy...the list goes on.

Did this baby get humongous all of the sudden? 1 week and 5 days until our little guy's due date!

We thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas tradition. It will never be quite the same as it was this year in our Nanjing, China home.