Q: 1. What does Christmas mean to you?

2. What has been your most memorable Christmas in China? Why?

3. Has the nature of Christmas? or the way it is celebrated? changed much in China over the years?

4. What do you want for Christmas?

5. If Christmas is not your favourite holiday of the year, what is? and why?

A: 1. To me, Christmas means tons of Christmas cards, big meals, Santa Clauses batting around, crowded people and terrible traffic jams, of course.

2. Christmas Eve in 2001 was the most memorable. My boyfriend flew from Beijing to Suzhou to see me and proposed to me on that day. A lot of my friends came to dinner with us and presented their best wishes to us. We had a crazy party after the dinner.

3. For sure, the nature of Christmas and the way it is celebrated has changed completely in China. Most of my friends don't really care about the origin of Christmas and how it is celebrated in Western countries. Christmas here is more like a single festival for young people to get together, to greet each other, to create a happy atmosphere in the cold season. I believe Christmas will become more flexible and popular to Chinese over the next 20 years. Maybe it will become one of the public holidays in China and people will get a day off to celebrate it. Christmas now is comparatively relevant to younger Chinese. However, more and more middle-aged people are getting involved in it, especially those working with foreign-invested enterprises.

4. I like collecting Santa Claus dolls, the more, the better. I feel so happy when I see their smiles.

5. Spring Festival is my favourite holiday because I really enjoy the time with my family during the holiday period. Life becomes so easy. I can visit my friends, attend parties, go shopping and read anything I like. In a word, nothing to worry about but take my time.

A: Sarah Spence, manager of the Yan Club in Dashanzi is originally from Britain but has been living in Beijing for the past two years.

1. These days it is more and more commercial. I am not a religious person, so Christmas has always been viewed as a holiday to spend with family, friends and loved ones. It means meeting up with lots of people, spending lots of money, eating lots of food and drinking lots of liquid! Definitely a time of year to catch up with people.

2. Last year I suppose. Christmas Eve, four of us were given tickets to see Notre Dame de Paris at the Great Hall of the People. It ended around 11:30pm. and then we went to a tiny little Muslim restaurant for mutton hotpot and a bit of Erguotou! This was followed by a trip to a KTV to meet up with even more friends, and the evening was rounded off with a visit to a nightclub! Don't think I saw much of Christmas Day itself, but it was certainly a different, action-packed way to see in Christmas!

3. Christmas is certainly becoming more and more commercial. I lived in Wuhan at the beginning of the 90s and you certainly didn't see Christmas decorations around the same! If it wasn't for the fact that all the hotels and restaurants are putting up decorations already, I would have forgotten that Christmas was looming! I think that perhaps Christmas might become an official holiday here in the future (a bit like Spring Festival and the October holidays) ?of course not from a religious point of view, but from a "let's have a holiday?point of view. I think Christmas is becoming relevant to everyone just as a way to meet up with family/friends and have some fun.

4. Definitely a car this year! Have just moved to the countryside and traffic is not exactly convenient (Stas, please note!).

5. Any holiday is my favourite holiday! It is always nice to be able to relax for a few days and catch up with people or go off somewhere for a few days to recharge the batteries.

A: Yan Feng is a Beijing-born, Swiss-educated Chinese. Currently studying in Beijing, he is also the leader of the Beijing Mac User Group.

1. Time of festivities, and, of course, a time to see major avenues in Beijing floodlit with festive lights and Christmas decor. It's really nice in this otherwise frigid weather.

2. Maybe the one in 2001. My best experience from that was decorating (read: over-decorating) the tree in my room. Kind of puts a festive mood ?the room, me and all.

3. I think it's always been that joyous festivity at the end of the year.

I'd guess that it would pick up in popularity, especially with the youth.

4. Please relieve us of all this recent global violence. (After all, Christmas is also about peace.) Seriously, to listen to conflicts at 7 pm when dining really isn't my cup of tea. It kind of dampens the appetite, you know.

5. Christmas is one of my favourite holidays ?but since you asked: maybe if there was anything else to rival that, it would be Chinese New Year. The number of hong baos and ya sui qian (think cash) is a tempting reason.

Of course, I only had it once - in 2002, when I had my first Chinese New Year in Beijing after returning in 2000.

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