Bringing Christmas to Taiwan

Christmas is tricky because for a lot of people it is a religious holiday. In Taiwan, most people are Buddhist so of course they don’t celebrate a Christian holiday. Christmas here is pretty lights, deals in stores, music, and a religion that they don’t practice. The thing is Christmas is not just about Jesus for a lot of people. Christmas is about appreciating the ones we love. It’s also about learning how to give, and it’s about tradition and culture.  Don’t get me wrong, the Christmas story is really beautiful and it lays the foundation for Christmas but being familiar with the Bible, I think that Jesus would be happy with families celebrating his birth by showing their love for each other and people being a bit more warm to one another. Even if they don’t believe in him. So knowing that Christmas is hard set in our traditions in the US I did my best to bring some with me. First, I arranged a secret Santa with my class. I had them all draw names two weeks before Christmas. Each of them was to find time to deliver one small present each week. When Christmas came we exchanged bigger presents. It went over beautifully! They had so much fun!  They actually had so much fun in the first two weeks that other classes also started secret Santas! My classmates also gave me a Christmas banner that they had all signed! The exchange students made Christmas cookies for our classmates and teachers to try. I made classic Christmas sugar cookies with cookie cutters my mom sent me. I received quite a few packages during Christmas time. They were all very nice. If you have a friend or family member going on exchange, even to a county that celebrates Christmas, I would definitely recommend sending a package. It let me know that they were thinking of me and each package brought a little bit of home to me. I also made stockings for my host family. Sophia didn’t come home until the weekend after Christmas so I gave them their stockings then. I worked hard on the stockings and they paid off. My family liked them a lot. It made me very happy to have given them a taste of how Christmas feels in the US.