Christmas may not be one of China’s traditional festivals, but each December, twinkling lights, decorated trees, Santa figures, festive storefronts, and seasonal treats begin appearing across many of the country’s cities.
Christmas in China is a fascinating example of cultures meeting and creating something new. Western Christmas imagery has been adopted in shopping districts and popular culture, Christian communities observe the religious meaning of the holiday, and uniquely Chinese customs—such as giving beautifully wrapped apples on Christmas Eve—have emerged along the way.
The result is a Christmas season that can feel familiar and completely different at the same time.
🎄 Is Christmas Celebrated in China?
Yes, Christmas is celebrated in China, although the experience varies enormously depending on where you are and who is celebrating.
In mainland China, Christmas Day is not a national public holiday. China’s official 2026 holiday calendar includes celebrations such as Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day, but not Christmas.
For many people, particularly in larger cities, Christmas is primarily a social, decorative, and commercial occasion rather than a traditional family holiday.
Meanwhile, Chinese Christians may celebrate Christmas through church services, prayer, hymns, Nativity programs, and gatherings centered on the birth of Jesus.
And in Hong Kong and Macau, Christmas has an especially prominent place on the calendar. Christmas Day is a general holiday in Hong Kong, while Macau’s official holiday calendar includes both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
So there really isn’t one single version of “Christmas in China.”
It is a patchwork of religious observance, international influence, modern city life, local customs, and regional history.
🀄 What Is Christmas Called in Chinese?
Christmas is commonly called:
圣诞节 — Shèngdàn Jié
The name can be translated roughly as “Holy Birth Festival.”
Christmas Eve is:
平安夜 — Píng’ān Yè
This means “Peaceful Night” or “Night of Peace.”
And Santa Claus is commonly called:
圣诞老人 — Shèngdàn Lǎorén
Literally, this means something along the lines of “Christmas Old Man.”
Don’t be surprised, therefore, if you spot a familiar red-suited Santa smiling from shop windows in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, or another large Chinese city.
🍎 The Charming Christmas Eve Apple Tradition
One of the most interesting Christmas traditions to develop in China involves something surprisingly simple:
an apple.
On Christmas Eve, some people exchange beautifully packaged apples known as “peace apples.”
Why apples?
It comes from a bit of Mandarin wordplay.
Christmas Eve is called Píng’ān Yè (平安夜), meaning “Peaceful Night,” while the Mandarin word for apple is píngguǒ (苹果).
Because of the similar píng sound, apples became associated with peace and Christmas Eve. The custom has grown into a recognizable modern Christmas tradition, particularly among younger people and in cities.
During the Christmas season, apples may be sold individually in colorful boxes or elaborate wrapping decorated with snowflakes, Santa Claus, Christmas greetings, ribbons, and other festive designs.
Some are even printed or decorated with messages wishing the recipient peace and happiness.
It’s a wonderful example of how China hasn’t simply copied Western Christmas traditions—it has created new ones of its own.
✨ Christmas Lights and Decorations in Chinese Cities
Visit a major Chinese shopping district in December and the scenery may look surprisingly festive.
Shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, cafés, and international retailers may decorate with:
- Christmas trees
- Strings of sparkling lights
- Oversized ornaments
- Artificial snow
- Wreaths
- Reindeer
- Snowmen
- Santa Claus displays
- Gift boxes
- Christmas-themed photo areas
Some malls create enormous seasonal installations designed specifically for visitors to photograph.
The atmosphere can resemble the commercial Christmas displays found in London, New York, Tokyo, or Paris.
But step outside the shopping district and the atmosphere may change quickly.
Unlike places where Christmas traditions permeate nearly every part of December life, decorations in mainland China tend to be concentrated more heavily in urban commercial areas, hotels, restaurants, entertainment districts, and Christian communities.
That contrast is part of what makes Christmas in China so interesting.
🎅 Santa Claus in China
Santa Claus is certainly recognizable in China.
Known as Shèngdàn Lǎorén, Santa may appear in malls, restaurants, advertisements, hotel displays, and Christmas events.
His familiar Western appearance—red suit, white beard, boots, gift sack—is commonly used.
However, Santa does not traditionally occupy quite the same place in Chinese family life that he does in countries where children grow up hanging stockings and waiting for presents on Christmas morning.
For many Chinese families, the much bigger season for family reunions, gifts, special meals, decorations, and traditional customs arrives during Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival.
Christmas is therefore often enjoyed as an additional celebration rather than replacing or competing with traditional Chinese festivals.
🛍️ A Modern and Social Christmas
For some younger urban Chinese, Christmas has developed into an opportunity to meet friends, go shopping, exchange small presents, have dinner, or enjoy a night out.
Restaurants and cafés may introduce holiday menus. Shops promote Christmas sales and gift ideas. Couples may arrange special dates, while groups of friends gather for dinner, karaoke, shopping, or seasonal events.
This gives parts of Christmas in China a feeling that blends several Western holidays together.
There can be the decorations of Christmas, the social outings associated with New Year’s Eve, and even a little of the romantic atmosphere Westerners might associate with Valentine’s Day.
The emphasis tends to be on fun, friendship, decorations, and atmosphere.
⛪ The Religious Side of Christmas in China
It is important not to overlook the people for whom Christmas is first and foremost a Christian holy day.
Christian communities in China may commemorate the birth of Jesus with Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services, hymns, prayer, choirs, Nativity presentations, Bible readings, and church gatherings.
For these families and congregations, the glittering commercial side of Christmas is secondary to the religious significance of the holiday.
This creates another layer in China’s Christmas tapestry.
Within the same city, one person might be attending a Christmas church service while another is taking photographs beside a giant mall Christmas tree and another is giving a friend a brightly wrapped peace apple.
All three experiences can exist side by side.
If you’d like to explore the history behind many familiar Christmas traditions, visit our guide to Christmas Origins and History.
🍽️ What Do People Eat for Christmas in China?
There isn’t a single traditional Chinese Christmas dinner.
Unlike Western countries where roast turkey, ham, Christmas pudding, gingerbread, or particular family recipes may be deeply connected with December 25, China does not have centuries-old Christmas food traditions shared across the country.
Instead, Christmas meals can take many forms.
Friends may simply go to a favorite restaurant. Hotels may offer Western-style Christmas buffets. International restaurants sometimes serve turkey, steak, cakes, and other festive dishes.
Others may enjoy an ordinary Chinese meal while adding Christmas decorations, desserts, or drinks.
And, of course, there are those famous Christmas Eve apples.
Anyone planning their own festive feast can find plenty of inspiration in our collection of Christmas Recipes.
🎁 Do People Exchange Christmas Gifts in China?
They can, although gift-giving is not universally expected in mainland China in the way it is in many Western households.
Small presents are especially common among friends, couples, classmates, and coworkers who choose to celebrate the season.
These might include:
- Chocolates
- Flowers
- Small toys
- Cosmetics
- Accessories
- Christmas-themed gifts
- Cards
- Stuffed animals
- Peace apples
The exchange is usually more casual than the large family gift-opening tradition associated with Christmas morning in countries such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
For anyone embracing that gift-giving side of the season, our Christmas Gift Ideas are full of inspiration.
🇭🇰 Christmas in Hong Kong
Christmas in Hong Kong has a different feel from Christmas in much of mainland China.
Its history as an international trading center and former British colony helped establish many Western Christmas customs, and Christmas Day is officially recognized as a general holiday. The first weekday after Christmas Day is also included on Hong Kong’s general-holiday calendar.
The city is famous for its dramatic seasonal decorations.
Hotels, department stores, shopping centers, and streets can be covered in elaborate lights and enormous Christmas displays, while churches hold religious services.
Christmas meals, presents, parties, and festive events are widely available.
Combine all of that with Hong Kong’s spectacular skyline and December becomes one of the city’s most visually festive times of year.
🇲🇴 Christmas in Macau
Macau provides another distinctive interpretation of Christmas.
Its centuries of Portuguese influence left behind an architectural, culinary, and religious heritage that remains visible throughout the city.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day appear on Macau’s official holiday calendar.
The Macao Government Tourism Office also describes Christmas decorations, Nativity scenes, traditional Portuguese Christmas cakes, and festive displays around the city, including Senado Square.
As a result, Christmas in Macau can feel like an especially vivid meeting of Chinese and European traditions.
Historic churches and Portuguese-style streets provide a striking backdrop for decorations and lights, making the Christmas season there quite different from celebrations in many mainland cities.
🎶 Christmas Music in China
Western Christmas music is another part of the season that has crossed cultural borders.
Familiar melodies may be heard in shopping malls, hotels, cafés, restaurants, and stores during December.
Songs such as “Jingle Bells,” “Silent Night,” and other internationally recognized Christmas standards fit easily into the festive atmosphere created by shops and entertainment venues.
“Silent Night” has an especially interesting connection to the Christmas Eve apple tradition because Christmas Eve’s Chinese name, Píng’ān Yè, emphasizes the idea of a peaceful night.
Music is one of the easiest ways for holiday traditions to travel, and Christmas songs have helped make the sounds of the season recognizable far beyond countries where Christmas was historically celebrated.
🧧 Christmas vs. Chinese New Year
While Christmas has become visible in modern China, it should not be confused with the importance of Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year.
For many families in China, Spring Festival plays the cultural role that outsiders might associate with the year’s biggest family holiday.
It is a time for:
- Family reunions
- Traveling home
- Large meals
- Traditional decorations
- Gift giving
- Red envelopes
- Fireworks and festivities
- Honoring family traditions
- Welcoming good fortune for the year ahead
Christmas simply doesn’t carry that same nationwide historical and familial significance.
And that distinction makes China’s adoption of Christmas traditions more interesting, not less.
Rather than replacing existing customs, Christmas has largely found its own niche alongside them.
🌏 East Meets West at Christmastime
Perhaps the best way to understand Christmas in China is not to ask whether it looks exactly like Christmas in the West.
It doesn’t.
Instead, Christmas demonstrates what happens when a celebration travels across cultures.
A Western Christmas tree appears beside Chinese-language signs.
Santa Claus stands in a Shanghai shopping mall.
A Christmas Eve apple is wrapped in an ornate red box and given as a wish for peace.
Friends meet for dinner beneath thousands of Christmas lights.
Christians gather for worship.
Portuguese-influenced Macau displays Nativity scenes, while Hong Kong’s skyline glitters with elaborate seasonal decorations.
Each tradition has taken a slightly different path.
Together, they create a celebration unmistakably influenced by the West yet increasingly shaped by the places and people who celebrate it.
🎄 Fun Facts About Christmas in China
Christmas is called Shèngdàn Jié (圣诞节). The name refers to the celebration of a holy birth.
Christmas Eve is Píng’ān Yè (平安夜). The phrase means “Peaceful Night.”
Apples have become a Christmas Eve gift. Their association with the holiday comes from Mandarin wordplay involving píng’ān and píngguǒ.
Christmas isn’t a mainland Chinese national public holiday. It does not appear among the official public holidays announced for mainland China.
Hong Kong officially observes Christmas Day as a general holiday.
Macau recognizes both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on its public holiday calendar.
Santa has a Chinese name. Shèngdàn Lǎorén (圣诞老人) is the common Mandarin name for Father Christmas or Santa Claus.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is Christmas a public holiday in China?
Christmas Day is not a national public holiday in mainland China. Hong Kong and Macau have different holiday calendars, however, and both officially recognize Christmas holidays.
Do Chinese people celebrate Christmas?
Some do. Celebrations range from Christian religious observances to shopping, dining out, exchanging gifts, attending parties, viewing decorations, or giving Christmas Eve apples. Many others do not celebrate Christmas at all.
Why do people give apples on Christmas Eve in China?
The custom comes from Mandarin wordplay. Christmas Eve is Píng’ān Yè, while apple is píngguǒ. The shared píng sound helped create the tradition of giving “peace apples” as Christmas Eve gifts.
What is Santa called in China?
Santa Claus is commonly called Shèngdàn Lǎorén (圣诞老人).
What is Merry Christmas in Chinese?
A common way to say Merry Christmas is:
圣诞快乐! — Shèngdàn Kuàilè!
It means “Happy Christmas!” or “Merry Christmas!”
Do Chinese children get presents from Santa?
Some families participate in Western-style Christmas gift giving, particularly in internationally influenced communities, but receiving presents from Santa is not a universal Chinese childhood tradition.
Is Christmas bigger than Chinese New Year in China?
No. Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is vastly more significant as a traditional family and cultural celebration throughout China.
❤️ A Christmas Tradition Continually Evolving
Christmas in China reminds us that traditions don’t have to remain frozen in one time or place.
They travel.
They change.
And sometimes they become something entirely new.
In China, imported Christmas trees and Santa Claus mingle with Mandarin phrases, city shopping culture, Christian worship, regional history, and the wonderfully inventive tradition of giving apples as wishes for peace.
It may not look exactly like Christmas anywhere else.
And that’s precisely what makes it so fascinating.
Shèngdàn Kuàilè — Merry Christmas! 🎄
🔗 Related Articles
- Christmas Origins & History
- Christmas Decorating Ideas
- Christmas Recipes
- Christmas Gift Ideas
- Christmas Trees
- Christmas Movies
📚 Sources
- The State Council of the People’s Republic of China — China’s Public Holidays for 2026
- The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region — General Holidays
- The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region — General Holidays for 2026
- Macao SAR Government Portal — 2026 Public Holidays
- Macao Government Tourism Office — Christmas Holidays
- WhyChristmas.com — Christmas in China
- Eater — Why People in China Gift Apples on Christmas Eve
