Find genius and creative products in China

It’s that most wonderful time of the year. With bells of holly, children singing and sleigh bells ringing, the now-wintry Shanghai air is filled with Christmas spirit. While this means ornate Christmas trees, gingerbread cookies, and copious quantities of Glühwein and eggnog, it is also a time to exchange gifts with friends and loved ones. However, researching products, fighting brutal traffic and crowds, and agonizing over what to buy can offer a heavy share of Sturm und Drang. We at Expatree would like to help; we would like offer you suggestions on a variety of products and venues. Be it boutiques offering custom-designed items, antique sellers, or charitable organizations peddling unique to support a worthy cause, Shanghai offers an array of options to bring smiles of joy to your loved ones’ faces this Christmas.

With all thee acquaintances you’ve accumulated to this point in Shanghai, offering nice house gifts is never a bad gesture to substantiate the guanxi you’ve developed. The Marche de Noel offers the perfect starting point, with treats, crafts, and Christmassy home décor. For a gift that it is a bit more Chinese, it is tough to beat a nice selection of tea; Wan Ling Tea House offers an array of meticulously-selected choices, along with very ornate ceramic tea sets. And, for something a bit more delectable, you can’t go wrong with a parcel of gourmet Chocolate, courtesy of Belgian chocolatier Pralinor. Sweetening things up for some cookies or cupcakes from Sweet Ever After is never a bad move either.

As the old cliché goes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Shanghai. Every hotel and shopping plaza worth its salt has erected a spectacular Christmas tree, with vigorous competition to be the most ornate. Employees at a variety of shops and restaurants now don obligatory Santa hats. Lavishly-priced holiday concerts and eating extravaganzas have become a matter of course, offering all the entertainment money can buy. Although the Middle Kingdom is void of both the religious and historical reasons for celebrating Christmas, this has not stopped Chinese from celebrating the Xmas holiday with gusto.  For the nostalgic expat, Shanghai’s multicultural assemblage of concerts, Christmas markets, holiday goodies, and spectacular well-lit scenery offers the perfect panacea for any lingering homesickness this December.

The first thing on anyone’s list of things to do will be finding the appropriate Yuletide decorations. HOLA (located in SuperBrand Mall), Metro , and IKEA all offer aesthetically-pleasing artificial trees at quite reasonable prices. IKEA also has fantastic gingerbread cookies and scented candles, allowing you to spice up the holidays a bit. Wal-Mart has a plethora of affordably-priced decorations, including a nice variety of lights, snowmen, and reindeer. For something a bit less plastically commercialistic, check out Au Nom de la Rose , where you’ll find lovely fake trees for 300 RMB, in addition to some other great greenery.

Yet, as we at Expatree have long advocated, your best bet for something truly authentic is to check out one of many local bazaars. The time-honored favorite is the Christkindlmarkt , hosted by Paulaner at 150 Fengyang Lu from December 9-11. Admission will be 25 RMB per person, and attractive Christmassy items with a personal touch will be ubiquitous. Kommune’s Pre-Christmas Yard Sale on Taikang Lu should also prove quite fruitful. A number of schools have also organized bazaars, many in order to raise money for worthy causes, including Dulwich College , Shanghai American School , andMariposa Elementary School . These bazaars proffer an exciting mix of home-made goodies,requisite Christmas items, and handicrafts, giving you a one-stop shop for all of your holiday needs. As we mentioned last week , these bazaars also offer a win-win opportunity, allowing you to fulfill all of your Christmas needs and support charitable causes in the process.

On the entertainment front, Shanghai boasts a w ealth of options. Tchaikovsky’s timeless classic, The Nutcracker , will be performed at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on December 22^nd , 23^rd , and 24^th . The renowned New York Harlem Singers will delight with theirChristmas Eve Special , to be held at the Shanghai Concert Hall. For a dose of comedy and down-home Christmas conviviality, you won’t want to miss, Josephina’s Holiday- A Motown Christmas Carol Musical , featuring such classics as “I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Clause.” And, if you’re up for something slightly more local, don’t miss Mando-pop sensation Jam Hsiao’s Shanghai Christmas Concert on Christmas Eve. If musical recitals are not your cup of tea, the opulently-lit Bund and East Nanjing Road are sure to dazzle this holiday season.

If you’re up for a bit more of a slightly less commercialized holiday season, Shanghai also has plenty to offer. St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church ,Hengshan Community Church , andSacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Churchwill all be holding traditional Christmas services. Caritas Shanghai has a number of volunteer opportunities to help Shanghai’s neediest. The Giving Tree , sponsored by the Shanghai Community Center, offers a phenomenal opportunity to sponsor a needy local child with clothing, toys, and school supplies. You may also consider buying a Christmas wreath , with the proceeds going to a charitable cause. There are many other worthy philanthropic organizations operating in the city that would welcome your time and financial support.

With such a wealth of opportunities, don’t let your 2011 Christmas in Shanghai go to waste. Be it good entertainment, nice gifts for loved ones, or charitable donation of time or money, Shanghai is replete with options. For a city on the cusp of so much ( it is estimated that Shanghai will have 50 million people by 2050 ), Christmas offers but one more opportunity to astound. With a dynamic economy, a commercially-minded populace, and a vibrant expat scene, the Oriental Pearl City offers a cosmopolitan holiday experience unrivaled in most parts of the world. You’ll want to m ake the most of a special time in a special city.

With Turkey Day now officially behind us, Christmas season beckons. The Shanghai air is now cool and crisp and Christmas carols fill the air, particularly at Wal-Mart’s ten local outlets. Many commercially-minded establishments have long been adorned with lights and trees, offering us a not-so-subtle reminder that we still have shopping to do. However, the crass materialism and artificiality of the holiday can be overwhelming, leaving one craving something a bit different. Thankfully, some clairvoyant market-makers have come to the rescue, organizing fantastic bazaars to showcase the beautiful creations from local craftspeople, many going to help great philanthropic causes.

At Expatree , we wholeheartedly believe in and live by the motto “buy and sell outside the box.” At no time of year is this concept more applicable than during the Christmas holiday season. Instrumental to buying and selling outside the box is using commerce to empower individuals. Whether it is giving innovative small business owners a platform from which to market their wares to a wider audience or promoting local charitable organizations to help the neediest within our community, we strive to imbue all of our actions at Ex

This holiday season’s bazaars of fer the perfect mechanism for aggregating these ideals, allowingcraftspeople the platform to ply their trade, consumers to find perfect gifts, and providing much-needed funding for local charities. The philanthropic projects that are being sponsored this year include a venture to build schools for Chinese children ( Couleurs de Chine ), building basic needs infrastructure in remote villages (Fuji Ladies), and providing much-needed medical care for children with chronic heart disease ( Heart to Heart Shanghai ).

As cards and present are de rigueur this holiday season, now is a perfect time to take advantage of win-win-win opportunities providing by these local charities. Not only are the handicrafts on offer unique (allowing you to eschew the artificial, plasticky fare of traditional outlets), but they go to support the neediest amongst us. Shanghai Sunrise, a local education initiative, is offering gorgeous Christmas cards that can be sent to friends and loved ones. The Fuji Ladies, a Japanese charity, is selling very ornate Christmas decorations to raise money for the victims of the recent tsunami. A Pleines Mains , a fundraiser for a variety of noble projects, recently organized an indoor charity bazaar . With so many great choices and a fantastic opportunity to give back to the community, the time is ripe for getting involved.

Shanghai will feature a plethora of bazaars this holiday season, each one an eclectic mix of both charitable and for-profit booths. Peas and Pods , a community organization for families, held a great charitable kid’s bazaar November 12 ^th . A November 19 ^th extravaganza held at Concordia School featured a number of great philanthropic organizations, includingThe Baobei Foundation , an organization selling knitwear to raise money to provide lifesaving surgery for Chinese children. Upcoming bazaars will be no less fruitful in their ability to help worthy causes, not to mention finding the perfect gifts . For a full list, check out Expatree’s market-bazaar listings . So don’t forget the neediest and make the most of this beautiful holiday season in the Oriental Pearl City.

With the National Holiday quickly approaching, a pandemonium has swept through Shanghai. Queues stream from ticket offices, meandering around corners. As mentioned last week, vendors are marketing aggressively, with fliers ubiquitous throughout the city and heavy discounts on a plethora of different products. Packaged tours have become quite the rage too, with special deals on all-inclusive five-day trips to a variety of locales. However, for many, the stress of planning, queuing, and walking into an abattoir such as an airport or train station is utterly unappealing and runs counter to the spirit of vacationing. Thus, staying in Shanghai, sans work or study, should offer the perfect form of respite. However, with many venues of entertainment closed, what should one do? Here, we have you covered.

China National day fireworks

Although many locals will venture afield during the holiday, Shanghai will certainly not be empty.

       As anyone who has recently ridden public transport or watched local television can surely attest to, advertising in China can often be far from subtle. With few established local brands and consumers unsure of what they truly want, advertisements often consists of ad nauseum in-your-face touting of a given product’s many fantastic features. However, with so many distributors vying to sell almost identical products and low brand loyalty, this strategy can be of limited efficacy. Thus, for countless vendors of consumer goods, this leaves but one lower common denominator on which to compete: price.

       And compete they do, offering all types of unfathomable discounts surely rendering them unable to cover marginal costs. Advertisements bear such titles as “Charge 100, refund 100.” Lucky drawings and free gifts have become de rigueur in the retail sector. Consumer electronics outlets Suning and Gome have been at the forefront, offering some 3.8 billion RMB in discounts to consumers. 360buy.com has been particularly aggressive, offering all types of red-hot, limited time offers. Heavy discounting of this variety has precipitated a race to the bottom among retailers of all stripes.

       The recently-concluded Shanghai Shopping Festival is a case in point.