I'm OKish, you know...mutter mutter, grumble, grumble.

Well, very big and very commercial. Hong Kong has more public hols than anyone; we get all the Western ones plus the Chinese ones, which is good news - luckily the HK Chinese will use any excuse .

You can count the time between Christmas and Chinese New Year (usually around late Jan/early Feb, another long holiday for that - it's the Chinese equivalent of Christmas..!) as one long public holiday in terms of decorations - they go bananas and light up every conceivable place, spend a fortune on lights and stuff. It only takes a minor alteration to switch from Christmas (Santa, reindeers, snowmen, the whole 9 yards, to whatever the new year is - dog, rabbit, ox etc...) so we have the decorations up for 2 - 3 months.

Nearer the time I'll try to post a pic of the lights.

About 10% of Chinese Hongkongers are practicing Christians (the missionaries made great inroads in China), so many do actually celebrate Christmas, the rest are Tao-Confucion (sort of Buddhist, ancestor worship, kitchen gods, that kind of thing, very superstitious) but no formal religion. There are many other nationalities here, though, apart from Westerners, lots of Indians and S. E. Asians, so Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist and many Philippinos (mostly Christians).

Regardless of race, people will often decorate their balcony or roof with fairy lights and/or chinese lanterns. So it's pretty.

Usually the locals have a big barbeque outside (any excuse for a barbeque, here) - the weather is often good, although it can be cool - and invite all their friends and family. So it's noisy.

The shops start playing carols in October (!) Westerners usually have a traditional Christmas, the shops sell everything, including Christmas Crackers - it's based on a British Christmas, since they were the previous management. The whole thing, as you'd expect from HK, is one giant capitalist enterprise...and we lap it up .

You might spend the day on a boat or the beach, but always with friends. Many people's families come from overseas for it, since the weather's fine usually and because many Westerners here drink like fishes, major hangovers Boxing Day... Me, I don't care where I am as long I'm with my doglet... turkey sandwich on my local beach with the dog-lovers will do us perfectly. (With a little bit of stuffing).

So not too different, once you've got used to a Chinese Santa Claus, plastic snow in the sub-tropics and the festive season lasting from Oct - Feb
all the best!