Oh Jesus, it's Christmas

Fair enough, there's xmas trees and Santa pictures all over. But the only version of christmas that's made it to the people's republic, is the one that came on barges returning from Walmart.

So all my students know is there's "the Christmas man" who gives presents, and that they get presents from their capitalist-brainwashed parents.

Seriously i was this close to teaching the kids the nativity story so at least they'd recognize that it's an unhip religious holiday, and not just the xmas xtravaganza sale of products (all made here anyways).

I do wanna teach a bit of xmas material, so i dug up an easy version of The Elves and the Shoemaker. But do you know this story? It's kinda dirty. But at least i have the chance to ask questions like these:

7. After the shoemaker had become rich from the elves' hard work do you think that the shoemaker gives a big enough present to the elves, with a few clothes?

8. Why do you think the elves helped the shoemaker? Why did they work for him for free, if he was rich?

Yeah, i know it's kinda smart assy, but how can i resist?

As for xmas itself, H and i are hittin' Shanghai. We got a 4 day wkend, so after school Friday, we're hoppin' on a sleeper train in search of the Christmas Spirit. And everyone says that Shanghai is great for shopping!