The best example of a mainland adaptation of a foreign festival may be the tradition of eating apples on Christmas Eve.
While many Westerners tuck into turkey for their Christmas dinner, many Chinese send apples to friends as a holiday greeting, because the first character in pingguo (apple) has the same pronunciation as the first character in the Putonghua for Christmas Eve, pinganye.
And the celebration of Christmas has taken on even more Chinese characteristics on the mainland this year.
Wu Kangjun, a student at Beijing Foreign Studies University who has been preparing small gifts for her best friends for several Christmases, said she chose something different this year - Santa Claus dolls dressed up in Chinese tapestry satin and reminiscent of landlords in ancient China.
'I think it's fun to have Chinese and Western styles combined,' she said. 'I found more such Christmas gifts in stores this year.'
On Sina weibo, the mainland's most popular microblogging service, a humorous 35-second clip of Jingle Bells recorded in Peking Opera style has been widely forwarded this month as holiday entertainment.
