Advent celebration with the girls from 5th floor and Christmas service

German Christmas Eve service

Getting the Christmas tree ready

Christmas Presents

Despite the many Christmas decorations that can be seen here in Taiwan, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are normal working days. In most churches, therefore, no Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services are celebrated. Normally there is a celebration on the weekend before or after Christmas. Our church also celebrated on the Saturday before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, however, we have not been lonely: Each year our fellow German missionaries organize a German Christmas service here in Taipei. This year we also joined the team. The service has been attended by about 50 Germans who live and work or study in Taipei. It was really nice to have a bit of German Christmas here, singing Silent Night with candles in a big circle, just as we do normally in Germany. After the service a Taiwanese friend (who studied in Germany and therefore speaks German) came to our home and we had dinner together.

On Christmas Day in the morning we celebrated as a family. We sang Christmas carols, read the Christmas story and unwrapped gifts. Thanks for all the packages we got from Germany. Amy was really happy. In the afternoon another German friend, whom we met at language school, and his Taiwanese wife and their young son visited us. And as Christmas is not a holiday in Taiwan we had to go back to language school already on December 26. We really miss the lengthy German Christmas break..