Merry Christmas to all my friends!

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with my Chinese family (I baked an epic olive bread that complimented our red wine and cheese very well!) at Xiaoyi's daughter's apartment. The apartment is on the square of the new One Avenue shopping centre.

The glitter of this square has a huge attraction for both the Shenzhen yuppies and the parents (and grandparents...) of young children, so I came prepared for a night photo walk after dinner. After all, as grandparents of a 2-year-old, we also fall into one of these categories!

And I was not disappointed.

The Mall management put on a really good show to celebrate Christmas Eve. The musical water fountain was accompanied by a live classical band; there were blond-hair blue-eyed Chritsmas fathers walking around to enhance the Chinese selfie opportunities and a low hanging laser show drawing floating blue landscapes in waves visible through the fog of the strategically placed fog machines.

And the parents and grandparents and their young kids all came to see this spectacle. (The yuppies kept on the outskirts until they realised the social chat possibilities of a selfie with a Santa!)

A gathering like this is only possible in China!

For others like me, this was a photography dream come true.

Initially, I walked around, so overwhelmed by this sensory overload that I did not know what to photograph and what to let pass by.

But then I noticed all the red. Red has a special attraction for Chinese, but today it has that extra special attraction because it also represents Santa.

And apparently also Santa's reindeer.

As I made my way through the crowd searching for red, I noticed this little girl in her own world. She found an unguarded fog machine and as she walked into the fog, it transported her to her own stage where she starts to dance with imaginary elves.

Unfortunately, she was pulled back to the reality of our world when one of the security guards noticed her dancing getting too intense and close to the fog machine.

Foot note: The water found also made for some good photos, I will most likely share that another time.

Merry Christmas

(All photos were taken with the Fujifilm X-T3 and 23mm F2 lens)