Click for related special report on Christmas 2004 in Guangdong/China>>>

Although Christmas is not a traditional festival for Jewish people, Shenzhen-based Daniel Fogel, a Belgian Jew, said he thought Christmas should be a festival for everybody.

He arrived in China five years ago and before coming to Shenzhen this year, he spent most of his time in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. "I celebrated Christmas peacefully when I lived in Quanzhou," he said.

Fogel has a female friend he called Sally who owns a coffee shop in Shekou. "She's asked me to play Santa Claus in her coffee shop and I agreed. So I will be Santa Claus on Christmas Eve," he said, adding that he would not be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Fogel has two Egyptians as his best friends in Shenzhen. He said he would also celebrate Christmas getting together with them. "We'll probably go to a good French restaurant in Shekou. We have become really good friends since we met on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, two years ago," he said.

"I am a Jew and they are Muslim. I want Christmas to show that Jewish people and Muslims can be good friends. I want Christmas to bring friendship to us all. Let Christmas make the world rounder and less square," he said.

Fogel regarded his Shenzhen episode as "a new crossroad of my life." "I will spend some time thinking about life in the holidays, about the new-born babies in the world. You know, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. I will also think how Christmas can make some new hopes come true and bring some more sun for all of us," he said.

Fogel believed that some of the most beautiful moments in life are sometimes unplanned. "So, maybe this Christmas I will be overwhelmed with one or more wonderful surprises," he said.

Editor: Catherine