This is my second time in Beijing during the lead-up to Christmas, but I am yet to experience Christmas Day here. Last December I returned to Australia at the end of my contract with China Radio International, and this time I am taking four days' leave from CCTV to meet my daughter in Tokyo as she heads home from holidays in the UK.

With three grandchildren in Australia, I have been fairly well organized this year. Two months ago I bought a remote-controlled car in Xidan for my eldest grandson, and sent it to Australia by surface mail, with instructions "not to be opened until Christmas Day."

In the following weeks I found some other gifts of a more traditional Chinese nature, including a battery-operated erhu (two-stringed Chinese fiddle) player, all of which have arrived in time.

But I have failed to meet the deadline for sending Christmas cards. Perhaps it is the lack of pressure in China which has left me thinking "I will do it tomorrow" but now time has run out and I am too late.

Wait a minute. I have an idea. While I may have missed Santa's deadline, I can send off cards for the Lunar New Year. My friends overseas who thought I had forgotten them, should be surprised and impressed. Maybe this is not such a silly season after all. Merry Christmas, dear reader.

Editor:Xiong Qu