Many, like Jin, also like to crowd into a church service on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day "to get a taste of Western culture and enjoy the more authentic Christmas since it started as a religious holiday after all."

As usual, Jin has a busy Christmas Eve schedule - Christmas dinner with friends at a five-star hotel, a church service after dinner, a party at a friend's apartment and clubbing afterward.

Jin helped her friend decorate the apartment. They spent half a day at City God's Temple and spent about 500 yuan (US$73) on a small Christmas tree, ornaments, a long string of little red lights, a few Santa hats and reindeer antlers, two packs of balloons and some Christmas cookies.

For the party they ordered a roast duck as the "Chinese turkey" and asked all guests to bring a little Christmas gift to place under the tree. Last year, Jin and her friends ordered a huge half of a roast lamb, but couldn't finish it. Once they tried take-out pizza, but had to wait in line for two hours.

Young Christians

For young Chinese Christians like Sophie Shen, 26, Christmas is even more significant because it's a holiday when she doesn't need to worry about compromises between Christian culture and traditional Chinese customs.

According to the State Administration for Religious Affairs, there are about 14 million Christians in China - about 4 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants, all attending officially sanctioned churches.

While many Shanghai churches are filled with people over 50 years old, young Christians like Shen don't have time to go to church very often. She and her boyfriend, both Protestants, try to attend church with his parents when they visit them, but they seldom visit.

To their traditional or non-religious friends, however, Shen and her boyfriend still seem quite devout, even a bit odd, as they pray before each meal, even when they grab late-night supper from a street vendor.

Shen, a graphic designer, became a Christian five years ago because her boyfriend is from a Christian family, starting from his grandparents.

Before Shen met her boyfriend, her only knowledge of Christianity came from Western movies, novels and TV dramas.