Santa’s Real Workshop Is In China
Our yuletide myth-making might like to imagine that Christmas is made by rosy-cheeked elves hammering away in a snow-bound log cabin somewhere in the Arctic Circle. But it’s not. The likelihood is that most of those baubles, tinsel and flashing LED lights you’ve draped liberally around your house came from Yiwu, 400 miles south of Shanghai – where there’s not a (real) pine tree nor (natural) snowflake in sight. Christened “China’s Christmas village,” Yiwu is home to 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world’s Christmas decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats. The “elves†that staff these factories are mainly migrant laborers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of $300 to $450 a month – and it turns out they’re not entirely sure what Christmas is.
