Businessmen look at the decorations for Christmas and the New Year at the International Trade City in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 18, 2011. As Christmas and the New Year draw near, businessmen in Yiwu, a city famous for selling small commodities, have started to prepare products for the possible large amount of purchase by buyers from at home and abroad. By far, traders from more than 100 countries and regions imported Christmas decorations from Yiwu, making the city an important market of commodity wholesales. [Photo: Xinhua/Tan Jin]

Zhang Lanfang is pleased that her Christmas products have been selling better than they did last year.

Her factory in Yiwu, a southern city famous for its small commodity trade, witnessed a year-on-year sales increase of 10 percent in both domestic and overseas markets.

"We have sold more than two million Santa hats just in China this year," Zhang said.

Her factory is among Yiwu's 600-plus individuals and enterprises that have benefited from the manufacturing of Christmas products.

From January to November this year, Christmas products worth about 120 million U.S. dollars, including Christmas trees, costumes, toys and ornament lights, were exported from Yiwu, up 50.7 percent year-on-year, according to figures from Yiwu's customs office.

Lights from Yiwu have not only brightened up Christmas trees in American and European homes, but they've also ignited the passion of Chinese shoppers.

While Christians celebrate Christmas with prayers and hymns, many Chinese embrace the day with cash and cards. Christmas has become a kind of shopping holiday in China, with throngs of people queuing for fitting rooms and cashier desks.

Many malls offer buyers discounts, coupons and drawings for gifts or overseas trips, and some even plan to stay open all night long.

"Sales at our store have peaked on Christmas Day in recent years," said Kang Wei, a sales manager at a department store in Taiyuan, capital of the northern province of Shanxi.

"For Chinese people, Western festivals such as Valentine's Day and Christmas Day are more for shopping and parties," Kang said.

Foreign cultures have wielded increasing influence over Chinese people, especially the country's young population who have grown accustomed to celebrating holidays like Christmas, said Xia Xueluan, a professor of sociology with Peking University.

Meanwhile, various promotional strategies have further encouraged increased spending during the imported festival, Xia added.

"Shopping malls will provide greater discounts and more promotional activities around Christmas, which is attractive to me," said Yang Mei, a web editor in Beijing who plans to do some shopping over the Christmas weekend.

Shopping malls are not the only ones preparing for the coming shopping craze, as small shops also expect to have a finger in the Christmas pie.

Zhang Huiping, the owner of a comb store, is considering pushing closing time from the usual 9 p.m. to midnight.

"Many young people will buy combs as gifts for their lovers or friends, which is expected to drive up the sales during Christmas to double or even quadruple other days' sales figures," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, online shops, including those on Taobao.com, China's eBay, have joined hands in sales promotions and offered discounts as high as 90 percent off on clothes, cosmetics, furniture and electronics.

Sales promotions around Christmas have also attracted those who have started shopping for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, a festival that falls on different days every year.

"This year's Christmas comes less than one month away from the Spring Festival which falls in mid-January 2012, thus making it a good time to purchase necessities, clothes and gifts for their own use or visiting relatives," Kang said.

"Christmas was never appealing to me, but this year I will take advantage of the discounts to buy new clothes as New Year gifts for my children," said Yang Shuying from Taiyuan.