The cozy wooden cabin creaked softly under the weight of the snow falling outside. The walls, infused with the scent of wood and pine, seemed to embrace the warm air emanating from the fireplace. The crackling of the fire mixed with the whisper of the wind. The flames danced with a reddish glow, casting shadows that stretched over the logs decorating the rustic living room where a man from the orient, dressed in a pristine black suit and blue tie, warmly greeted the stout Caucasian elderly man with a long white beard and red coat who inhabited that dwelling.
Xi Jinping and Santa Claus became friends that March of 2010 in a remote Arctic village where it is always Christmas. The then Chinese vice president, visiting Finland to explore the country's timber industry, was taken on a trip to Rovaniemi, in Lapland, to meet an endearing character whom the Beijing communists, in darker times past, repudiated for what they saw as a perverse tool of Western imperialism propaganda.
Two and a half years before becoming the supreme leader of China; before being the staunchest defender of his country's traditional culture from the dominant heights; before gaining a few extra pounds and showing some gray hairs breaking the dyed jet-black hair that the Beijing elites used to sport; before becoming the Christmas grinch for those freethinkers who hoped he would make China a more democratic country... Xi Jinping showed his most human side by posing with the excitement of a child next to Santa Claus.
The photograph, in which Santa extends his right arm over the shoulders of a smiling Xi, is framed on a table in that cabin in Rovaniemi. Before being known for having the authentic amusement park of Santa Claus and for its reindeer pulling sleds and humans dressed as elves everywhere, this city was invaded by Russia in 1939 and destroyed by Nazi Germany in 1944.
It was not until the 1980s when the Christmas spirit invaded Rovaniemi and the wooden village dedicated to the magical old man whom millions of children around the world eagerly await this Christmas Eve was built. Santa Claus lives in this corner of the North Pole, but his workshop is actually more than 7,000 kilometers to the east, in the land of his friend Xi Jinping.
In China, there is a city called Yiwu known for being the place where Christmas is made. Over 60% of all Christmas paraphernalia comes from the world's largest wholesale commodity market, a 260,000 square meter labyrinth with 75,000 stores where the decorations and lights that envelop cities like Madrid or New York are sold.
Yiwu owes its business to the explosion of Made in China in the 1980s when China began its great opening to the outside world. The city, which was then a regional barter center, was gradually absorbed by the mother of all bazaars, with many factories specializing mainly in Christmas products. The Christmas tree ornaments from Santa's cabin that Xi visited also came from Yiwu.