What parts of our traditions and culture makes you feel like you belong in Britain

A great way of putting it.

There used to be a quote (I think from a poem) which means much the same: “What does he know of England who only England knows?”

I haven’t felt that for a long time.

Well, how much time do you spend on Japanese or Indian forums, where those things would be discussed?! For differing reasons I can imagine that there is a lively debate about national identity in both of those countries right now.

And what do you mean by "British" ancestry? Beaker people, Pictish, Dumnonii, Roman, Viking, Anglo Saxon?? And where's the cut off point? Do you include Huguenots, who arrived in the 1600s (Nigel Farage's ancestors, I believe 😬).Ashkenazi Jews, who I think started to arrive in the 1700s (happy to be corrected on that one). Black Africans, of whom there has been a trickle since at least the 1700s? Irish, Chinese and "Lascars" (Bengali seamen) in the 1800s?

Interestingly the Norfolk Turkey is now considered a local variety. Its wild ancestors have been exterminated and Turkey breeding in America has caused them to morph so far away from their origins that Americans consider the Norfolk Turkey a heritage breed. They’ve started taking them back to United States.

The Portuguese introduced tomatoes and potatoes to Italy, India and China.

Yes they usually looked like a boiled corpse! And were saying it about really nice looking girls

The feeling that there are grown-up, fundamentally good and honest people in charge. Probably a childish illusion.

Oh GOD yes... bloody awful!
Usually said by a prime specimen of a fugly and without the least bit of irony or self-awareness.

My 15 year old has so far proved to be quite resistant to finding a proper part time job, but quite adept at flogging stuff on Vinted, so I will be encouraging him to go to the jumble sale to find stuff he can flip 😆

It's what I did at his age- I had a little second hand stall in a flea market, stocked with jumble sale finds. God I miss the 1970s Indian cotton printed peasant dresses and velvet blazers I used to find armfuls of!

When I was a teenager this morphed into BOBFOC - ‘body of Baywatch, face of Crimewatch’ (or the reverse)

nice legs shame about the face Ahhhh the casual misogyny of those dear old times...

I think you can’t see the water you swim in. I lived and worked abroad in my younger adult life. Swimming in other people’s water for a while helps you learn to see your own.

Graffiti in highschool textbooks:
"Turn to page 34"
Then on page 34:
"ya mum"

Morris dancing for sure. Look up Stealing Sheep and Apparition on YouTube. Love it.
Sorry can't do link on my phone.

It’s only ever asked by self loathing Brits desperate to prove they’re SO not ‘Little Englander’. People from other countries can easily identify British culture.

Democracy, rule of law, abortion rights, a welfare state… I think you would very quickly feel
British if you were plonked down into some other countries

Our public footpaths, right to roam. Kinder scout trespass was a very English thing. My Spanish colleagues were impressed by that.
A bunch of people getting quietly fed up till they decided to get together and do something, and it was more a quiet expression of disgruntlement than a riot.
Also I think of the Rochdale pioneers, the Jarrow marchers, The Tolpuddle martyrs, the Luddites and Swing rioters. Ordinary people fighting for change. I wish the labour party would remember it's roots.

To answer OP's question, defining identity and a sense of belonging is such a personal thing it's very hard to pinpoint an objective set of tastes, behaviours and emotions that 'make' you something. I suppose it's a mix of common experiences and behavioural expectations... My contribution would be that nothing screams British summer like a windy beach where everyone pretends it's super hot just because it's July even though the temperature is in the low teens, or the sound of the ice cream van on a late afternoon. Or the smell of a wood burner in a country pub. My daughter asked me how you know where 'home' is - I told her it's usually the place that you feel is the least special to you right now but that you would miss the most when you leave.

This has become fashionable, but I can’t remember the last time someone Indian or Japanese was asked to define what Indian-ness or Japanese-ness. It’s so reductive.

My answer is simply that all of my ancestors forever and a day come from these islands. All of their expressions and decisions - for good and for bad, big and small - have contributed to what makes us who we are and how we respond to the world around us. This includes our dispositions, unspoken norms, our built environment, art, literature, music and food, our local and national traditions. Everyone who has British ancestry is my distant relative. We are all kin because we share that same history. It is our family history and the well from which we have sprung.

No, the Christmas tree originated with Queen Victoria

Probably yes - I suspect there was a common root (pun intended) for that tradition across Europe. But the lights in the tree, definitely a German thing.

ive recently seen a jumble sale advertised

its probably what people can't sell on vinted!

the tea alarm

that was a big joke about the British stopping for tea each time the alarm went off

I like the humour we have and make about ourselves

School uniforms, seaside holidays, traditions around Christmas, pattern of school holidays, the food we eat, (the everyday stuff and celebrations), red post boxes, letter boxes in the door, jokes about British rail, the weather, bonfire night, gardens, housing types, the shops and supermarkets, police, fire service and ambulance services, NHS, politics and political parties, the way our shop doors open, our use of language that differs from other English speaking countries, conkers, autumn colours, the flowers and vegetables we grow,

(I have friends/relatives that are immigrants and sometimes it's the little differences between countries that build up the feel of the country and culture, eh not all countries have school uniform, or half terms or access to the coast, or public transport, )

I went to the US and the extensively decorated for Halloween mom and pop general store was very different to our general sell everything corner shops.

We banter brutally with loved ones and are icily polite to enemies.

Don’t forget the ‘hard stare’!