To wonder if other countries make such a palava and have so much angst over Xmas

[EnlightenmentwasaPassingPhase]

Bloody love Xmas, me. DH, DD, Ddog and I get to spend it at home relaxing, eating, drinking and opening presents because no fucker invites us over

But the angst on here - sometimes genuine, sometimes contrived!

So, I wondered if other countries do Xmas in a more laid back way. I'd love to live somewhere where it wasn't mentioned until mid December, the shops weren't full of seasonal tat from September and there wasn't a lot of family politics about who spends the "special" day where and with whom.

@StripySocksandDocs The Late Late Toy Show is shocking isn’t it? 😂

I’m in northern England, but all my family in Ireland watch it (to laugh).
There’s a comedian on twitter - Ryan Cullen, who does an annual tweet along to it, he can be a bit near the knuckle at times, but his LLTS coverage is very funny.

been in Lanzarote in December the shops are not stuffed full of things and it felt less Like Xmas thankfully. Still trees up though.

When we went to NYC the weekend before Christmas, it was quite a disappointment. There were no Christmas decorations

Really?

5th Avenue Christmas Windows

Of course we don't have Boxing Day, it's a British holiday. But to suggest that NYC doesn't do it up for Christmas is silly.

I feel like you about Christmas, OP. Love it, but don't get why it has to be so long and anxiety-inducing.

A surprisingly wise 14 yo Spanish girl I tutored summed it up well though. "In Spain we have loads of festivals to celebrate - national ones, local ones, with lots of traditions. So we don't need to go crazy about Christmas for 3 months."

Germany does all the build up and then Christmas itself always falls a bit flat for me.

It's one evening - xmas eve, a nice meal, few drinks and a few presents and then that's it, party over.

I don't know whether families have their own Christmas Day traditions but I've always found it totally boring.

They do the build up well though although sadly no Father Christmas.

To be honest I hate it. Having to spend time with family who I don't really like.

I’m also not giving Germany any brownie points for a quiet Christmas as they lose them ALL for the madness that is Karneval.

They just pour their obsessive tendencies into a different celebration.

Yes to PP how much we encouraged to spend in this country. All the people that do Christmas Eve boxes elf on the shelf etc, it’s all been made up to get us to spend more and more.

I'm in the Catalan part of Spain. Many people here don't celebrate FC at all. They have the shitting log on Christmas eve that poos out gifts, then the Kings come on the night of 5th-6th January with the rest if the gifts. School starts usually around 8/9 January.

There is stuff out in the shops at the moment, but not hugely so. No Christmas ads yet on tv.

Families meet in huge numbers several times over the festive season with minimum fuss. NYE is also big here.

I don't have Christmas angst. We are here fir Christmas. We can't come over the UK as we have a dog. No space for visitors either. The mother hates Christmas, so will be hunkering down until it is over. The in-laws have been arseholes this year and DH refuses to entertain them (they always come to ours for lunch). DH just announced it one day, no huffing and puffing and nagging from me!

However, i have a friend who is Spanish-German married to a Catalan. Her mother lives round the corner and is a TOTAL MATRYR so her Christmas is always angst x 100. I don't envy her.

Germany does all the build up and then Christmas itself always falls a bit flat for me.
It's one evening - xmas eve, a nice meal, few drinks and a few presents and then that's it, party over.

OK, shift xmas eve to xmas day, how is it that different here? In the evening there will be summer holiday adverts on the telly and Easter eggs (creme eggs) will be on sale on the 26th.

I was in Japan a few years ago in November and there was Christmas stuff everywhere despite only about 10% of the population being Christian.

German Christmas market in Tokyo seemed odd!

Read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen: it is all about a family coming undone in the shadow of an upcoming Christmas!

They do the same in Australia except with pavlova instead of Christmas pudding.

the shitting log on Christmas eve that poos out gifts

How did I never know about this?? Also, why hasn't it ever been a thing in the US? As scatological as we tend to be over here I'm surprised nobody's grabbed it and put Present-Shitting Logs on shelves in Walmart starting 1 November every year.

I'm surprised nobody's grabbed it and put Present-Shitting Logs on shelves in Walmart

Your Walmart doesn't have them? Are you in Oklahoma or something?

We have present shitting logs. They're also called "parents" by teenagers.

Im in rural Denmark. It is important here but it seems calmer than in the UK. Lots and lots of candles, even on the christmas trees, which you get to go out into the wood and fell yourself. In the last few years people have begun to put up more lights outside. Also people go forraging in the woods and make their own advent decorations. I think theres more focus on food - all sorts of cookies and biscuits. My favourite thing is the tv advent calendar. Every year there is an advent series and one episode is broadcast every day of advent. It's all very hyggelig in the real sense of the word, not the i need to sell a book sense.

I think generally speaking, Christmas is not as big a deal in the US as in the UK. For one thing, we have Thanksgiving to keep it at bay until early December. I don't know anyone who is starting to talk about and plan for Christmas yet.

Tio - caga Tio - the poohing log! Catalan tradition.

Apart from Tio 😆, Christmas in Barcelona was very low key as others have said about Spain. Beautiful Christmas market and Christmas lights but I was very taken with adults travelling on Christmas Eve, late afternoon/ early evening with a large ham under their arm and a couple of gift wrapped (by the shop) presents. Just couldn't imagine us here going out Christmas Eve afternoon to buy the turkey and gifts. Loved it!

I'm in France and Christmas chocolates have been on display in the supermarket for at least two weeks.
With my French in laws, we celebrate on 25th and Christmas dinner takes most of the day to prepare and eat. I'd say we start preparing the food at approximately 10am after breakfast and showers and start eating and drinking around noon. We'll finish eating around 4.30. But there's lots of talking and preparation between courses.
Some presents are opened during the pre-starter drinks and the rest after the meal.
Traditionally many French families have their feast and gifts on 24th in the evening.
People seem to give less presents. You wouldn't give a teacher or neighbour a Christmas present.
In many offices people work until about 4pm on Christmas Eve and are back in on 26th (unless it's a weekend) so there isn'the a whole season of parties. Christmas is about family rather than friends. We'll celebrate New Year and 6th January with our friends.

I hate hate hate British Christmas. Don't like spending time with my family, hate consumerism, hate the pressure to do far too much. A Danish/ German Christmas sounds far pleasanter and more sane.

Over the years, I have hidden from my family had Christmases in :

Italy & Greece- relaxed and low key. Midnight Mass at St. Mark's in Venice was pretty good, I have to say.

Switzerland- again low key, all the public transport runs, and lots of people seem to take the train up into the mountains to go skiing on Christmas Day. Excellent idea.

India- unsurprisingly, Mumbai does not shut down for Christmas! Some Christian communities make enormous (think 8ft wide) paper stars and hang them in the middle of the street, and lots of people wished me (obviously white and western) a Happy Christmas, but that was all I could see going on, as a tourist there.

Morocco- ideal place for a Christmas- phobe. None of the people I spoke to had any idea what Christmas was .

Oh and the Spanish Christmas traditional lunch of canelone and prawns

The Kjngs parade on the ecening of 5th Januart isva sight to see - euther Madrid or Barcelona. We have seen Barcelona's twice, amazing.

The one where we live is smaller, floats pulled by tractors. The kids on the floats fling boiled sweets to the crowd- trying to catch them without being smacked on tne head is great fun!

redexpat I used to live in Denmark (only had one Christmas there) and loved the way they do the festive season.

My favourite was the rice pudding with the almond hidden in it - yum

I've also done Christmas in Singapore (lots of expats so same as uk really with a lot of drinking and partying) and Uganda (low key)

I miss the uk Christmas - i like the build up and all the traditions. Even german Christmas markets pale after a couple of years as it's always the same stalls in the same places. These days I might go in once for a couple of late afternoon Glühweins but aside from that I have no interest in pushing my way through thousands of tourists.

I'm a german Christmas grinch!

We used to live in Singapore and although Chinese New Year is the big celebration there, the main Orchard Road shopping area and suburban malls really go to town on the decorations (my friend has just posted on FB a space-ship with spaceman and a flamingo made with orange baubles lol!). It’s only 85 miles north of the equator and extremely hot and humid year round so will never get snow, but the local kids used to love waiting outside Tanglin Mall where a blower would shoot out ‘snow’ made of foam :) Tbh it is all to encourage a huge shopping orgy; lots of advertising in the media too for Christmas gifts.

We would wack up the air-con to as cold as it would get and have the traditional turkey dinner if we were at home (many expats go home for Xmas or on holiday, but we would typically go away on Boxing Day). However there are loads of options eg Christmas lunch/dinner for members at the British Club, American Club, Hollandse (Dutch) Club etc and all the big hotels offer free-flow champagne buffets with visits from Father Christmas. (I got very drunk and then very sick after going to the Hilton hotel one year :( )

One year our son flew in from New York with his girlfriend and arrived on Christmas Day as their connecting flight was delayed. I would never normally want to go shopping on Christmas Day but our son’s gf is Jewish and isn’t bothered about Christmas, so whilst the turkey was in the oven we went to Orchard Road to look at the Christmas decorations. It was absolutely heaving with people...all the shops were open as normal with the exception of Tangs department store which is Christian-owned. Thousands of excited Filipina maids on their day off, being very loud and exchanging presents. A huge queue outside the Louis Vuitton store for young local women buying the latest handbags...and I saw a young woman carrying a pet rabbit in a basket (poor rabbit in that heat).

We lived in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and it was pretty low-key and the shops closing at lunch-time on Christmas Eve. I remember the King’s Day too on 6th Jan.

I think it’s mostly only the Brits/Irish and people with a British/Irish heritage in Europe and the US who have their special meal on Christmas Day rather than the night before.

We are living in the US right now and the neighbour across from our house already has a Christmas tree lit up outside their entrance door. (It went up the day after Halloween!). Not many houses get decorated though as it’s mainly Jewish and Chinese families in our neighbourhood. I have definitely seen Christmas trees thrown out on 26th Dec! We usually drive off to a ski resort somewhere like Vermont or Lake Placid so it feels ‘Christmassy’ (although my favourite was in Whistler, Canada). All the Italian-Americans around here celebrate on Christmas Eve and many of them have a fish dinner where fish are stuffed inside other fish (Seven Fishes I think?).

I do love going into NYC to see the lights, although I can’t stand the crowds in the shops and do most of my shopping online. They also have a Santa Con (which I think is also in London now?) where hundreds of people dress up as Santa and meet up in Central Park.....then hit the bars in the early evening....it’s surreal to see it!

Schools don't break up til 23rd

this really annoys me though. It's ok if you live in Germany, you can get to a Christmas market easily! But even though we have some in the UK now, it's not the same unless you happen to live somewhere near the really good ones like Edinburgh or Birmingham.

Last year ds broke up on 16th Dec and it was great, we went to Edinburgh and throughly enjoyed the Christmas markets.

But this year, it's 20th and next year 21st so no time to get over to Germany (or up to Scotland) for the Christmas markets before needing to be home for Christmas itself. We have done it late on but had problems getting back on 23rd on two separate occasions due to bad weather so DH will now only go if we can come back by about 22nd at the latest.

I suppose some people like the first week of Jan off for ski-ing but I'd much rather have the week off before. It would at least be good if they'd alternate it.