Tell me about your Christmas in your/your DP country of origin

[OneLinerPoster]

I love the ‘what’s everyone’s Christmas plan’ threads but I’d love to hear specifically from the expat /married to expat community- those who spend Christmas abroad but might not have those type of fancy holidays abroad, IYSWIM.

I’llstart. My Christmas holidays typically comprise:
-expensive flights booked to late, because we have been deluded for too long that we would stay in UK…
-staying over at ILs - we do have our room there but with DC it’s becoming a bit crowded now
-Xmas eve dinner with ILs-very low key
-Xmas lunch with brother, we typically book at a restaurant as slightly complex family situations mean we do not know where else to go
—boxing day with extended family. I love it! Involves driving for miles and miles but otherwise entails always the same traditional food and rituals, the predictability of the day is what I love the most. I hope this year it will just be the same as always
-rest of the run-up to new year: visiting friends and family, all demanding a dinner/afternoon/breakfast slot. last year I organised an excel spreadsheet.
we are pretty exhausted by the whole thing and every year we commit to stay the following one, but always end up going…

curious to know about the others - both the lovely tradition side and the stressful side!

You've not said where this is. Or what traditions or food you have.

Oh OK:) This is in Italy. Nothing too traditional tbh apart from Boxing Day which always goes like this:
-lunch: onion soup ( cannot remember the name), cannelloni, chicken and mushrooms. Traditional sweet fried dough. Afternoon: local biscuits and hot chocolate, uncle insists every year on passing down the hot chocolate recipe details (tbh it is delicious). Aperitivo in the evening in the town centre local bar, where lots of strangers will stop by to talk to cousins and we will be invariably introduced as the cousin who lives abroad and family, lots of chatty chat to reassure everybody it does not rain as much in London etc etc. Not very Xmassy traditions I realise!
Before dc went to school we often stayed until the 6th, befana day, basically stocking filled with sweets are opened in the morning. We try and replicate that here now

Please share the hot chocolate recipe....?

It’s a family recipe, I am not allowed to share!

but it’s very close to ‘Ciobar’ with mint leaves

My family is a mishmash (one Norwegian parent, one Dane, grew up between UK and Germany). DH is British but grew up in the ME. DD is just confused as she was born in Finland, but has been raised in the UK so far 😂 We mix things up a bit depending on guests, where we are etc.

Some of it depends where we are- parents were in Norway until recently, but have moved back to Denmark.

Christmas ALWAYS starts on J day, when the xmas beers land (first Friday in November) and my parents will send us a case of Tuborg Julebryg as soon as it is released if we're not due to visit.

On 23rd we have Lille Julaften and decorate the tree and clean the house. We also hide all of the brooms. LOTS of baking. Often make an xmas ham and non-alcoholic Glögi, and try to go to a sauna on 23 or 24th as a nod to the years we were in Finland.

We tend to have a very Scandinavian influenced Xmas eve - roast pork, duck or pinnekjøtt, maybe. Ris á la mande for dessert, always (if we don't have it on the 24th, we go Norwegian and have risengrynsgrøt on the 23rd). A few small gifts from the julnissen. Lots of Aqavit, and, for those who can brave it, Gammel Dansk.

Put out some stuff for Santa. Always LOTS of singing and dancing, and we tend to invite friends who celebrate more on xmas day to join us.

A very British xmas lunch- goose etc. Presents in the morning. I hate xmas pudding, so we usually end up with æbleskriver for dessert.

Boxing day we tend to have a much lighter mezze meal after the richness of the previous days.

We nod to Germany for NY, with doughnuts (one is normally filled with mustard for fun...With a gift for the person who gets that one!)

Ooh I love hearing about other people’s national traditions! Nothing much to contribute as am British although have spent a far amount of time in Norway in past years, and we have aquavit and pickled herring on Christmas Eve as a cosy memory to it.

Anyway, love to hear more!

German here. We hardly ever go and see family back in Germany as it's basically impossible to take time off from work after mid-December for me.
And I don't want to drag a child and presents back and forth.

We have the Advent wreath, starting on the 1st Advent Sunday. Then Nikolaus brings a boot full with sweets and a small gift on the 6th December.

Christmas is Christmas Eve, Stollen, Lebkuchen and Mince Pies in the afternoon, think Kaffee und Kuchen, then gifts when it turns dark (when DD was small) or now around 6-7pm.
Dinner is something fast, you have plenty of traditions, from trout or carp to potato salad and hotdogs to a cold buffet. We had a cold buffet in the past and moved to some form of traybake now. So no standing in the kitchen while the rest are playing with their gifts.

Christmas Day has a nod to the UK, DD has a stocking with small gifts. She also puts food and drink for Santa and the reindeers out on the 24th, you never know.
Lunch is a full roast, traditional you have fish, goose or any other meat, it is very regional in Germany.
We are only 3 so it's a normal size roast, pigs in blanket, roast potatoes and veg. Maybe crackers.
Small starter and a small dessert.

Also Italy, the north end!

Christmas Eve nothing for us, It's usually after a long day at work so a chilled evening is very welcome! When we were younger we'd meet a few friends around 11pm after their family Christmas dinner as many Italian families celebrate the 24th. No pubs / bars are open so it's a quiet night, we don't know anyone who is religious that goes to Midnight Mass

Christmas Day, all the family arrive at the chosen family member's house around 11am for lots of present opening & an aperitivo of an early Bloody Mary! One year I managed to buy some Xmas crackers off Amazon, the family had never seen them before, they loved them

1pm-ish a long easy buffet lunch with all sorts of pickled veg, raw veg, Russian salad, cured meats, prawns, salmon, homemade pate, too much to list. Lots of fizz! After that we all chill out, have a sleep, watch a film or play board games.

For a 5pm snack maybe a slice of panettone with rum laced mascarpone and there is always a good selection of exotic fruit & nuts. I get asked to make Nigella's Anglo Italian trifle every year now too.

8pm-ish dinner - good quality meat filled pasta (such as Raviolini ) in homemade brodo ( clear broth) we eat the meat & veg that was used to make the broth with Mostarda, which is candied fruit in a very hot mustard syrup. Usually a very good red wine with this.

11pm home and then usually the same thing on the 26th and 1st Jan.
6th Jan is also a holiday here so we do it again then too sometimes. It's the day Befana a sort of old woman witch character comes down the chimney and brings the good kids a stocking of sweets or the bad kids a stocking of coal ( sugary coal theses days) so right after Christmas is over all the stockings appear in the shops.

I do miss a good old UK Christmas lunch with a roast & Xmas Pud, so I do a very small one for my DH & I over the festive period!

I chuckled one year when, as part of the PTA, the committee was asked to judge a selection of children's pictures that represented Chrstmas to pick one we could use for our Christmas Fair poster. I am South African. this is relevant because one of the pictures was passed around with everyone very confused about what it was ....

... The kid, whose name I recognised as he was the child of another south African family, had drawn a picture of a braai (BBQ), swimming pool and a Santa hat! I thought it was brilliant!

The tradition we had was "the more the merrier" and it's something I really miss in the UK. I'd happily do it, but space is such an issue, combined with weather, so we often can't have the ridiculous big christmasses we used to have as children or when we go back for Christmas.