It's a bit late but tell me about your overseas Christmas

[Archduke]

I'm in Australia, we had Christmas day at the beach with my in-laws, and bil&sil&kids.

It rained. Absolutely poured and was cold.

However, we had a top meal of prawns, smoked salmon, hot smoked trout, salad, cheese, and superb wine .

Kids spent the day playing with their cousins - then off to friends in the evening, got pissed and had a right laugh.

How about you?

Also in Australia (Melbourne), but the rain kept away for the most part. OP, are you in Sydney? I saw the rain radar for what looked like most of NSW, and it was astonishing. DH, DD and I were able to eat outside, though cardies were needed when the south wind kicked in.

We had a lovely meal of scallops in garlic on toast, oysters, gigantic prawns and potato salad. Much later, the Christmas pud DH made last year.

On Boxing Day, Pom friends came over for ham, nibbles, drinks and "Doctor Who".

I'm in SA echt - down South, freeeeeeeezing.

Love the sound of your lunch, the prawns here are amazing. I could eat them until they come out of my ears.

I'm in Texas, it was just the 4 of us and the dog. We ate beef tenderloin that you could cut with a spoon, Yorkshires, roasties, veg and christmas pud. It was about 20c at the warmest and in the evening, we sat outside and watched a movie (bought dh a projector and screen for Christmas). Today was quiet, tomorrow we have lots of people coming for drinks and lunch.

Miss my 32C singapore Christmases of free flow boozy lunch out followed by flopping into the pool for the rest of the day though....

There are just 4 of us now and our DS leaves for the US on 5 Jan for 2 years so we kind of felt we should 'do' something. We drove to Dubai for the day. It was a lovely 26 C sunny day with a few white fluffy clouds in the sky.
We ate at a great Mexican restaurant - the food was sooo good - and then went to a souk to look for bargains. DS asked if we could bale as it was all the same stuff, just dresses, fake handbags and dodgy electricals, so we tried to get in to the Dubai Mall, but it was so full - the car park anyway - we couldn't get in. So we picked up some fizzy pop that's the local Vimto rip off but tastes so good and drove home again, wishing all the border guards Happy Christmas and singing Christmas songs as we went.
Yesterday, we went to Church then came home to watch the Christmas TV we missed the day before, ate left overs, choc and played Pointless for a few hours.

Oh, today we're buying a tent! On New Years Eve, we're off to the desert, building a fire and watching the New Year arrive watching the stars and enjoying just being together!! We always 'planned' to do it, but after 7 years, and DS leaving, we felt it was time to do it.

I live in New Zealand. Weather was hot and sunny on Christmas Day. We had presents and breakfast with bucks fizz cocktail.

We had a traditional roast lunch. We had a bbq the night before with a jug of Pimms.

On Boxing Day we went out for a drive, two and a half hours to a nearby park for a picnic. We then went to the beach and sat on the sand and cooled off in the water all afternoon. Bliss.

I miss a proper cold Christmas in Britain. However, if it's all the Christmas we're getting, better crack on with it.

Our boxing day picnic was the leftovers of the Christmas Eve bbq and some leftovers of Christmas food. Delicious.

'We' consists of my husband and I, no kids.

In france. DP, DS and MIL.
Roast Lamb and all the trimmings. Watched a bit of UK tv on sky but was dire!
Earlier in month when DF was visiting, we had an early Xmas lunch with some other british friends. That was more fun; I miss a big crowd at Xmas...

Hairylegs where are you? Is it completely unChristmassy in the middle east or do some places bung up a few decorations for the ex-pats?

I'm in Abu Dhabi. We had planned a family Christmas day at home and then bbq on the beach with a couple of dozen friends on Boxing Day. Unfortunately DH has flu and I am battling with a cold that's verging on flu and two of my children started feeling ill yesterday so we have been watching lots of Christmas movies, playing on iPads and computers and eating what ever we can muster.

Archduke, the hotels and malls over here go bonkers with decorations over the Christmas period. When I crawl out of bed and downstairs And on my laptop I'll post some.

We live in SE Asia but flew to Perth for Christmas. Had a bbq Turkey and roasties with lots of relatives here. Trivial pursuit until late and then up the next day for another bbq! Bacon and eggs this time. Spent Christmas morning in glorious sunshine on the beach. Feel so lucky to be here but do miss family in UK. It's just too expensive to fly all the way there for two weeks at Christmas. Kids would like to see the snow though.

We live in Spain but had Christmas in London, with a day in Paris. We had a typical French/English Christmas (my parents who we stayed with are French but live in London since many years ago) only with fewer presents as our two children will get their main presents from the 3 kings on the night of 5 Dec. when we are back in Spain. We will also have New Year in Spain which is a lovely occasion, on the night of the 30th we will go and participate in the New Year's Eve rehearsal in a big square near our house, and on the night itself we will eat a big dinner culminating in the grapes at midnight then fireworks. On the 5th there is a big street parade where the three kings throw sweets to all of the children. All very exciting and means there's no post Christmas "slump".

Luckily, the locals like Christmas and are happy to stock Christmas stuff in the shops. I'm in Oman this year. We've been in Bahrain too at Christmas, just as happy to get into the swing if Christmas as most places do.
In Dubai they really go to town, but in a very classy way. My first Christmas in Dubai was a real eye opener, Arabs buying shopping trolleys full of Christmas stuff, and I mean trolley full. Most we're buying 2 or 3 trees too.

In Saudi, it's not even a blip on the radar. If you live on a compound and the owners don't mind, you can put the decorations, garden tat out. Presents tend to get wrapped in whatever you can find. If you try to 'smuggle' stuff in that's obviously Christmas related, it's confiscated. One year I was in a city there and asked a shop owner about Holiday trees, he looked around himself and whispered where to go. I had to tell the guy who sent me. I duly went to the shop, spoke to the guy, he locked the door and took me out the back - I was crapping myself, you are told so many horror stories - and produced about a dozen boxes with scabby fake trees in. Yes, I bought one for a daft price and legged it. Our first year there, we were told we couldn't even have a tree up inside our house incase a Muslim saw it and complained. Very sad.

Blimey Hairylegs47 that's really interesting.

We've just come back from a new year break by the coast - it's 42 degrees today and there is an out of control bush fire burning about 20 miles away . Missing UK right now.

Archduke are you in Adelaide? It's so hot here today. Bush fires not too far away either. We had a lovely Christmas but it never really felt properly like Christmas.

NZ - most business' shut down for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year. We have a house at the beach where we spend as much of summer as we can so very sociable. This year it was sunny . Boys woke early for presents, santa comes round on a fire truck and throws sweets for kids (collects beer and wine for fire crew!), had walk on the beach (catching up with neighbours), late breakfast, back to beach for swim, light lunch, played tennis, went for a bike ride, full roast early evening when it had cooled down a bit sitting on deck with bubbles taking in the river, sea and sunset. Played board game with the boys - bed exhausted.

Miss family at Christmas but we have really made our own 'ritual' and now getting to love a summer Christmas.