Whats Christmas Day like abroad?
boddism
Posts: 16,436 Forum Member
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I realised yest that Ive never experienced Christmas day outside of the UK and Im wondering if many of you have, and if so what was it like? Is it similar/different abroad? Whats it like in countries with very different cultures? Or OZ, in the summer?
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Is it?? You been abroad on Xmas day?
I found it was great as the festivities weren't focussed around just getting drunk.
I took Christmas Crackers both times as something from England
Yeah Ive heard theyre a British thing!:D
I was at a house party recently and there were these 2 Taiwanese girls there. We introduced them to the cracker experience including the paper hat.:D:D
instead of -2 degrees. Most people either have turkey or ham and some go for lamb or beef
with all the usual trimmings. Pudding is either Christmas pudding with custard or pavlova with cream and strawberries. Some will do a BBQ at the beach. Most people seem to go for a walk
in the afternoon or sleep.
'Cept you might have a hangi and some DB's eh bro?
Christmas Eve kicks off once the first star appears (with people taking a guess if it's a cloudy night) - that's the moment you can start opening your prezzies. Then there's the food. The only meat allowed is fish - which is usually carp - but the feast can't begin until everyone's had a little bit of Oplatek, which is a kind of rice paper or wafer with religious pictures imposed onto it. It's meant to be a symbol representing Christ and people wish one another well as they share it around the table. The more religious the family the more of a blessing involved. There are other common traditions like putting a bit of hay under the table, having a spare plate for an unexpected guest and having 12 dishes to represent the 12 apostles. Then there's the Midnight Mass at the local church... Oh, and some say that animals get to talk at midnight.
Good thread as iv never experienced Xmas outside uk.
I dont think we know how to have fun without being rat arsed in this country.
indeed
I suspect it may be a lot more like a European xmas 'Back East' but where we were - it might as well have been a wet Wednesday in February in Grimsby.
Should add, the only christmassy things that seemed to be happ;ening were with the Taiwanese students, and the Aussies and the Brits so the foreign students 'did' xmas whilst the tonw round us seemed to just do nothing.
For those who are strictly Catholic, the holiday of Epiphany (6th Jan, "12th night") is more significant than 2th Dec.
And, of course, the big difference is that the weather is usually better!
well in non christian countries it's pretty much just another day
as you'd expect
I often spend christmas in Germany with family and its also all about Christmas Eve and we all go to midnight mass. after which we open our presents. Although we don't just eat fish and as far as I know no hay;) Some of my family live in France and we also did Christmas Eve (though not sure if its because my aunt is German and married a French man).
I spent a lot of christmases in South Africa living by the beach and a lot of people go swim in the sea on Christmas day and even more so on New Years day (its supposed to wash away the old year according to an African tradition). It is very hot on Christmas there but we still did the roasts. I also spent two Christmases in Las Vegas where its easy to ignore christmas as the gambling goes on as usual.
For most people in the US, Thanksgiving is more important than Christmas. It's a holiday and day off work but most people will be back to work the next day. They don't have the tradition of Boxing Day and, as you say, there aren't really any TV specials.
People in our US office will typically take the 25th and New Years Day off but are working as usual for the next two weeks. The UK office is virtually closed until 4th Jan. They think we are crazy to take so much time off at the coldest time of the year.
Spent the last 6 Christmasses away on holiday. First year we went to Malta. It rained like I had never seen rain before. It was a bit shit tbh.
The last 5 have been spent in Fuerteventura. Spanish Christmas is not Christmas Day but 6th January Three Kings is their thing which to us is the 12th Night. They do have a mini Christmas on Christmas Eve but thats more of a thing for Kids. They have in recent years been adopting Santa but they have better planning than ours. Their Santa is not an old man but a younger hunk
A Christmas barbie on the beach sounds terrible doesn't it :rolleyes:
I know where I'd rather be.
When I was young, Christmas was a special time where family members would spend time together feasting and being merry. It would also be the time children will be given new clothes as presents. Christmas Day would start with Mass (my family is Catholic) at 9:00 am and I remember always feeling all excited and glamorous in my new clobber.
The rest of the day would be spent feasting on goat meat, pilau rice, special stews, chapattis, soft drinks, cakes and sweets that we normally not allowed to drink at times other than celebrations, mainly because they were expensive and also because my mother said there were not good for you. Meals were alfresco and buffet-style. We would listen to stories the grown ups would tell about the big city and far away places, play games with our cousins, brothers and sisters, eat and drink and almost always end up in bed with stomach aches but with big smiles on our faces.
I hope you remind them our gov actually give us proper Annual Leave!! I guess even the 20 day minimum seems amazingly generous to the average American!