What makes it Christmas for you?

[webteam]

As expats, we are all far from the usual holiday cues and tradition. What is it that marks the Christmas season for you?

 

[Empshel]

What marks Christmas for me is the mounting anxiety I feel as the day approaches and the immutable prayer for it to come to an end once it finally arrives. ¡Feliz Navidad!

 

[chris]

Cookies are nice but it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

[Gringoboy]

For me it's just the same old, same old.
Same house, same faces, same ritual of opening the same old presents you neither asked for or want.
Frankly I'd rather zoom off on my bike and lie under a palm tree looking at the stars until the whole damn thing is over.
Bah humbug!

 

[El Duderino]

Family and friends, duh.

 

[mendozanow]

Eating "pudding" bread, rellenos and turron, and drinking overly sweet bubbly "sidre" until I puke.

 

[PhilipDT]

Freshly fallen snow, a warm fire, spiced hot chocolate.

 

[Gringoboy]

I could probably handle a chorizo or two and maybe a molleja, under the palm tree of course.

 

[gsi16386]

Freshly fallen snow, a warm fire, spiced hot chocolate.

you're in the wrong hemisphere Philip

 

[tangobob]

As most of you know I do not live over there, but I spent the Christmas in Buenos Aires in 2007.
For me the thing that, absolutely made Christmas was the generosity of, not only the locals but the expats as well.
We were invited to family gatherings, parties and milongas.
The highlight for me was, being an atheist at a Jewish Christmas party in a Catholic country, and nobody asked about my beliefs.
Pure, untarnished, generosity. I miss you all.