If celebrating Christmas abroad is one thing, it´s stress free. While everyone around me has been haunting for the right presents the last couple of weeks and back home people have overbooked the holidays with as many social events as possible, for me the December month has never been this quiet.

Avoiding the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is, however, not very desirable if you prefer spending the most wonderful time of the year with your family. After all, the happiest memories of Christmas are of the joy that comes with celebrating with each other, right?

It´s sad but true that life abroad sometimes doesn´t leave us much choice than making the best of it without them.

Santa Isn´t Coming to Town

This is my second Christmas away from home and it still feels strange. It´s not only due to the absence of my family, I also blame the 25 degrees Celsius outside that make it difficult to believe it´s a holly jolly Christmas. I´m accustomed to spending the holidays indoors next to the (real) Christmas tree and the fireplace with lots of hot chocolate.

In general I happily adapt to the high temperatures during the winter season. But for somebody from cold and wet winter lands, Christmas is not really Christmas in a warm place. I vainly listen to Christmas songs but I´m not feeling festive at all which is difficult to accept when everybody else is…

While I´m Dreaming of a White Christmas

I wonder how other expatriates celebrate Christmas abroad. There are of course several options: doing voluntary work, organizing dinner with fellow expats, watching Christmas movies at home, going travelling, or maybe you´re lucky and get invited to join some local friends. It must be a great experience to have an insiders look of the way people in other countries enjoy the holidays.

Jan and I don´t try very hard to keep the holiday tradition alive. Instead of staying at home and feeling sorry for ourselves, we hit the road. Last year this worked out pretty well for us. We met lots of travelers that happened to be on their way during the happiest season of all. It was comforting to see that we weren´t the only ones transmitting holiday greetings through Skype.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

This year we opted again for someting unsual and hope to find some distraction on the beach. You don´t often get the opportunity to replace snow and pines by sand and palms, so why not make it a real unique Christmas, one to be remembered. On the beach the festive days won´t be very Christmassy either, but it for sure will be peaceful and stress free 😉

I comfort myself with the thought that everybody at home is in good health, it´s an exceptional situation, and as long as I´m spending the holidays with the love of my life, I´m never really alone of course.

Wherever you celebrate Christmas this year, I hope it will be a Christmassy one!

*Merry Christmas to you all*

It´s beginning to look a bit like Christmas