Christmas In Your Country. What do you miss most?

WHO doesn’t remember Christmas as a child. However you celebrated, those memories stay with people for life. 

From typical traditions of one’s home country to individual family holiday habits, our core Christmas beliefs always grow from our childhood. 

If you have since left your home country, and now celebrate the festive period in another land, Christmas time may feel a little strange, sort of an ‘anticlimax’. That childhood magic we once felt, made up of those traditions, can perhaps not be satisfied in such a different environment at this time of year. 

To the typical American, Europe may seem as though it is all quite similar, but Christmas actually differs greatly in each country, with many not even celebrating it on the same date! Euro Weekly News spoke to residents of Spain from various European nations, to see what ‘Christmas feeling’ they miss most from their homeland whilst celebrating in Spain. 

Cristoph Muller from Germany said that “the first thing that comes to mind is the snow. The freezing weather, before I moved to Spain all I wanted was sun, but at Christmas time I like to feel cold!”. Karolina Daktaraite from Lithuania seconded this, laughing that “I can’t believe I miss the bad weather, but I do!” Adding that she also often longs for the typical Lithuanian tradition of “doing magic” on the evening of Christmas Day. “Of course you can always do these things here in Spain, but it feels nicer somehow when you are doing it in a place where everyone does the same thing together, like a connection”. She also explained that it is difficult to source the food usually eaten in Lithuania at Christmas, here in Spain. 

Katherine Wright from the UK seemed almost in tears when EWN asked her this question. “Oh I know this one, the Christmas pantomimes! That was my favourite memory as a child, and it’s hard to feel in the Christmas spirit without seeing these on Christmas Eve”. Did she really say that? Oh yes she did! 

After a few conversations with many nostalgic Spanish residents, and the mood feeling a little sombre, Euro Weekly News spoke to a ray of Christmas light, in the form of a man from Sweden, Niklas Soderstrom. His response was quite unique, he stated that “to be honest, traditions, you can always create new ones. It’s family that counts. If I am not with them then yes I miss them, but when I am with family, it can always be Christmas.” 

Poetic! What a lovely spirit. 

What does Christmas in your country look like? What do you miss the most?