Brits abroad at Christmas

Almost one in 10 of the UK population now live permanently abroad. Here, six readers share their thoughts on marking Christmas away from Britain.

Rob Malaysia "There is a huge mix of cultures in here in Malaysia" Alexandra Texas "I will still be watching the Queen's speech on the net" Alec Colombia "Colombians certainly love to celebrate Christmas"

Kirsteen Qatar "At least we have the freedom to celebrate Christmas here" John Japan "In Japan it's just 'business as usual' on Christmas Day" Alison Botswana "I'll be having Christmas with family around the pool"

ROB HEMPEL, MALAYSIA

BRITS ABROAD Name: Rob Hempel Age: 41 Lives: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Works: IT analyst From: Pinner, London In my stocking: A Sony video camera and an Armani aftershave Country profile: Malaysia

This year I'll be tucking into a traditional English Christmas dinner with my wife in a nice air-conditioned restaurant called the Smokehouse.

At the moment it's the rainy season, but still hot and humid. So it's all shorts and T-shirts here.

There are Santa grottos in the malls, and some decorations. Some of the trees are covered in lights, but it's not really Christmassy.

It's a lot less commercial than back home. We don't have Christmas in your face from October, like in the UK

There's a huge mix of cultures in Malaysia - so the locals celebrate according to their religion. Indian and Chinese Christians attend church and celebrate in the traditional manner.

There are some santa grottos and decorations in malls, Rob says.

Muslims, Hindus and non-Christians just have a public day off and go shopping.

It's refreshing to have so many cultures here. It's a chance to sample different things - like food. It also means more public holidays and an excuse to party all year round.

There's also the concept of the "open house", where people invite family and friends - who may be from different cultures - to share food and socialise during festival times.

Christians will invite others over for Christmas, Muslims invite people at Eid, Hindus for Diwali and so on. Even the PM does it.

I do miss some things about the UK. Friends, of course, English tea and good fish and chips.

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ALEXANDRA WOLF, TEXAS, US

BRITS ABROAD Name: Alexandra Wolf Age: 60 Lives: Texas, US Works: Retired From: Lichfield In my stocking: I would like to win the lottery Country profile: USA

We will be hoping for a sunny semi-warm day to celebrate the birth of Christ here in Texas.

I will prepare a vegan Christmas feast for two humans - me and my American husband - and my rescue dogs and cats. These include seven senior pugs who were strays, one of which was from the Katrina storm in New Orleans.

Most people in Texas call this period the "holiday season".

It does rather feel like they're missing the point - after all Jesus is the reason for the season.

People have so few holidays in the US, which means that from Thanksgiving, it's time to relax and party.

New Year's Day is very much the big one here. Even Halloween seems to be bigger than Noel. Poor old Christmas seems to have been pushed back on the dusty old shelf.

I miss the Dickensian feel of Christmas in the UK

I've done all my shopping by catalogue to avoid the massive over-commercialisation you get here. Though this year, people are buying less and there are sales already because of the "credit crunch".

There are live nativity pageants with real camels and sheep and the children can come up and see the animals.

I miss the Dickensian feel of Christmas in the UK - the cold, the dark, and the lights.

I will still be watching the Queen's speech on the net - and will stand up at the end!

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JOHN KECSMAR, JAPAN

BRITS ABROAD Name: John Kecsmar Age: 44 Lives: Osaka, Japan Works: Consultant naval architect From: Isle of Wight In my stocking: A very nice Paul Smith cardigan, bought in advance for me Country profile: Japan

In Japan it's just "business as usual" on the 25th. My wife will be working, so I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing.

People here see Christmas as an interesting American thing, so adopt it without really understanding the spirit or meaning of the time.

Some department stores are playing carols and there are some signs about Christmas, but that is about it.

I live in a town just outside Osaka, which the locals call the countryside. It's actually the size of Southampton - but just with nothing here. You have to travel into Osaka to work or do decent shopping.

We get dry icy blasts from Siberia this time of year. The houses are all prefabricated by UK standards, and so are draughty and cold.

Stores in Japan have some Christmas decorations, John says

I've been desperately searching for somewhere to have a traditional English-style Christmas meal. I've even tried the bastion of Englishness: the Ritz-Carlton hotel, and they're not doing one.

I can't even cook one at home - houses here don't have European-style ovens because the Japanese don't have any tradition of cooking in that way.

And I've also had no luck in trying to buy a real Christmas tree. The local department stores are selling a handful of artificial trees, but being Japan, they are small and start at £50 each.

I do miss being able to go down to my local pub and meet up with friends, the aroma of mistletoe and mince pies. But I'll be phoning family and friends over the festive season.

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KIRSTEEN MACCOLL, QATAR

BRITS ABROAD Name: Kirsteen MacColl Age: 30 Lives: Doha, Qatar Works: Nurse From: Argyll, Scotland In my stocking: I don't have one Country profile: Qatar

I'll be here in Doha where it should hopefully be dry and at least warmer than the UK.

It's about 23C at the moment - and rises to 55C in the summer.

Eid happens to fall at the same time of the year as Christmas - so there are decorations in the shopping malls, which at least makes it feel a bit more festive.

I work as a nurse for a sports hospital and will be on call that day.

I'll try to cook a semi-traditional Christmas dinner after I've been to work. Of course there'll be no sausages or pork stuffing.

You have to buy a £200 licence to be able to buy alcohol. And there's one liquor store that'll be filled with ex-pats in the run up to Christmas.

I lived in Saudi Arabia before - and there it is illegal to celebrate Christmas in public

I live in a mixed area not a compound, and have been living in the Middle East for the last five years.

So I'm used to the veils, the call to prayer five times a day and the crazy driving.

At least we have the freedom to practice our religion here.

I lived in Saudi Arabia before - and there it is illegal to celebrate Christmas in public. In my workplace there we had a sign about Christmas. Someone told the authorities who promptly came round and demanded that we take it down.

Of course I will miss my family back in Argyll, and my boyfriend in Saudi Arabia, and maybe also Only Fools and Horses and the Vicar of Dibley.

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ALEC JIGGINS, COLOMBIA

BRITS ABROAD Name: Alec Jiggins Age: 34 Lives: Bogota, Colombia Works: Teacher From: Chelmsford, Essex In my stocking: A trip to the Caribbean Country profile: Colombia

I've been living in Bogota for the last three years and Colombians certainly love to celebrate Christmas.

Starting on the 16th, we will have parties around each other's houses. These are called the Novenas, a nine day count down to Christmas.

We'll sing carols, read prayers and have lots of nice food and drink.

We'll go round to my wife's parents' place on the 24th when the real celebration takes place. People start praying and singing hymns. Then, around 11 or 12 at night we open our presents.

Drinking and talking goes on until two or three in the morning.

There's still a touch of magic here - the season seems less commercialised

On the 25th my family will celebrate English-style with stockings, breakfast, games and lunch.

Not your traditional turkey - beef is amazing here, so we'll have a nice steak on the barbecue.

There's still a touch of magic here - the season seems less commercialised, more innocent in a way. That's great with a young daughter aged two and a half.

People eat their traditional food on the 24th called bunuelos, bread rolls with sweet source.

All the public parks are covered in lights and there are Santas like in the UK.

I don't miss that much about a British Christmas, but you can't get Christmas pudding here or crackers. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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ALISON COLLINS, BOTSWANA

BRITS ABROAD Name: Alison Collins Age: 53 Lives: Gaborone, Botswana Works: Accountant From:Birmingham In my stocking: My foot Country profile: Botswana

I'll be having Christmas with my husband, children and grandchildren around the pool.

It's mid-summer here and boiling - around 40C.

Botswana is a place of beautiful blue skies, reddy brown soil and no surface water at all. There are no rivers and no lakes.

There is also every type of living creature here: elephants, hyenas, jackals, wild dogs. If you leave the windows open sometimes monkeys will come and steal food.

I do have a huge garden of some 1200 square metres - but it's a lot of hard work to keep it going.

Life here is much more peaceful than in the UK, and in many ways more luxurious. Everybody gets on with everybody.

It does feel a bit strange being in such a hot country at this time of the year

It is sometimes very difficult to get things done here - like shopping. I'll have to drive for miles to various shopping centres to try and do all my Christmas shopping.

Botswana is a Christian country, and people here go to church more than back in the UK.

They'll also be drinking lots of the local favourite - chibuku, a thick, milky concoction.

It does feel a bit strange being in such a hot country at this time of the year. Christmas should be cold.

But I've lived here for 17 years, and also in Zambia and Qatar before then - so I'm used to being away.

I will miss the Christmas lights and so on back in the UK. But Botswana is a peaceful, wonderful place.

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Your comments:

This is my second Christmas in this multi-religious, multi-cultural part of India (including an ancient Christian population). Being outside the UK one realises just how much the winter-based iconography dominates our idea of 'Christmas'. It makes you realise to how great an extent it is a winter festival as well as a Christian one. We're trying our best with snow spray but it doesn't quite feel right in 34C.
Jack Higginson, Trivandrum, Kerala

Bill and I will be having our second christmas here in the new independent republic of Montenegro. Each year there are two christmas'to celebrate. The first, ours is on the 25th Dec and then the Orthadox Serbian church begins their's on the 7th Jan with a whole roast lamb. New year is the 14th January. As you can imagine this means an awful lot of food and drink!!!
Ruth Martin, Montenegro

China is really starting to take Christmas on board led, of course, by the supermarkets. Jingle Bells sung in Chinese, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, blast out of my local store from morning 'till night. At the same time many Han Chinese are rediscovering a sense of a less superficial aspect of religion and church attendance is growing at a remarkable rate much, I suspect, to the dismay of the Communist Party which for many years frowned on religious belief of any kind although freedom of worship is openly allowed.
Martin Wood, Shijiazhuang China

Hello. I've spent years in Africa nd the Middle East. Christmas in Poland is traditional with Christmas Eve being the main day. No meat only fish but with many dishes to choose from including wild mushrooms. It's then we have our presents. The next day we go English traditional and have the full roast etc. But we're saving ourselves for Sylvester, that's the New Year celebrations, in Poland it's a big occasion. We have done it so many times here we now go to a different city in a different country each year. Last year was Istanbul, this year Madiera. Happy new year wherever you may be.
Alan, Warsaw, Poland

I'm originally from Leeds. Spending Christmas in this part of India would make anyone who enjoys Christmas cringe. However, unlike Japan, there are pockets of people who understand it and indeed local Christians have their own Christmas traditions, not quite British but warm and meaningful.
Phil Walton, Panchkula India

In this part of Japan, I have not come to understand if a day like Christmas is next door. Infact, I am sad here, unlike in Liberia in the past were I used to be with my parents, today, I am lonely indoors. I do not have any idea about were to go and celebrate, maybe my host community do not know the meaning or care about it. Unfortunately, it's too cold (snow), oh I am feeling home sick. Anyway, I wish you all a merry X-mas there...
Tarnue Kootee Korvah, Beppu City, Japan

Maybe I need to come up to Marseilles- I can't find *decent* parsnips for my first Christmas in France! Everyone seems to be getting into the festive spirit by cooking every animal they can think of... Joyeux Noel!
Claire Franks, St Maur des Fossés, France

This will be our 5th Christmas in Spain.....when we first arrived, it was difficult to buy many things "Christmassy" but now you can get almost anything that you would expect to buy in the UK. The Spaniards have finally cottoned onto the commercial aspect of Christmas!
Janette, Pilar de la Horadada, Spain

I am making my own Xmas here in with the family in Egypt. Have done Xmas in Italy, Portugal, Japan a few times and Turkey. Christmas hats on sale here in Egypt for the past week at major traffic junctions (not helpful, by the way...), local churches abound if you should want to visit them (we don't). There is local Coptic Christmas on January 7th , so the nation is split on who celebrates what- 19th to 21st was Eid soeveryone is celebrating something this year!! John Kesmar, you are a moaning whinger in Japan. Get real. I first went there in 1985 when there was nothing- worked on Xmas day and wondered where I was. My last Xmas there was 1996 in the suburbs of Kyoto. The Japanese have got going on Christmas, bars, hotels and so on have mini celebrations and you can compromise on Xmas dinner- I never had an oven either and fed a family of 4 on festive stuff. Enjoy, don't moan! Steam your bird (duck?) with herb or spices, you don't need a turkey you're on your own. And tonight, 24th is a night for lovers so find yourself someone! Tediously mournful- don't be!
heather oxley, currently Cairo, Egypt

Me and my family will be spending our first Christmas downunder. We have been here about 11 and a half months, and this will be our first opportunity too unwind totally since last Christmas! Here in WA it is nowhere near as commercial as the UK, which is quite refreshing really, but it does mean a lot of driving about to find everything you want. Our day will centre around the BBQ and maybe a trip to the beach. Merry Christmas England, but Australia is our home now.
Dan Reeves, Kwinana,WA, Australia

Well I too live in Texas and have no problem with the spiritual aspects here, but as always, it is very commercialised. I have certainly found that it is a very much celebrated as it was in the UK but I miss the darndest things! I miss cheap Xmas crackers, I can get them but they aren't as much fun as the dirt cheap ones; gaudy foil streamers and lanterns, and the inevitable Slade Xmas hits in the stores. Other than that I can get or make everything that is the norm in the UK.
Beth Mills, Murchison, Texas. USA

Christmas seems to be more high profile here in Dubai than the UK! There are big Christmas trees everywhere, Christmas lights on the villas and Christmas music playing everywhere. Ironic that the UK is "toning down" Christmas yet here in a Muslim country I can report it is alive and kicking!
Kevin Edmonds, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

I wish the 'holiday' didn't start so early; a neighbour, admittedly someone I don't see very often, wished me a Happy Christmas - last week! It also seems a shame to throw out the trees on Boxing Day, which of course is unheard of here. Our tree goes out on twelfth night, and if not, we simply leave the lights off until we have time to deal with it. Religion doesn't come into things with our family; we enjoy the occasion to be reminded of our friends and family whom I really miss, and try to phone the people we feel close to, despite the miles between us. Peace and goodwill to all is a valuable hope, regardless of one's 'faith'.
Lesley Arrrandale, Jacksonville, FL, USA

Hi, I have a message for John in Osaka, Japan. I lived in Japan for two years in Osaka. The best place to get traditional Christmas lunch is the Blarney Stone pub, near Shinsaibashi!
Claire Marchant-Williams, London, UK

Many thanks for the info Claire. I'll go and check it out this weekend or perhaps on the 25th if my wife doesn't finish work too late. My wife found their website after your information and it looks the real deal. I can almost smell and taste my first roast for two years! And on Christmas day too. Thanks very, very much.
John, Osaka, Japan

To Alexandra - if you want to experience the feel of a Dickensian Christmas, I suggest you move away from Texas! Other places in the States have fine traditions at Christmas - try Vermont or Wisconsin, as two such examples
Joseph, London UK

We also live in Qatar and to be honest, it is just like being in the UK without the hassle. All the shopping malls have Christmas Trees. The Christmas spirit is definitely here. We as a family are going to a hotel for our Christmas Dinner and are doing the same for New Year. You can get everything here except pork products. It is Christmas without the guilt associated with the UK.
Mark Gritt, Doha Qatar

At least the weather at Christmas is more reasonable in Marseilles, and you can actually get parsnips here!
Chris Jackson, Marseilles, France