Our First British Christmas in Seven Years
Seven Surprising Things:
My family has enjoyed making the most of ex-pat Christmases over the last almost-a-decade.
Christmas isn’t celebrated in Turkey
In Turkey, because they celebrate the New Year but not Christmas, we escape the commercial side of Crimbo all and can make the day what we want. We avoid all that pressure to shop shop shop and buy buy buy. Our kids have a limited amount of modest gifts.
We can’t source ALL our favourite Christmas foods in Turkey, and it’s a normal school/work day so it’s hard to slow down and get in a holiday mode. But we can make the day significant in ways WE want to, such as being with friends and going to church.
We have adopted some of our own Christmas traditions such as gingerbread house making with the kits from Ikea, and making peppermint bark (thanks to the influence of American friends).
Another bonus about Christmas in Turkey? No one else is preparing for the holiday so there’s no mad queues in the supermarkets and no road rage driving to get to a certain store before it closes.
But this year, we’ve flown back to the U.K. for our first British Christmas in seven years with family. Here’s a list of seven things that have surprised me about coming back:
1. Cost of Living
Everything is so expensive! The prices for food, drink, petrol and heating/electricity bills are quite honestly shocking compared to what it was like when I lived in West Yorkshire back in 2016.
The cost-of-living pressure is obvious on families I meet. Peoples salaries barely cover the cost of childcare, and treats like date nights or getting a manicure are way more out of reach than they used to be.
I needed to get one more small gift for my son on Christmas Eve (darn it!) and was quite honestly dreading having to enter a toy shop this close to the holidays. I haven’t encountered a crowded store at Christmas in seven years and I’m not sure I would have handled the culture shock of it –all that English polite passive-aggressive queuing!
In the end I couldn’t face it, so I text my friend and offered her a tenner for any of her kids old toy cars. Great for the planet, great for my hot-wheels-obsessed toddler, and great for me, as it saved me from a ‘ Jingle-all-the-Way’ Christmas eve shopping horror experience. Phew.
2. Opening Hours
I forget that shops close in the evening in the U.K. In Turkey everyone is out and about in the evenings and you can shop or run errands right up til midnight (bear in mind things don’t open til 10 or 11 am however.)
Here, at 8pm I realised I needed a grocery item and even the local Co-Op was closed early due to holiday opening hours. It’s so weird but kind of nice to have an excuse to stay home, and it makes the world slow down a little.
3. Lights on houses
My kids have never ever seen Christmas lights in homes or decorated front gardens before! Our families neighbour had this impressive light display. Another house had giant candy cane lights sticking out of the ground and it was all I could do to stop my three-year-old running into their driveway and grabbing one! We plan to do a drive around Christmas Eve just to check out some houses- it won’t take much to impress us!
4. Cheddar cheese and mince pies
All the comfort food for Christmas that I haven’t tasted for so long. (Even Lurpak butter!) I love Turkish food but what is it about traditional Christmas foods that take you back to your childhood? Seriously! We are loving snacking the days away, and planning an ultimate Christmas dinner with all the trimmings tomorrow. Let’s see what the kids think of parsnips and pigs in blankets!
5. The dark and the cold
It’s.so.dark. And freezing. And I love it. It’s just so…. English. I can’t explain it. If you asked me if I love cold and dark weather under normal circumstances of course I would say ‘HECK NO!’ But the grey days, and pitch black mornings and evenings are just a part of my life here in the U.K. that I don’t necessarily ‘miss’ so to speak but reliving them has filled me with nostalgia.
6. Christmas TV isn’t what it used to be
No offence to Will I Am and the rest of the Voice crew… but there didn’t seem to be much else on? I miss the old school Christmas TV. (I’m craving the classics like the Vicar of Dibley Christmas special). I’ll be on Iplayer for a few Gavin and Stacey crimbo episodes this Christmas Eve.
7. The collective holiday expectation
For seven years I’ve enjoyed celebrating Christmas our own way in Turkey. Because the country doesn’t celebrate it, we’ve been free to create our own traditions and ways of doing things.
But there is something in the whole nation coming to a standstill to mark the holiday of Christmas that’s really special – and I’ve missed it.
Everyone (or most people) is waiting for the holiday of the 25th December. Even people who don’t celebrate from a faith perspective mark the days for family time. And that collective excitement and expectation is something I wanted my children to feel.
I think I almost prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. The anticipation of the 24th. The silent waiting for the saviours birth.
The cold air reminds me of walking home through the cold and silent village coming back from the pub with my sixth form mates. We’d pass the colourful brightly-lit Christmas tree on the village green, tummy warm from a drink or too, mucking about and ‘looking for Santa’.
Now the magic is in the knowing nod of another mum doing a Christmas Eve walk. We say ‘Happy Christmas Eve!’ as we chase our toddler through muddles puddles in the park.
Tomorrow is Christmas Day and while holidays are never perfect, I spent most of my years so far away from my family I can’t wait just to be with them (hopefully my youngest won’t wake up at 5 looking for Santa).
I can’t wait to open gifts, go to church and sing carols. Then I’ll watch my mum chopping parsnips and my brother-in-law and I will run the military operation that is making Christmas dinner for 12 people.
Then we’ll do a walk and see all the dog-walkers saying ‘happy Christmas’ as they march their Christmas-jumper clad pooches about the streets.
All in the name of the tiny baby wrapped in a swaddle and lying in the animal straw, with refugee parents, in Bethlehem, the West Bank. This year, the city is almost totally deserted, as Christmas is cancelled due to the heartbreaking events in Gaza this December.
It’s not easy to hang onto hope when there is so much darkness and pain ravaging the world this Christmas. I’ll be telling my kids about the events in Gaza. We’ll be praying for peace and donating and if you want to see here: UNICEF Gaza Emergency Appeal.
