Expat Christmas Planning
As an expat, there are times throughout the year when that craving for home is stronger than others. Birthdays, funerals, national days, religious days and, yes, Christmas. You can obviously celebrate Christmas anywhere in the world but to have it 'just like' home, and continuing traditions, takes a lot of work and a fair amount of planning. There is definitely no last minute Christmas Eve dash to K-Mart to do all you last minute shopping when you live somewhere like India.
In our house, Christmas is not just about presents, and as much as we miss family and friends over this time, the overseas Christmas prep is all about the food !! When you are away from home it is very important to keep the traditions from home alive - so if you bake certain cookies, go to church, sing certain songs, etc then to avoid lots of family tears (mostly mine), you try your best to continue those traditions whilst living overseas. Those things usually fall on my shoulders but it is well worth the effort when the kids, including the big kid in all of us, are so happy over the Christmas period.
From an Indian perspective, Christmas is not really celebrated. Things have changed significantly even in the last 5 years but it is still not a major holiday. With the explosion of online shopping, you can get a lot of things from Amazon, Flipcart and big stores such as Decathlon. And we now have Ikea in Hyderabad who sell decorations but it just isn't the same and is on a much smaller scale. We have just experience 3 years of Christmas being done properly in Hong Kong - where they definitely celebrate Christmas in style with decorations in every apartment building, office, mall and access to all the things that you need to make Christmas like home. So it is a shock to the system being back where it seems to be a tinsel-free zone again.
Being Australian, one thing that doesn't cause us any trouble over the Christmas period is the weather in Hyderabad. We are not wishing for snow and cold weather, and even though the temperatures have definitely dropped recently in Hyderabad, it is still shorts and t-shirt weather !! Very "Christmas in Australia".
A few of the best tips I received before we embarked on this expat adventure over five years ago were as follows :
1. To take the Christmas tree and decorations with us, as it may not be available in the new country or could be very costly - better to just have it in the shipment. A number of our decorations have not made it through the numerous moves we have made and some are starting to look a little sad but every year we are so happy when we open that big packing box full of familiar decorations. We have also had the great pleasure of adding to the box with items from our expat life - some from our own travels, and others as gifts from friends from other countries. Christmas decorations are such a lovely gift for expats. As a side note, it is often fun to look around and see what local things might work during the holiday period - Diwali decorations can often be re-purposed for Christmas - checkout my Diwali stars below !!
2. Recipes - I was told to make sure I had all my family favourite recipes with me when we left home and to make sure I had the necessary ingredients. As an example, our Christmas cake and pudding wouldn't be the same without Queensland Bundaberg Rum - not easily found in India !!
3. Be prepared - it is never too early to start planning what you need and where you are going to get those things for Christmas. There might be someone travelling for work who can grab that 'special something' from another country and you will never be scared to ask !! I am always shopping for birthdays and Christmas when we are home in July.
For us it is all about the four of us spending the day together - that is what makes Christmas abroad special - it is just us. A lot of people take the time to travel somewhere new or to go home but at great expense over the silly season. There is also the option of going to one of the big hotels for Christmas lunch/dinner and I am sure they are lovely. However, for us it is all about the home cooked lunch with all the trimmings, and then Christmas pudding afterwards. yum !!
As the Christmas period approaches, I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to go to Hong Kong this coming weekend to stock up on some 'necessities' (I call it how I see it !!) . Thank you to my very generous husband for making this possible. Apart from an opportunity for Max and I to catch up with good friends, this trip will be full of shopping - otherwise known as a 'meat run'.
The following list is by no means exhaustive but it will definitely make Christmas in Hyderabad enjoyable. The shopping list is actually not very long, as I have been very well organised and brought some things with me in August, and had my Mum bring some in October. I want to preface the below list with 'yes, I can get some of these online or even here in Hyderabad' but not always at a sensible cost or in the quality we wish for. So here goes:
From an Indian perspective, Christmas is not really celebrated. Things have changed significantly even in the last 5 years but it is still not a major holiday. With the explosion of online shopping, you can get a lot of things from Amazon, Flipcart and big stores such as Decathlon. And we now have Ikea in Hyderabad who sell decorations but it just isn't the same and is on a much smaller scale. We have just experience 3 years of Christmas being done properly in Hong Kong - where they definitely celebrate Christmas in style with decorations in every apartment building, office, mall and access to all the things that you need to make Christmas like home. So it is a shock to the system being back where it seems to be a tinsel-free zone again.
Being Australian, one thing that doesn't cause us any trouble over the Christmas period is the weather in Hyderabad. We are not wishing for snow and cold weather, and even though the temperatures have definitely dropped recently in Hyderabad, it is still shorts and t-shirt weather !! Very "Christmas in Australia".
A few of the best tips I received before we embarked on this expat adventure over five years ago were as follows :
1. To take the Christmas tree and decorations with us, as it may not be available in the new country or could be very costly - better to just have it in the shipment. A number of our decorations have not made it through the numerous moves we have made and some are starting to look a little sad but every year we are so happy when we open that big packing box full of familiar decorations. We have also had the great pleasure of adding to the box with items from our expat life - some from our own travels, and others as gifts from friends from other countries. Christmas decorations are such a lovely gift for expats. As a side note, it is often fun to look around and see what local things might work during the holiday period - Diwali decorations can often be re-purposed for Christmas - checkout my Diwali stars below !!
2. Recipes - I was told to make sure I had all my family favourite recipes with me when we left home and to make sure I had the necessary ingredients. As an example, our Christmas cake and pudding wouldn't be the same without Queensland Bundaberg Rum - not easily found in India !!
3. Be prepared - it is never too early to start planning what you need and where you are going to get those things for Christmas. There might be someone travelling for work who can grab that 'special something' from another country and you will never be scared to ask !! I am always shopping for birthdays and Christmas when we are home in July.
For us it is all about the four of us spending the day together - that is what makes Christmas abroad special - it is just us. A lot of people take the time to travel somewhere new or to go home but at great expense over the silly season. There is also the option of going to one of the big hotels for Christmas lunch/dinner and I am sure they are lovely. However, for us it is all about the home cooked lunch with all the trimmings, and then Christmas pudding afterwards. yum !!
As the Christmas period approaches, I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to go to Hong Kong this coming weekend to stock up on some 'necessities' (I call it how I see it !!) . Thank you to my very generous husband for making this possible. Apart from an opportunity for Max and I to catch up with good friends, this trip will be full of shopping - otherwise known as a 'meat run'.
The following list is by no means exhaustive but it will definitely make Christmas in Hyderabad enjoyable. The shopping list is actually not very long, as I have been very well organised and brought some things with me in August, and had my Mum bring some in October. I want to preface the below list with 'yes, I can get some of these online or even here in Hyderabad' but not always at a sensible cost or in the quality we wish for. So here goes:
- Christmas Bon-Bons
- Advent Calendars - crappy pieces of chocolate for the boys
- Mixed dried fruit including mixed peel
- Duck/Goose Fat - I can taste those roast potatoes now !
- Brown Sugar - can get plenty of sugar but brown sugar not so easy to find
- Cheese........ good Dutch and Australian cheese......
- Baking Paper.....this one has missed a couple shopping lists and I am desperately low !!
- Limes - those Corona's need a good lime not crappy Indian lemons
- Wine - again, we can get wine here but a good bottle of Shiraz on Christmas day is well well worth it
- Ham/Pork/Lamb/Smoked Salmon - I said it was meat run !! Thank you to good friends ordering this and freezing it for me :)
- Bubbles !! What Christmas day exists without champagne, and the best champagne is duty free
Happy Christmas planning :)
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| Christmas pudding preparation ........ |
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| Diwali stars |
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| Diwali stars |
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| The beer advent calendar was not as easy in India either. Trying to find 24 different beers was a struggle ! |
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| These are my 'camel bells' from the Pushkar Camel fair but we know them as our Reindeer bells |
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