For the last four years, I have had a UK/Europe Christmas. This has been a massive shift from the heatwave Aussie Christmases that I grew up having. I remember constantly dreaming about waking up on Christmas day to the snowy, winter surrounds that you see in all the movies that are on TV around that time. But no, my version was desert heat and flies. Why are there so many flies?
So moving to the UK brought an end to the fly-infested, outdoor Christmases that I know and for the most part, loathed. Apart from the bit where my mum did all the cooking and preparations and I sat there eating chocolate from 9 am till infinity, I was so happy to say goodbye to this version of this holiday. So I am going to go for a walk down memory lane and look at the last four Christmases in this neck of the woods.
Christmas #1 – Belgium 2017
This was my first ‘orphan Christmas’ as it is known in the expat community. This is one of the times when you first move to London and you need to scramble and figure out what you will be doing to make sure you can enjoy the time as much as you can. This year I decided to flee the flat I lived in at that time in Shepherds Bush and go to Bruges with my flatmate for a few days, which was so much fun. Belgium this time of year, along with many European cities, was so beautifully Christmassy and was a delight to explore. We made the most of our Eurostar ticket and visited Bruges, Ghent and Brussels.
Christmas #2 – Austria 2018
I decided to join my sister on this trip as her husband’s family travelled up from Gosford, NSW and had rented a big B&B in Salzburg for this time. My sis, her husband and their baby were driving there from the UK and decided to pass through Munich on the way, as you do. So I chose to fly into Munich for a night, do some exploring with them on the following day and then we would all drive for 1.5 hours to Grossmein, which is on the border of Germany and Austria. It was nice spending Christmas with these guys as it was the first white Christmas many of them had experienced. It was so great being able to spend Christmas with my baby nephew then of course too. We were able to take advantage of the car here again and check out other cities in Austria including the gorgeous Hallstatt, Linz, Innsbruck and lastly but definitely not least, Vienna. Austria is such a cool place, I definitely want to go back there.
Hallstatt was the most picturesque town 
The backdrop to so, so many Instagram photos, Popp & Kretschmer in Vienna 
Salzburg’s Christmas Market
Christmas #3 – England 2019
This was the first Christmas that I spent with my boyfriend’s family and also the first time I got to see the home, and town that he grew up in, which was very special. It was super cute hearing the stories about what he did in town there, seeing his primary school and also having the privilege of seeing his baby photos when his very proud mum pulled out the photo albums. This was also the first “normal” Christmas that I have experienced as growing up, we didn’t really do Christmas. Growing up in a family where Christmas was not our religion, it was such a nice experience to see the traditions and rituals that make this occasion special with his family.
Christmas #4 – London 2020
This was a covid Christmas, so not going to pretend it was all magical and exciting like previous years. We had planned to do a repeat of the previous year and up until a few days before we were due to take the 3+ hour train ride north to repeat the holiday, Bo Jo said no. Which meant that boyfriend and I were still in England, but in our London flat this year. A last-minute run to Tescos was now in order to grab as much Christmas food for dinner that we could find as the panic buying fear set in and our thoughts turned to, if we don’t get a turkey now, all shelves will be empty tomorrow.
We are extremely lucky people, there is no denying that, so the day itself was still very special. I don’t think there will be a Christmas again (I hope!) where it will be just us two, so living in this moment was the aim and I think we did that pretty well. There were family video calls starting from 10 am (having most of your family in the Southern hemisphere means early starts) followed by a couple of other family video catch-ups later in the day to catch up with his family too. And that was Christmas 2020 wrapped up.
Thanks for reading,
Mel x