Of course I'm living in France now with mon doux mari.....new traditions, like eating oysters, yule logs, and King's cake to name a few things. But, gift giving, Christmas trees, decorations are similar. However....most of all, I'll miss being with my children and grandchildren, and taking them to the Hotel Del Coronado on Christmas Eve. Lighting candles on Christmas Eve was another tradition we began there....a candle for the people in our memory who are no longer with us during the holiday season. In the words of my eldest son uttered when he was only 4, "Happy Birthday Jesus" who is after all, the reason for the season....n'est-ce pas?
English family - Christmas is always spent with my other half's large family, everyone round to their parents on Christmas day, we were organising this Christmas yesterday at her nièce's birthday party. So it's a truly family affair with about 20 to 30 of us around the table all afternoon and the kids love playing with all their cousins. I prefer it to a UK christmas and infact miss nothing about a UK christmas and thinking about it missing family that I only see every couple of years is something that I feel throughout the year so not really a christmas thing, just that it's one of the times I'll phone them all so it hits home a bit more!