Watching Snowed Inn Christmas. Got me thinking.
Loving the Christmas tree . I remember being small enough to build a so called fort underneath it . Cuddling those presents . Sure I did peek . Couldn’t help myself.
The family meal with the relatives.
Yes the dogs got there own presents. And opened them up on their own .
Any memories ?
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I’m not a big Christmas person and have got thoroughly bored with the same old traditions. For literally years, I’ve said I want to go away for the festives to Tenerife. Family commitments always prevented it. But we managed it last Christmas, when we went for 10 days.
Christmas Day lunch went exactly as I’d hoped for years it would. Not a sign of turkey or tinsel. We ate in a very touristy beachside restaurant and I tucked in to the biggest steak on the menu. No, it wasnt great food but it was an item ticked off a literal bucket list.
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Don’t do Christmas/New Year/birthday but my birthday is between those 2 holidays so I’m never home starting from mid Dec through the first week of Jan.
The most memorable was in 2009, simply because I was not in any country. I was on a ship drifting round Antarctica (also made a few landings on Antarctica). Almost every day I shared a table with a pair of pensioners from Madrid who were similar to the partner and I (highly introverted, love to travel and travel to eat and drink!). I also met a lovely Hong Konger (half British) who was impeccable when it came to food/eating and extremely well-travelled as well. We shared the same table when not sitting with the Madrileños/pensioners.
Last Christmas was on La Palma island (southern parts only). It was a walking holiday and did that nearly every single day. Incredible volcanic landscape at every turn, not crowded, great wines and food.
2017 in Busan, Korea. Fantastic (sea)food. But when we got back to Seoul just before New Year it was so cold every day (-7C to -10C). The food in Korea blew my mind. Had a nice time in this country. Still planning to return but the partner wants to go to Taiwan again before Korea.
Christmas 2006, first time visiting Lisbon (/Portugal). Having recently returned to Lisbon for the first time and boy, it was a big shock to the (sensory) system and for the wallet. My Lisbon acquaintances and I talked about the Lisbon we remember before mass tourism changed the capital and the way of life.
I think it will be another nice getaway this Christmas/New Year, where it’s not too cold, not busy, we will bike and walk, good food and wine (which I will be drinking a lot of).
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As kids, we often spent the holidays at my paternal grandmother’s house in Bremerhaven. It was an amazing place built by famous architect Hans Scharoun, who also built the Berliner Philharmonie — he married into our family, I guess.
The house had a ‘garden room’ that was round, and that was off-limits to us kids until xmas eve, which is the big day in Germany.
On xmas eve at 4 or 5pm, my grandmother would ring a tiny silver bell, which meant that we could now finally enter the room, which was heavy with pine scent from the xmas tree, all lit up gloriously with real candles, and tastefully decorated. A plate of cookies, oranges, and walnuts would be on the table where we’d sit and open the presents. I can still smell that room. It was absolute magic.
Another memory was coming out of a late mass in Munich, where my maternal grandmother resided, and it just happened that that night two stars were aligned, encouraging my then still held belief that the xmas star was real 
Then there was the xmas eve at my mom’s place when we’d sat down to play some xmas tunes with my mom and my sister playing the recorder, while I was strumming the guitar.
Our little terrier/chihuahua mix Einstein was sniffing around under the tree, with wax dropping onto his fur, when he proceeded to barf right beneath the tree. I was the only one who was able to continue playing, as both my mom and sis lost their ish laughing. Hard to play the recorder when yer cracking up.
I’ll have to think about others, but these popped up right away when I saw your post, @John.
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I have had many nice Christmas/NY holidays but Phu Quoc island (Vietnam) was kind of more special than most.
No internet, no telly/radio/news, 2 hours of electricity in the evening. Stayed at a simple guest house a few steps from the beach, just a spartan room with 2 twin beds and a flushing toilet. Ate dinner every night at a beach shack behind the guest house, where I drank beer and talked with Scottish Mitch who lived on a houseboat in Nottingham. At the empty beach every day, sometimes local children came round but didn’t try to sell us anything.
Reluctantly left the island after a week only because we had 2 weeks to make our way to Ha Noi for the flight home. That’s from farthest south to the north. When back on the mainland I went to an internet place to check mail. I have no one but partner’s family was trying desperately to locate us. The tsunami!!!
We were at the beach every day. Luckily Phu Quoc is some distance away. My Gott!
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