It feels like everyone’s ramping up for Christmas, and that’s true even in the Oliver’s Travels office! We’ve hung some decorations up and traditionally mocked and/or celebrated anyone who dons a seasonally naff sweater or something like a Womens Cropped Sweater. But there are more traditions out there than jumper abuse and over-boiled sprouts, and seeing as how we’ve got a staff as diverse as our range of luxury villas and chateaux, we thought we’d ask them what some of their favourite Christmas customs are from their part of the world. From France to Australia via Denmark, Peru and a whole lot more, there’s even a couple of recipes in there so you might even be inspired to start up a new Christmas tradition of your own!
Leti from France:
“What we usually do in my dad’s family is two rounds of presents. The first round is for silly presents – one time, my dad went to a sex shop and bought special lollipops for everyone, apart from the kids of course! We only got normal shaped chocolates. Big let down, but we were only 10 so looking back I understand why we didn’t get any…
If we don’t have a theme to dress up (see below!) my aunties usually buy silly things for us to wear throughout the dinner.
Let (left) all dressed up with the folks for Christmas
For food, if we are at my dad’s side, Mamy makes her very famous chicken and mash! No one can compete with that. If we are at my mum’s side, we usually have lobster from my uncle’s shop in Lyon, followed by roe (not sure if that’s the word it’s chevreuil in French) with loads of gravy and some chanterelles mushroom. Then wherever in France, the desert has to be a Buche de Noel. Depending of where we have dinner, the people who haven’t cooked buy it or my uncle, who is a chef, bakes one!”
Cat from Romania:
“Well, Romanian Christmas is all about being reunited with the family, eating, eating some more and being merry!
Starting with Christmas Eve people open their doors to welcome Colindatori (Romanian carollers). This is one of my favourite traditions, proudly passed from one generation to another. Kids and grown-ups, mostly men gather in groups and go from home to home to sing about generosity, forgiveness, sacrifice and prosperity. We don’t usually sing about Christmas as a holiday, but tend to have a more religious and epic approach. The carollers are rewarded with homemade cakes, straight from the oven, apples and walnuts and a glass of Tuica, Romanian Moon Shine to keep them warm for the road (only for the grown-ups of course!) This festive tradition brings a lot of warmth to each house and a sense of cohesion. Such an amazing tradition that it even got recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible heritage. Listen to one of my favourites:”
Renata from Brazil:
“In Brazil Christmas is the time to do charity, volunteer work and to give back to the needed ones. In December a lot of people go to visit elderly homes and orphanages.
It’s really common for a family to donate a Christmas basket with festive food, toys and books for children.
Charity and good vibes for a Brazilian Christmas!
There is a big national campaign that is called “Sponsor a letter” from the Correios (Brazilian national post office company).
Children all around the country send the letters to Santa Claus (the post office), all letters are read and filtered by the post office team, then made available to the ones who want to help. Anyone can go the post office, grab a letter and be the Santa Claus of a less fortunate kid.”
Alice from Australia:
“An Australian Christmas Day is all about escaping the heat, so we head to the beach or just down to the shady backyard for a swim and cocktails by the pool. My mum spends days putting up about 6km of Christmas bunting in the garden and our food spread is usually made up of mango and prawn salads, some festive sangria and BBQ meats. My family finishes it off each year with an ice-cream version of a traditional pudding. It’s creamy, cold and boozy – what more could you want on a hot summers day?! My recipe for this is slightly adapted from this BBC recipe!
Escaping the heat at the beach
For the boozy fruit
- 100g sultanas
- 100g raisins
- 100g pack dried apricots
- 100g fresh or frozen cranberries
- 10 tbsp brandy
For the ice cream
- 2 cinnamon sticks, snapped in half
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 4 cloves
- 600ml pot double cream
- 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
- 3 large egg yolks
- 100g caster sugar
- 6 ginger nut biscuits, broken into chunks
- zest ½ lemon and ½ an orange
Method
- Mix all of the boozy fruit ingredients together in a bowl, put on a hot stove until close to boil. Stir, then leave to cool completely, ideally overnight.
- For the ice cream, put the spices in a saucepan and gently heat for 3 mins or so, stirring once or twice, until it’s smelling fragrant. Tip in the cream and vanilla, and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar together. Whisk the hot cream into the egg mix, then tip the mix into a clean pan and gently heat for 5-10 mins until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Pour everything into a bowl or plastic container and leave to cool completely. If possible, chill it overnight as this will infuse the ice cream with a stronger Christmassy spice flavour.
- Pass the mix through a sieve into another container, then freeze for 5 hrs, stirring in the frozen edges with a fork every hour until you have a smooth, thick mix. Grease a large pudding bowl and line with cling film.
- Drain the boozy fruit, mix the fruit with the gingernuts and zests, then quickly stir into the ice cream. Tip into your bowl, cover the surface with cling film, then freeze overnight.”
Maria from Colombia:
“In Colombia we celebrate Christmas with the family on the evening of the 24th – Menu is usually both turkey and roast pork, cranberry sauce, potato mash and a Christmassy salad and traditional pudding like “Natilla”. And of course you can’t miss the “buñuelos” to snack on before dinner – and during every single day of December with all the “Novenas” events! (Because of course celebrating just one day isn’t enough for us Colombians, we created a party for each of the 9 days previous to Christmas as well!) The 24th evenings are quite lively, and at midnight the crazy (or drunk) uncle comes in dressed as Santa and gives out all the presents under the tree. Weirdly though, we don’t actually get our Christmas presents from Santa, but from Baby Jesus! So as kids, the morning of the 25th (for us that’s just “the day after Christmas”) we used to wake up to a bed filled with presents that Baby Jesus had brought. Obviously the best morning of the year!
I leave you with one of the traditional “villancicos” (Christmas carols) in Colombia… Quality stuff!”
Tasj from Denmark (and New Zealand):
“You really can’t bet a Danish Jul (Christmas). It’s all about hygge – roughly meaning cosiness. Creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with friends and family. The warm glow of candles dotted through houses, the aroma of Christmas biscuits baking, hot cacao, hand-making jul slick (marzipan and nougat filled chocolates) and of course the incredible food we have around Jul time. In Denmark the main celebrations take place on Christmas Eve (dinner, dessert, carols around the tree, present opening followed by coffee, tea and snacking on the Jul slick). Along with the main course of roast duck, pickled red cabbage and caramelised potatoes, the traditional dessert is Risalamande. Although the thought of rice pudding may put you off, this is nothing like the British school dinner version. It’s fairly simple to make but just ensure you make a huge batch so you can serve it cold over several days, and trust me you’ll be coming back for plenty of servings! It also involves a little game that our family plays as part of the tradition (see below).
Delicious Danish Risalamnde!
Risalamnde (Ris – ala – mande)
- Cook up short-grain white rice in the microwave with full fat milk and 1-2 vanilla beans.
- Once cooked, pour over a couple of spoons of sherry, and leave to cool completely in the fridge, overnight is fine.
- Blanch almonds and chop coarsely and add to the cooled mixture.
- Whip cream with some sugar and then stir into the rice mixture.
- Warm up some jars/tins of cherry’s in sauce and thicken with cornflour if needed.
- Serve the hot cherry sauce over the cold, creamy rice pudding. Enjoy J
*Game* Keep aside 1 or 2 whole blanched almonds. The person who finds this while tucking into the dessert must keep this secretly until everyone is finished. Once revealed they win a small gift such as candy or some speciality tea. My Aunties always do a bowl for the men and one for the girls as we know who takes the bigger portions!”
Oliver from England:
“Champagne, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Followed by present opening at 11ish. Then drinks with locals or a walk. Lunch at 3ish, traditional turkey dinner. Then games afterwards (very drunken Articulate and Charades). Followed by tears from someone (changes each year), followed by more drinks, followed by memory loss, followed by hangover. Repeat following year.”
Oliver and Family
Felix from Peru:
“Christmas is a special time for most Peruvians; perhaps the biggest distinction with European countries is that our celebrations are not on Christmas day but the night before on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve religion plays a central role in my family, some will go mass at 10pm, whilst others will stay preparing the house for the festivities to come – by clearing out the living room and dining rooms of furniture in order to transform them into dance floors.
Friends and Family return at midnight, to toast the birth of baby Jesus with Champagne and begin to celebrate Christmas with large roast turkey dinner, before exchanging presents.
What makes Christmas more magical is that we select at random a member of the family to play Father Christmas himself.
Meeting Santa in Peru
After filling the house with music, food, laughter and drinks, most sleep till the early morning of December 25 and awake to hot chocolate, which is usually made from scratch from melted rich dark chocolate, cinnamon and cloves – along with sweet bread called Panettone.”
Ravi from India and France:
“I spent 13 Christmas’s on the trot in Bali, surrounded by palm trees and beaches, as a result Turkey has never felt like appropriate fare on Christmas day, we always eat something Indonesian… we pretty much have rendang (and Champers) every year!”
Tasty (but not massively festive) rendang
Julia from Italy and Finland:
“Having Italian and Finnish roots, my Christmas traditions are a unique blend of two cultures! The most important happening is Christmas Eve dinner, when the whole family gathers to unwrap the presents and enjoy an endless selection of fish-based food. The “must starter” has to be the typical Finnish salt-cured raw salmon with rye bread, salty butter and dill, watered with excellent Valdobbiadene Prosecco! Octopus salad, pepper mussels, green sauce squids, grilled lobster and spaghetti with clams will then follow, along with a selection of wines from the South of Italy.
Traditional gravadlax
If that were not enough, Finnish “Christmas Stars” filled with prawn jam, “Struffoli” from Naples and Mascarpone-filled Pandoro will make sure you will have be fed enough for the rest of the year! Yes, the motto is … EAT AS IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW!”
Feeling inspired by the festive tips and fancy heading out to explore a few customs of your own? Whether you know exactly where you want to go or need some guidance on the perfect destination, our concierge team is on hand to help! Can’t get enough Christmas inspiration? Have a look at our favourite Christmas cottages and our warming Christmas villas to get the ball rolling!
Picture credits: Beef rendang via Maythee Anegboonlap on Flickr, gravadlax picture via Beck on Flickr.
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