Hi everyone!

It’s only a few hours until Christmas now, and I thought I would do something extra fun for my last festive blog post of the year. Most of you guys who read my blog posts are from completely different parts of the world! On the same day, I’ll have readers from: England, UAE, Vietnam, Singapore, Greece, Germany, the U.S., France, The Netherlands, and Canada (to mention a few!). And I love this! I wanted to appreciate this global community in the festive season… So I’ve gathered festive traditions from bloggers all across the world and asked them all to write a paragraph sharing a special Christmas tradition that they each have. I hope you enjoy reading about what people all across the world do to celebrate this season. They may seem like small things, but these little traditions are what makes the holidays so special for everyone. Feel free to comment one of your holiday traditions in the comment section at the end of this post!

New Jersey, USA

Natalie Park – Capturing Life on Camera Blog

“Every year, my family and I play “Dirty Santa” where everyone brings a gift that is around $25. Everyone gets a number and goes around and chooses a gift in the order of their numbers. The fun in the game is that you can steal presents so the later numbers have the best shot. Every year my Grandma brings the worst gifts. At this point, I own a crystal vase, some vitamins, and too many regifted candles. It has become a running joke in my family that my grandma is the worst gift giver!”

Kent, England

Jasmine – Just Jasmineella Blog

“Hi I’m Jasmine and I’m from England, Kent. One tradition that my family and I have is having new Christmas pjs on Christmas Eve. I still get really excited about this! Every year my mum wraps up a fresh, new, festive pair of matching pyjamas for me and my sister to slip into right after a lovely hot bath. She has done this ever since we were tiny, when we were babies it was little Christmas sleep-suits! She always picks a beautiful set that starts the excitement and build up for the next day. They tend to be a traditional button up style with a Christmassy print of some kind. I love doing this because it’s so lovely when me and my sister are opening our presents in matching pyjamas in front of the Christmas tree. We usually have a photograph of us both in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve leaving a snack ready for Father Christmas and a carrot for the reindeer. These are special Christmas memories that I will always treasure and wish to carry on with my own children when I’m older.”

Florida, USA

Liddy Dow – @itsliddystyle

“First off, I want thank Little Miss Expat for having me on her blog. She is such an inspiration and has an amazing story that I connected to from the beginning. She has achieved so much this year and it’s a privilege of mine to called her a friend on Instagram!  My name is Liddy and I run the Instagram Fashion account, @itsliddystyle. Little Miss Expat asked me what my Christmas tradition is and I would love to share it with you all. Before I moved to where I live now, every Christmas Eve we would go over to my families house and have a huge party. My favorite part about that upcoming day was picking out my fancy dress to wear that night. I looked forward to it ever year. It was an exciting night that was filled with laughter and love. Continuing with another tradition I have, is every Christmas or so my family rents a beach house and we stay for about a week. It’s always so nice to see all of my cousins and family together at once. My favorite memory was a couple of years ago when we decided to dig a HUGE hole in the sand. It look us all day and in the end it could fit all 6 of us cousins in it. (We even made sand stairs and a bench inside). It was such a fun experience to work with my cousins and I will never forget it.  But those are my Christmas traditions I have. Thank you again, LME for letting me share my experiences with you on your blog. I hope everyone has a great week and have a happy holiday and Merry Christmas!”

Cairns, Australia

Elina Passant – Just So Elina Blog

“My favourite Christmas tradition would have to be our little Christmas Day vlogs we make every year. My mum started filming Christmas morning when I was 2 on her old camcorder, you know the ones that record onto tapes instead of sd cards. As I got older I started adding onto her little videos, so once she filmed us opening presents I would film who we were spending Christmas with, our animals and whatever Christmassy activity we were doing that morning like making a gingerbread house. We continue to make the vlogs to this day and I love it because I get to look back on past years and my favourite Christmas memories. It’s also what started my love for filming videos, so it’s really been a win win tradition.”

Erfurt, Germany

Sixtina Alwardt – Six Miles Away Blog

“ADVENTSKALENDER

One typical German tradition is the Adventskalender. It basically serves as a countdown until Christmas. Starting from the 1st of December until 24th, you can open one “door” per day. Each of these doors is filled with chocolates (usually).

However, over the years these calendars changed in shape, size and filling. Lots of companies sell these calendars with their products. This can be herbs, toys, cosmetics and so on. You can even buy couple calendars nowadays. Super cool idea.

DIY Adventskalenders also become more and more popular. This basically means someone in your family is making and filling it for you. This way they are more personalised.

Adventskalenders really don’t have an age. Young and older people enjoy them equally every year.”

Buckinghamshire, England

Lexie – What Lexie Loves Blog

“For the last couple of years, my family has welcomed a new tradition… our Christmas Morning Muffins. Every Christmas Eve my mum makes up a batch of these orange and cranberry muffins, and in the morning we bake them and have the fresh and warm. The cinnamon-ny, fruity taste is delicious and just reminds me of Christmas. It’s a small, simple tradition but it really does make my Christmas morning… we love huddling around the breakfast table eating them!

Rohini Kudva – RoRo K Designs Blog

“My family loves watching movies and every year we always take one day before Christmas to have a long marathon. The marathon usually includes Elf, The Holiday, All of the Holiday episodes from Friends, a Charlie Brown Christmas, and many more. I’m the only one that enjoys Hallmark Movies, so we only watch a couple. My aunt makes really yummy gingerbread cookies and ginger tea, which we eat while we watch the movies. It’s something I always look forward to every year.”

Dubai, UAE

ME!

I’ve grown up spending Christmas in different places around the world, but one of the traditions that is pretty steady in my family is our Christmas walks. In my family after we eat Christmas lunch, we all go for a walk (to work off all the food we ate!) and to enjoy the winter nature of England before we go back to Dubai. Only after the walk are we allowed to open our presents!

I hope you enjoyed reading about these Christmas traditions from around the world! Comment down below a Christmas tradition you have and where you’re from! Merry Christmas everyone!

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