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Celebrating Christmas as a British Expat in the USA

December 23, 2015 By Katie MacLeod 14 Comments

Globe Christmas Tree Ornament

When I moved to the USA last December, the festive season was already in full swing.

Enthralled by New York’s Christmas lights and overwhelmed by transporting my life halfway across the world, I barely had time to blink before the 25th arrived. A year later, and I’ve been able to watch the excitement for the season build – not to mention notice some of the differences between the annual celebrations on either side of the pond.

First of all, there’s the name of the holiday. Here, a lot of people don’t call it Christmas: the general festive season is referred to more often than not as simply ‘The Holidays’, encompassing all the various events and religious celebrations taking place throughout November and December. I still haven’t quite got used to this, and find myself wishing a ‘Merry Christmas’ to those who then admit they don’t actually celebrate it. Oops!

The Christmas tunes that jingle from car radios and shop speakers are quite different too. While the old-school classics from Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and the like are still around, the hits from the 70s and 80s that are cultural touchstones in the UK are nowhere to be found.

Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ and Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ never fail to remind me of primary school Christmas parties or secondary school discos, yet they’re completely unknown on this side of the pond. My American husband was also highly dubious of the festive merits of the likes of A Fairytale of New York and Lonely This Christmas – more British Christmas classics that mark the arrival of the festive season when they first air on BBC Radio 1 or 2.

Christmas Baubles on 6th Avenue NYC

Getting into the Christmas spirit

I vaguely miss the Oscar-worthy Christmas television adverts that appear in the UK at this time of year (my all-time favourite is still this one, from British department store, John Lewis).

There’s something strange too about not seeing posters for the pantomime, a classic event which I tried and failed to explain effectively to my American family and friends as an extravagant reworking of children’s fairytales with men in drag, outlandish jokes, and lots of shouting at the stage.  (It’s a lot better than it sounds, I promise!)

Then there’s the food. Aside from those of us Brits abroad who know where the best British expat shops are (in New York that’s the likes of Myers of Keswick and The Butcher’s Block) there are no bumper-sized tins of Quality Street or Roses, no Cadbury selection boxes or chocolate advent calendars. Thankfully, my family and friends in the UK know that for me Christmas would not be Christmas without the requisite chocolates, so our kitchen cupboards are now full not of food, but of excessively large quantities of Quality Street.

Myers of Keswick New York City

As I learned last year, there’s also the fact that families here have already eaten turkey at Thanksgiving, and so the dinner table come December 25th is more likely to be piled high with beef roasts and glazed hams than the traditional British turkey.

Christmas portions follow the same pattern as food here more generally (read: extra extra large) so our attempt at cooking a giant turkey for two last year was quite the experience! My mini chipolatas wrapped in bacon – another British staple that hasn’t made its mark in America yet – luckily turned out to be rather tasty.

Then there was the debacle with my search for a turnip. While I was successful in finding some Christmas crackers for our dinner table (Americans don’t usually have them), I failed on my mission to buy a turnip to accompany the turkey and the rest of the trimmings.

Admittedly, the ‘turnip’ I bought looked slightly strange, not at all like the ones you find in Tesco (a British supermarket, for any American readers out there), but I put it down to being in a different country. I also ignored the fact that the ‘turnip’ was called a watermelon radish; this is the country where people call trousers ‘pants’, so relating the humble turnip to a giant radish didn’t seem too far-fetched.

It wasn’t a turnip. I learned too late that on this side of the pond, what we call ‘turnips’ in Scotland are known as ‘rutabegas’, and can be difficult to find. Watermelon radishes are something else entirely, and certainly not suitable for a wannabe Scottish Christmas dinner. You can bet I won’t be repeating that mistake this year!

Santa dolls at Macy's New York

For all the cross-cultural quirks, I love that here in the USA, people go all out at Christmas, just like they do with sports, weddings, and the Fourth of July.

You haven’t seen Christmas decorations until you’ve seen them in the US!  So far I’ve spotted a shivering inflatable Santa in a garden, a sleigh on a porch roof, countless garden nativity scenes, and festive wreaths on nearly every door.

And then there’s New York, which is a simply wonderful place to be at this time of year. Yes, it’s even more crowded and crazy than usual, but somehow that adds to the charm. There are the ice rinks in Central Park and Bryant Park; the intricately detailed department store windows on Fifth Avenue; the entire 9th floor of Macy’s that makes you feel like a five-year-old in Santa’s grotto; and the unusual celebrations, like pop-up Christmas bars and vintage subway cars festooned with Christmas wreaths.

Macy's Christmas Decorations in New York

As a British expat in the USA, my experience of Christmas is a bit like my experience of expat life more generally: a mix of wonder and excitement at the new, and a nostalgia for the familiar.

But being someone who loves new experiences, I find it fascinating to watch these different traditions unfold, and enjoy melding the two together in a British-American household.

This year, we’ve had fun choosing which real Christmas tree we wanted (and drove carefully back from the store with it strapped precariously to the roof of the car). We’ve been watching classic Christmas movies, working our way through three (yes, three!) chocolate advent calendars from the UK, and even took in a Scottish American performance of Christmas songs at the Clan Currie’s annual Pipes of Christmas concert on Madison Avenue.

Hearing a pipe band perform O Come All Ye Faithful was majestic (and I may have had to blink furiously to bat away tears when the band went full force on the chorus of Highland Cathedral). A Mod Gold Medalist sang O Little Town of Bethlehem in Gaelic, and there was tartan and tweed in almost every outfit. I have a feeling the Pipes of Christmas will be a new festive tradition for us from now on.

On the day itself, we’ll be bringing together Christmas traditions by eating beef and turkey, pulling crackers and wearing funny paper hats, and going for a Christmas Day walk with a view of the Manhattan skyline to prepare for those chipolatas and Quality Streets. In other words, we’ll be having a very Merry British-American Christmas!

British expat in the USA

Bryant Park Winter Village New York City

____________________

What are your favourite Christmas traditions? Have you ever experienced Christmas in another country? What was it like?

Let me know in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you.

And also: have a very Merry Christmas, wherever you are in the world!

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Comments

  1. Mel Hattie says

    December 23, 2015 at 9:40 am

    I have never had chipolatas and am now very intrigued. Happy holidays!

    Reply
    • Katie MacLeod says

      December 23, 2015 at 10:13 am

      They might just be my favourite part of Christmas dinner! Thanks Mel, and Happy Holidays to you too 🙂 !

      Reply
  2. Elaine says

    December 23, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    Great post, I would love to experience Christmas time in New York one day. I don’t know how I would cope without Quality Street though! Happy Christmas!
    P. S. That’s my all time favourite John Lewis advert too!

    Reply
    • Katie MacLeod says

      December 23, 2015 at 5:24 pm

      Thanks, Elaine! Christmas in New York really is a lovely as it seems in the movies (as cheesy as that sounds!). The British shop I visit was unbelievably busy this week, full of people stocking up on Quality Street and all those hard-to-find things for Christmas 🙂 Happy Christmas to you too!

      Reply
  3. The Mauritian Geographer says

    December 24, 2015 at 6:07 am

    Oh my! Those decorations! I’m currently living in a Christmas-free country at the moment – Turkey. People here, for some reason, think that Christmas is New Year and they’re like, oh but that’s another week away. Not that it’s stopping me from having some fun. Shopping malls having been decorated – all for commercial purposes – and I’m having my Christmassy starbucks drinks 😉 Good food awaits this week. Merry Christmas!

    Reply
    • Katie MacLeod says

      December 24, 2015 at 10:12 am

      Aren’t they great? I love how people here go all-out with the decorations! Turkey must be interesting at this time of year. It sounds similar to what China was like when I was there at Christmas – the malls are all decorated for commercial purposes, but very few people actually celebrate, and it’s not an official holiday. At least those red festive cups are everywhere 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

      Reply
  4. Lucy says

    December 30, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    How gorgeous does New York at Christmas look! (not that it’s not pretty fabulous all the rest of the year too). I do love a Christmas at home but have spent a couple away in Australia – one in Perth with the family and one in Sydney on a gap year – interesting to do but Christmas really has to be cold for me, being on the beach in 30 degree sunshine just doesn’t feel quite right!

    Reply
    • Katie MacLeod says

      January 1, 2016 at 12:52 pm

      It really is wonderful at Christmas time 🙂 I’ve never had a warm Christmas – I can imagine that must have felt quite odd!

      Reply
  5. Camila @ AdventitiousViolet says

    January 2, 2016 at 6:27 pm

    haha I feel I’m experiencing the other side of the medal having grown up with a typical North American upbringing, with Christmas lights, snow everywhere, real Christmas trees, etc. And now that I’m in Scotland it’s definitely different. We went much less for a big dinner, but here it’s so typically massive and traditional! I’m starting to love it! and I love Christmas poppers and none-ironic Christmas jumpers haha It’s definitely difficult not to be with my friends and family so much, but being with my boyfriend here feels like it’s the beginning of new traditions! 🙂

    Reply
    • Katie MacLeod says

      January 2, 2016 at 7:31 pm

      Haha yes, in Scotland Christmas dinner really is massive and traditional – I love it! And I agree, it is hard being away from family, but creating new traditions is always lovely 🙂 Hope you’ve had a lovely festive season!

      Reply
  6. Kylie N says

    December 1, 2016 at 9:55 am

    I’be bought a couple of boxes of Christmas crackers and my mum has shipped over a Cadbury’s advent calendar and a tub of celebrations and I’m going to make Yorkshire Puddings for Christmas dinner. But no typical Christmas songs? Guess I’ll have to rely on my iTunes or YouTube!

    Reply
    • Katie MacLeod says

      December 2, 2016 at 7:47 am

      My parents brought over advent calendars when they visited for Thanksgiving – so we have one Galaxy calendar, and one Cadbury one! (They brought a rather large pile of Roses and Quality Street too!). And nope, none of our cheesy 80s Christmas music… I’ll be interested to see what you make of your first American Christmas!

      Reply
  7. Anne-Marie LaPointe says

    December 3, 2019 at 9:54 am

    My Mom also insisted on mashed turnip with our Christmas meal. Perhaps that’s a throwback to our English ancestry a few generations back. Us kids didn’t care for it so much though! We grew it ourselves…but they are readily available in the stores in Canada. And they are called Turnips! ? Quality Street chocolates, chocolate advent calenders and crackers are part of the Christmas tradition here too.

    I’ve only spent Christmas away from home and Canada once. I had a boyfriend who lived in Denver, Colorado and went there for the week. He had no family in that area, so Christmas was a low key affair for us. .we spent it hiking and skiing in the Rocky Mountains and visiting museums and the aquarium in the city.

    Reply
  8. Rachel says

    December 3, 2019 at 11:25 am

    For Pigs in Blanket buy Chipoltas and bacon from Parker’s British Institution. I miss Boots, M&S, the Christmas gift sets and the high streets all decked out. This will be my 14th Christmas in the USA I only miss England at Christmas.

    Reply

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I'm Katie, an expat Scot in the States, and the journalist behind Stories My Suitcase Could Tell, the travel blog which inspires you to explore the world. Read More…

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