Merry Christmas!

Merry London Christmas (you filthy animals)!

It is now two days since the day we’ve been all waiting for (I swear, the whole year is just a countdown until Christmas).

It was my first Christmas in London, and it didn’t disappoint. But Christmas here gave me a completely different feeling. Gone were the Christmas traditions, a niece or nephew of some kind coming on Christmas eve to make gingerbread men with me, having a cup of tea by the fire with the parents, waking up in the morning to “merry christmas, darling!” from my dad, then a million more from my wonderful huge family, the mountain of presents under the tree, the great big breakfast, the lunch sprawling over the kitchen island, the wine, beer, champagne, flowing until we all disperse with our bellies and our hearts full.

I went Christmas shopping Christmas eve at Stratford Westfield mall. All lit up with Christmas lights and trees, it was a Christmassy, winter wonderland. But I still felt like I couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit. It felt weird to me. Foreign. Beautiful, but foreign.

I bought my last minute Christmas presents, and made my way back home to decorate my flat for the Christmas eve dinner with my fellow kiwi friends. I set the table with Christmas plates, cutlery. I bought a little snowman toy and sat him on our couch. I played Christmas music at loud volumes until they arrived.

The Christmas spirit began, and it all fell into place, slowly, with every Christmas song.

Christmas is about the company you share, and it really is what you make it. We drank, ate a roast, discussed our lives, sang along to Little Saint Nick (my favourite Christmas song this year) and Last Christmas, and woke up the next morning and had pancakes.

Later that day, my friend Toni and I ubered over the Tower Bridge to South London to spend the rest of the day at our friend Teneille’s cousins flat, with a huge group of Kiwis and Aussie orphans. It was wonderful. We drank wine, watched the Queen’s speech at 3pm, opened presents and ate large volumes of food.

Ahhhh.

Merry Christmas, world! I hope your day was full of love, light and laughter.

x