11 unusual Christmas traditions for expats around the world
You walk through your new neighborhood in December, and something feels different. The decorations do not look like the ones you know. The music sounds new. The smells from bakeries do not remind you of your childhood. This is Christmas when you live in another country, and it can change how you think about the holiday.
Unusual Christmas traditions when you live abroad
Living in a foreign country during Christmas shows you how many different ways people celebrate. You discover that your childhood traditions are not things that everyone does. They are special to your culture and your family.
During your first December in a new country, you might hold tightly to old traditions and feel homesick. You might also try local customs and make new memories. Most people who live abroad do both. They mix the familiar and the new and create a Christmas tradition that belongs only to them.
Chasing away the dark: Light-filled Christmas traditions
Sweden’s Saint Lucia processions and candle crowns
In Sweden, you wake up on December 13 and see young girls walking in a line, wearing white robes and candle crowns. This is Saint Lucia Day, one of the most beautiful traditions in the world. The girls sing traditional songs while the candles shine on their heads. Saint Lucia represents light winning over darkness during the longest, darkest nights of the year.
In many Swedish families, the oldest daughter plays Saint Lucia at home. She wakes her parents in the morning and serves them coffee and saffron buns while wearing the candle crown.
Ireland’s Wren Boys and St Stephen’s Day traditions
On December 26 in rural Ireland, costumed “Wren Boys” in old clothes, straw hats and painted faces go from door to door singing, dancing and playing traditional music, often collecting money for charity.
The custom once involved hunting a real wren and is linked to old legends that call the wren both a betrayer (of Irish soldiers and St Stephen) and the “king of all birds” in Celtic mythology. Today, it’s a colourful, bird-friendly celebration that keeps this unusual Irish Christmas tradition alive.
Portugal’s midnight mass, bonfires and Consoada Feast
In Portugal, families gather on Christmas Eve for the Consoada feast – a central, intimate family gathering focused on traditional foods, then head to midnight mass, called Missa do Galo, which means “Rooster’s Mass.” Tradition says a rooster crowed at midnight to announce Jesus’ birth, just as church bells now call people to celebrate.
After mass, people often gather around big bonfires in town squares, and some families set an extra place at the table to remember loved ones who have died.
Santas, witches and a log that “poops” presents
Sinterklaas by steamboat in the Netherlands and Belgium
Sinterklaas is not a Christmas Day tradition, but it is a big December celebration in the Netherlands and Belgium. Often feels like the start of the Christmas season. You stand by the harbour and watch Sinterklaas arrive by steamboat, dressed in red bishop’s robes and riding a white horse.
This figure comes from Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Greek bishop, famous for his kindness to the poor and to children. Over time, his feast day on December 6 mixed with older winter customs, including stories of a long-bearded gift-giving god like Odin.
Today’s Sinterklaas tradition grew from this mix. On the night of December 5, children leave their shoes by the fireplace and wake up to find small gifts and sweets inside.
Italy’s La Befana, the gift-giving Christmas witch
In Italy, you learn about La Befana, a friendly Christmas witch. She flies on a broomstick and delivers gifts on January 5, the night before Epiphany (a Christian holiday, often celebrated on January 6). Her story comes from a mix of Christian and older pagan traditions.
According to legend, the Three Wise Men once invited her to visit baby Jesus, but she was too busy cleaning and stayed home. Later, she regretted it and went looking for them. Now she wanders each year, still searching for the Christ Child and leaving gifts for children as she goes. Italian children hang stockings on January 5 and wake to find sweets if they’ve been good, or a little coal if they haven’t.
Spain’s Caga Tió and Three Kings Epiphany traditions
In parts of Spain, especially Catalonia, you find Caga Tió, the “pooping log,” a Christmas custom with pagan roots. It began as an ancient winter solstice ritual, when a real log was burned for warmth and seen as a symbol of the forest’s spirit and fertility. Over centuries, this changed into a household log that families “feed” and cover with a blanket until Christmas.
On Christmas, children hit Caga Tió with sticks while singing special songs, then lift the blanket to see that it has “pooped” small gifts and sweets, showing nature’s bounty and generosity.
Spanish children also get their main presents on January 6, during Epiphany, when people celebrate the Three Kings who visited baby Jesus. Many towns hold huge parades where actors dressed as the Three Kings ride through the streets and throw candy to the crowds.
Surfing Santas in Australia
In English-speaking countries, Santa looks and acts a little different in each place. In Britain, Father Christmas used to wear green or brown robes. In the United States and Canada, people usually imagine Santa in a red suit with a white beard.
But in Australia, Christmas comes in the summer, so celebrations move to the beach. You might see Santa on a surfboard or riding a jet ski.
The idea of “Surfing Santa” grew from early Bondi Beach antics and became a symbol of Aussie Christmas spirit, even appearing on stamps and in record-breaking surf events. Some beaches now hold Surfing Santa competitions, where many people dressed as Santa paddle out in board shorts instead of heavy winter clothes.
Christmas you can eat: Festive food traditions
France’s thirteen desserts of Provence at Christmas
In the Provence region of France, you sit down to a Christmas meal and count thirteen different desserts on the table. This tradition represents Jesus and his twelve apostles at the Last Supper.
You taste dried figs, almonds, raisins, walnuts, nougat, and special cakes. Each dessert has its own meaning, and families believe that serving all thirteen desserts brings good luck for the coming year.
Canada’s tourtière and réveillon Christmas Eve Feast
In French-speaking parts of Canada, you smell a spiced meat pie baking in the oven. This is tourtière, a Christmas Eve dish dating back to 17th-century French settlers in Quebec and earlier European meat pies.
It usually contains ground pork, beef, or game meat with potatoes and spices, and recipes vary by family and region, making it a strong symbol of French-Canadian heritage.
Families gather for a big meal called réveillon. It often starts after midnight mass and can last until early morning. You might eat pea soup, cretons (a type of meat spread), sugar pie, and other rich foods while French-Canadian Christmas songs play in the background.
Japan’s KFC bucket and strawberry Christmas cake
In Japan, Christmas looks very different. On Christmas Eve, you may see long lines outside KFC restaurants. This tradition began in 1974 with KFC’s “Kentucky for Christmas” campaign, which promoted fried chicken as a turkey substitute in a mostly non-Christian country. Today, many families preorder special KFC buckets, and fried chicken has become a popular, secular Christmas meal.
After eating KFC, families often share a Christmas cake, called kurisumasu keki. It’s a light sponge cake with white cream and strawberries, inspired by American strawberry shortcake after World War II and popularised by the Fujiya bakery chain.
Its red-and-white colours echo the Japanese flag and, along with its link to prosperity and modern life, have turned it into an iconic part of Japan’s non-religious Christmas celebrations.
China’s peace apples and urban Christmas Eve customs
In China, Christmas is most common in big cities. On Christmas Eve, people sometimes give each other apples wrapped in decorative paper, because Christmas Eve is called ping an ye (“peaceful night”) and the word for apple, ping guo—often nicknamed ping an guo, or “peace fruit”—sounds similar to the word for “peace.”
For many young people, giving a Christmas apple is a cute, modern way to wish friends and loved ones safety and good luck for the year ahead.
How to borrow these unusual Christmas traditions as an expat
Mixing food traditions from multiple countries at your table
Your Christmas meals can become more meaningful when you mix dishes from different cultures. You can serve your grandmother’s traditional recipe next to your host country’s Christmas food. You might invite friends from several countries and ask each of them to bring a dish from their home.
Your Christmas table could be filled with dishes from many continents, with each friend bringing one of their favorite foods to share. A Japanese strawberry Christmas cake might sit beside French nougat and Canadian tourtière. The mix of flavors will tell the story of your life abroad.
Creating your own expat mash-up Christmas each year
If you live abroad, your Christmas does not need to copy any one tradition perfectly. Instead, you can choose your favorite parts from different cultures and combine them.
Maybe you start Christmas morning with Australian-style beach activities. Later, you enjoy a French-inspired feast. At night, you relax with American Christmas movies. Each year, you can take photos of your celebrations and keep them in an album or on your phone.
Over time, you will see how your Christmas traditions change as you move between countries and meet new people. Your expat Christmas becomes richer than any single-culture celebration. It holds pieces of every place you have lived and every tradition you have tried. In the end, it becomes a very personal and special holiday that is truly your own.
