Favourite/most memorable Christmas abroad

[loira]

This is my first Christmas home in 6 years, but I'm enjoying reminiscing about all my Christmases abroad.

Do you have one* that sticks out as your favourite or most memorable?

* Feel free to substitute another beloved holiday if you don't celebrate Christmas.

For me:
Most memorable was the Christmas I spent in Rio de Janeiro. It was 42C. I was looking forward to sipping mango juice by the pool. My cousin had other ideas and decided this was the year we were going to make a big traditional Christmas dinner. I instead spent the day wearing a bikini and basting the turkey while feeling like I was also being basted in my own sweat.

Favourite was probably either our second Christmas in London (I had received a nice bonus and we were able to treat ourselves a bit) or the one we spent in Lille the year after.

[mrsukyankee]

I've been spending the past few Christmases with friends instead of heading home. They smoke their turkey and have lots and lots of wine. I love it - so relaxing and such a great older couple to hang with (they are my parent's age).

[GilliC]

The only Christmas I've spent in the US since moving abroad wasn't even with family (a friend was getting married in another part of the country).

I think the most memorable was my first:

We had just moved to Beijing along with the rest of our team, so all of our work friends got together and we booked a big Christmas lunch at a local pub (that was open on Christmas, because China). We tried to be as festive as we could with things we bought at the local markets, which meant a bunch of people were wearing things like brightly-colored reindeer antlers and vinyl Santa hats (that I suspect were probably originally manufactured for the sex shop market). It was a little sad that we couldn't make it very Christmasy, but it was funny, and we were among lots of friends at a time when we all needed some sense of normalcy. I think afterwards we went to our favorite nightclub, which was having a "Merry Pimpmas" party. Apparently China equates Christmas with sex.

[aMrsin09]

My most memorable was also my first abroad when we lived in France.

It was our first Christmas married, it was our first Christmas together ever. We got to develop our own traditions without extended family input (oh you must come by for XXX).
We were in Europe with the Christmas markets and I had been told not to expect snow, as it had only snowed in Southern France once in the previous 10 years. We had SNOW!

[jennybee1018]

So far my favorite Christmas abroad is definitely the first Xmas market cruise we did in 2011. We did a river cruise on the Danube from Vienna to Nuremburg, and it was just so amazing! We had snow and cold weather, and it was everything we wanted! Then we stayed in Doha for Xmas, and did brunch at a local hotel for Christmas day. It was very nice!

This year may be my new favorite though - we're going back to Wien for a week, and then we'll spend Christmas day at home, just relaxing in pajamas, watching Xmas movies :-) Best ever!

[origami]

This is our first Christmas away from family so hopefully this one will be our best/most memorable. We're going to Bali because it is cheaper for us to go there and stay in a hotel for 2 weeks than it is just to fly back to my family. Easy decision there. Our family Christmases are a total snoozefest. The only ones that stick out to me are my kids' first Christmas, and the one way back in high school when an old bat of an aunt of mine told me she hated my new haircut and I cried. So yah, Bali here we come.

[just]

When I lived in India, a big group of us (10/12 young internationals from all over - mexico, switzerland, australia, canada, iceland, germany, austria) went to Goa. We stayed right on the beach, and on Christmas eve, chose fish pulled right from the ocean to be barbecued, drank so much beer, swapped silly little gifts. learned about customs from all over the world. It was my first christmas away from home and was wonderful.

(I also hooked up with my mexican boyfriend for the first time - so good memories!)

....

Can I do another? When my DH (before we were married) and I were living in Japan, we went to Okinawa for Christmas. We were camping on the beach 2 miles from the nearest anything. We watched the sun go down on christmas eve while eating tuna out of a can and drinking whiskey right from the bottle. It was great!