As previous posts have explained, Christmas felt pretty weird to me this year. Nonetheless, we did have a fun time, not least because Carlos had a whole week off so we were able to get out and explore a little. More on that later, but to start with, what about the Chilean Christmas celebrations?
The big day here for celebrations is Christmas Eve. Although not officially a bank holiday, many business wind down at lunch time and nothing really happens after 1 or 2pm. As previously mentioned, I spent the day sweating in the kitchen, as well as doing some last minute present wrapping (nothing changes there). Then it was off across the city for a big family meal.
A big family meal I hear you say? Well yes! When we first found out we would be moving to Santiago, Carlos' parents mentioned that he had a cousin here too. They had never met as adults, but Carlos got in touch with him when he arrived and he and his family have been very lovely and accommodating to us ever since. So we had a big old family knees up, very traditional, if not a little multinational, as the party included myself and Carlos (representing England and Spain), Carlos' cousin with his wife and three small children (representing Spain and Chile), plus three grandparents (from Spain and Chile) and an uncle (Chile).
We kicked-off with pisco sours, the national tipple. Then moved on to a seafood starter, with the special dish of octopus. The main was turkey with apple sauce and roast potatoes - an American import I think, but now the staple Christmas dinner here. Although I still can't get used to eating turkey without gravy, it's just wrong! A delicious chocolate sponge came next for dessert. A very common Christmas desert here is pan de pascua, a sweet fruitcake that I guess is a lot like Christmas pudding. Sadly though, it's laced with nuts, so I won't be able to find out any time soon. All of this of course, was washed down with lashings of local red wine.
Close to midnight, we opened our presents as is the custom here. The children had been too tired to stay-up, although I'm sure they bounced into the living room at some small hour the following morning! Then I brought a little bit of England to the table - some mulled wine that I'd lovingly prepared earlier. It seemed to go down well. Perhaps a new custom introduced to this already very international gathering!
Finally, as the night drew on, it was time to go home. Impressively, public transport runs all over Christmas (it's not like the UK where everything stops for the day). So we caught the bus at around 2am, along with a host of other people, including lots of small children clutching their freshly-opened presents!
For more about Chilean Christmas customs, see this interesting post from Pepe's Chile.
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