Christmas in Ireland from an Ex-Expat

I moved away from Ireland when I was only 9 years old and during that time I

lived in Canada, Australia, San Francisco, Kenya and South America before finally

returning to Ireland in 2001. Here’s my views of a family's Christmas in Ireland

from an Ex-Expat with two young children…

Christmas in Ireland basically start as soon as Halloween is over on November 1 st ,

where Christmas get-togethers with groups of friends (many whom you might not

have seen since last Christmas…) and colleagues begin. But if there was a day to

highlight, it’s when the national TV channel RTE’s Late Late Toy Show airs the

last week of November at 9:30PM. The kids run home from school with their Late

Late Toy Show goodie bags and we decorate the house for Christmas: the tree goes

up, the outdoor festive lights are switched on, and the house transforms into a

winter chalet of red, green and silver décor. We all don our matching Christmas

PJs, lay out the mattresses, duvets and warm blankets, order Pizza in and curl up

with the goodie bags to watch the Toy Show till midnight and sleep out together in

the living room with the family dog.

The excitement has begun, and the next highlight is December 1st, where the

Christmas elves appear- the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ is a mischievous elf who reports

back to Santa on whether the children are being good or not. He appears in new

locations around the house each morning, often causing mischief along the way-

the house has been known to be toilet-papered, items are moved to odd locations,

and he/she can be found swinging from the chandelier. We have two disco-clad

fashionista elves who are often caught dancing with each other- they leave mini

gifts for the children throughout the month- a Christmas decoration, baking items,

Christmas crackers etc... items to save up and use at the Christmas Eve dinner.

They also fill up the Advent calendar with chocolates- each day a new door of the

advent calendar can be opened and the chocolates inside consumed each day all the

way up to Christmas eve.

December 1st is the day the national Christmas radio station, Christmas FM, kicks

off also- hosted by volunteer DJs, it plays Christmas music 24 hours a day for all

of December and raises millions of euros for a chosen charity each year. Ireland is

known to be one of the most charitable countries in the world, and everyone gives

to charities at this time of the year. The Irish move their radio dial to Christmas FM

for the month until we are absolutely sick of Christmas music by the end of it!

They even have a Santa Tracker and messages from Santa and the elves throughout

the day on how well they are preparing all the toys for the big day.

Christmas planning has begun way back in August by the Irish ‘mammies’- in

August all the slots to visit Santa get filled up, all the Christmas events get booked,

and by the end of September, if you haven’t planned ahead, your children could

miss out on their slot with Santa! It’s competitive out there between the Irish

mammies! (In December/January you have to start booking slots for summer

camps or lose out!) We used to always go to the Microsoft Children’s Christmas

party (we would wait in anticipation for the invite and jump to book our slot before

they sold out too!)- they were fantastic- however have been sadly unable to take

place for the last two years.

The best Santa events now are up in the Wicklow mountains about an hour away

from Dublin or other forested parts of Ireland, where a few locations and small

animal petting farms are turned into Santa’s Wonderland with real reindeer, mini

trains to take families through the forest, and Santa’s elves dressed up to usher you

through to huge circus tents where Santa resides around his dancing elves,

performing a little show.

An Irish Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the good ol’ Christmas Panto

(Pantomime)- every event location puts on its own Christmas Panto, with the

Gaiety Theatre in Dublin city centre being the most famous. They are funny takes

on Disney and other shows with a clown type character encouraging plenty of

audience participation and sing-alongs and the crowds shouting back at the stage

’oh no you didn’t!’ (Think Punch and Judy shows mixed with musicals…). These

are often booked out by schools taking classes as an end-of year school day out and

are still taking place this year (!) The National Concert Orchestra and the National

Concert Hall are also booked out for family Christmas carol singing events,

candle- lit dress-up events and the famous ‘The Snowman’ musical is put on every

year.

The airports around Ireland are working overtime- almost every Irish person who

lives overseas comes home for Christmas. In my own family, relatives (I have 16

aunts and uncles), cousins (I have 25 Irish cousins) and all their own children, fly

into Dublin from all over the world- Australia, New Zealand, New York, Dubai,

Singapore, Barcelona, London to be ‘home’ for Christmas and then convene for a

massive family together like a large wedding on the 27th of December each year

(unfortunately via Zoom last year and this year!). Long-lost pals from school or

university who took off overseas reconvene at the ‘Local’ (the local pub they all

went to as lads/ ladies when they were younger) and tall tales are told. Tayto

crisps, Cadbury’s chocolate, Barry’s and Lyon’s tea, cheddar cheese, prawns,

smoked salmon, and the poor lamb, ham and turkeys are consumed in mass.

Christmas pudding with baileys cream, Irish coffees with whiskey, sherry, and

local gin are consumed till full and then consumed again. Christmas crackers are

pulled, silly hats are worn, bad jokes are told. It’s all about family, friends and

being merry despite the current situation.

The town centers across Ireland are chock-a-block with people weaving between

lit-up Christmas trees and street performers, lights and decorations dangling in the

storms and wind overhead. The Irish goes all-out for Christmas and spend all year

saving for it- over 3.8 billion euros is expected to be spent by the Irish this year, an

increase of 5% from last year- an average of 890euros per person. While

November is a time to meet friends and work colleagues out and about in towns

and villages, December is usually reserved to meet family and the closest friends.

Large dinners are hosted at home (cleaners are booked out months in advance)

under the glitter and decorations, and restaurants and bars make most of their

year’s profit at this time. It’s traditional to go out for the Ugly Christmas Sweater

pub crawl- this was set off when Granny’s used to always knit a sweater for their

grandchildren as a Christmas present in the past- often seen by the children to be

an ugly, itchy thing they were forced to wear by their parents. We now wear them

with glee this time of year, except the modern versions are shop-bought and come

with flashing lights, horns for Rudolph noses, and plenty of glitter.

On Christmas eve everything shuts down around Ireland at 3PM for two days. The

last of the Christmas Sweater pub crawls, last minute shopper's, families with

children carrying around cups of hot chocolate, taking in the final Christmas feel in

town centres, before being whisked home to bed to await the coming of Santa with

large excited eyes. EVERYTHING is closed on Christmas Day. Morning is for

Santa toys and large family ‘fry up’ breakfasts (bacon, sausages, eggs, pudding,

lots of toast with marmalade and tea).

The Catholic churches overflow with families (most of whom only go to Mass this

one day each year)- people are dressed in the best clothes, children play with their

new toys, and the roads are full of people travelling to nearby family homes for

Christmas day ‘dinner’ which usually kicks off in the late afternoon and goes on

and on and on....

The day after Christmas is called ‘St Stephen's Day/Boxing Day’ and is also a

public holiday in Ireland- the Sales kick off and shops are overflowing again.

Many people go on family walks to work off the Christmas dinners from the week

before, there are 5k/10k ‘Santa runs’ in Christmas gear in many of the parks, and

chilly swims in the sea are also all the fad. More family visits, leftover turkey

dinner, and more family Christmas movies- it’s basically Christmas Day Take 2. If

Christmas day or Boxing Day fall on a weekend, then the public holidays roll into

Monday/Tuesday instead. The days between Boxing Day and New Years are a bit

of whirl for many, and New Year's is somewhat of an anti-climax as we recover

from the craziness of November and December- easing out of the glittery clothes

into something more comfortable, swearing off alcohol for January and promising

never to eat so much again- until the next November rolls round...

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday wherever you may be, and hoping you’ll enjoy a

bit of the Irish Christmas spirit yourselves this year.