Top Ten Things British Expats Miss the Most at Christmas
As Christmas approaches, for those who no longer live in the UK, the thoughts of British Christmas and all its traditions are front of mind
As Christmas approaches, for those who no longer live in the UK, the thoughts of British Christmas and all its traditions are front of mind.
From the cosy evenings in the pub, to a Christmas Eve pantomime, and even embracing the cold wintery weather, there’s plenty of things that make the British Christmas what it is.
We recently asked our expat customers what they missed most about the UK at Christmas time (other than food) and these are the results.
Top 10 Things Expats Miss the Most
- Spending time with friends and family
- Catching the Christmas TV specials
- Christmas markets
- British pubs
- Christmas shopping
- Putting up decorations
- Seeing a pantomime
- Spending evenings by the fire
- The cold weather
- Winter walks
Taking top spot, unsurprisingly for expats, is spending quality time with friends and family. Technology now means that many will be able to catch up over video call, but time zones can make this difficult, especially for those living in the likes of Australia or the U.S.
In second place is watching British TV. Every year the likes of EastEnders bring in over 30 million viewers with their Christmas special, and reruns of famous shows like Gavin & Stacey and Royale Family are always a hit at this time of year.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime will help provide access to some, but some expats may miss out altogether due to copyright laws in some countries.
Other traditions such as Christmas markets and spending time in the pub at Christmas are also fondly missed by expats, with over 48% missing the former and 47% craving the good old British pub.
We also discovered Christmas Crackers are one of the favourite Christmas traditions, and over 75% of our customers still try to have the traditional British Christmas dinner abroad.
Interestingly, the results have also shown that older traditions such as Christmas Carolling are less favoured, with only 3% of customers saying they missed the festive sing-along.
Whatever it is you miss the most, we hope you’re able to order in a little bit of British Christmas spirit through us and make Christmas 2021 a good one.
