For many years my family has celebrated the Christmas holidays with just the immediate family. It has been very peaceful and fulfilling. With a family so scattered around the world it's a true pleasure to just hang out for a day or two, sometimes more. We eat a lot, talk some, watch TV, perhaps play games and of course we exchange Christmas presents. Even though we are all adults (except for lovely Stella, my beautiful niece), we have this thing for buying each other Christmas gifts. None of us really needs anything, so we buy each other body lotions, socks, books and scarfs etc. We also open the presents in order; usually starting with the youngest in the family, and end with the oldest. It's fun, it's relaxing, it's a day without pressure. I truly hope mom thinks so too, considering she still does all the cooking. But she's smart, my mom; she prepares as much of the food as possible, so it's just to reheat on Christmas Eve. I must give her credit for that.
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| Hong Kong at night on Christmas Eve 2012. |
My first Christmas celebration in Hong Kong was nothing like the Mattsson Christmas. First of all, Christmas Eve is like any other day; people are working, and stores and restaurants are open. We were driving around in Honey's mom's car, ended up in Sai Kung, where we walked along the water, ate lunch at a bakery/cafe. We then drove up to The Peak, where we admired the view of Hong Kong by night. It's astonishingly beautiful on a clear and cold night. We then went shopping in the Peak Galleria. It wasn't planned at all, but they had an amazing sale at Coach, so we got some Christmas gifts for Honey's family.
Since it was Christmas Eve I wanted to go back home so we could eat a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner. I found a Swedish store here in Hong Kong that sells the traditional ham, little sausages, herring, beetroot salad and other important foods on the Christmas table, so I had it all planned. But it was so late when we got home that it was the light version, still pretty darn good. I had made meatballs some days earlier, so those were just to reheat together with the little sausages. It was soo good, just me and Honey, and Miss Poo of course. She got an extra piece of carrot, since it was Christmas :).
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| Christmas presents! |
We finished dinner with some chocolate for dessert and then open the Christmas presents. It's not that common to exchange Christmas presents in Hong Kong unless you have young kids. But since Honey knows how much I love Christmas I still got some presents.
On Christmas Day we went to have dinner at Honey's parents apartment. they don't have any traditional dishes like we do, so we ate Hot Pot, which is a boiling soup and you put different foods in the soup to cook, for example corn, lettuce, sausages, mushrooms, fish balls, beef and tofu etc. It's pretty good, and you get to eat what you want. It's a fun and social way to eat.
After the Hot Pot Christmas Dinner there was some dessert and then a simple Christmas game; each one of us grabbed a note with a number written on it from a bowl. We then had to look for an item hidden in the living room that matched the number on your note. It was just small things like a small bag of candy, bubbles, a fruit etc. It was just a fun thing, and we all got a small Christmas gift :).
This was my first Christmas in Hong Kong, and there are many more Christmases to come. Each year I will do what I can to keep our lovely Swedish Christmas traditions with plenty of Christmas decorations, presents and the delicious once-a-year foods.
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| Our Christmas tree. |
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