Festive postcards from afar: How the rest of the world will be celebrating Christmas
Our experts conjure up the spirit of the season with their pick of the world's most festive experiences, from the ritual of shopping for a Christmas Eve feast in rural France, to hygge in Copenhagen, to chardonnay and seafood on the beach in Sydney.
New York
Blame Miracle on 34th Street. Or Home Alone 2. Or the crafty marketing department of the New York City tourist board. But the notion that Manhattan transforms into a twinkling, magical wonderland in the run-up to Christmas is a bit of a myth. Sure, there’s that mammoth tree in Rockefeller Plaza, and two (Trump Corporation-operated) ice rinks in Central Park. But the city could learn a lot from London about festive decorations. So pitiful are some attempts that my friends and I have a WhatsApp group to shame the worst. A single strand of frayed tinsel around a pillar at LaGuardia airport took first prize last year.
But there are some things this city does consistently well: pomp and pizza being two from which we have created a now-annual Christmas tradition. On the first Sunday of December, the Amor Artis chamber choir performs a “Holiday” (it’s not even called Christmas here) concert in the Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral, SoHo – one area that does make an effort with its Christmas lights, thanks to the Italian influence. The traditional and modern carols and songs, accompanied by a harp, cello and trumpets, never fails to stir our spirits. And I never fail to have a little cry at the crescendo of O Holy Night.
Around the corner on Mulberry Street, the rustic, cosy Rubirosa serves standout pizza – which explains the lengthy queue. The trick is to put your name down for a table, then pop across the street to The Grey Dog, which does a mean mulled wine, until the restaurant texts that your table is ready. A Sunday afternoon of carols and carbs, both devoured with equal gusto, is now what Christmas in New York means to me.
Jane Mulkerrins
How to get there
British Airways (0344 493 0787; britishairways.com) offers five nights at Hotel Hugo for ￡1,999pp, including flights from London to New York JFK.
Madrid
For me and my friends, the run up to Christmas is all about merrily indulging in Madrilenian traditions that we sniffily regard as a bit naff outside the festive season. Take the Plaza Mayor, for example. While we love Madrid’s landmark square – which looks very Christmassy all year round with its jolly red fa?ades and slate pinnacles – and hurtle across it most days, we’d never dream of meeting for a drink there on the café terraces or in the many bars under the porticoes. Far too touristy, obviously. But in December, when the Christmas market is on and it’s absolutely heaving? Well that’s a different story.
We wander around the stalls, examining the Josephs, Marys, baby Jesuses, shepherds, wise men, mangers, stables, donkeys, sheep and so much more that you can buy to create your Belén, as the elaborate nativity scenes that people create in their homes are called. This is something that is taken very seriously indeed and every year new figures are ceremoniously added to the displays that take up entire sideboards. We only have a quick look, though, before diving into one of those bars we usually shun, and shout for ca?as of beer and bocadillos de calamares – stodgy sandwiches with battered squid rings that are one of the city’s best-loved specialities.
And, almost immediately, another round of ca?as, and another. But we don’t hang about here either and are soon sliding off to the string of mesones (tapas bars) just off the square, where people spill out on to the street, which are also deemed irredeemably cheesy for the rest of the year, but somehow fit our Christmas mood perfectly.
Annie Bennett
How to get there
British Airways (0344 493 0787; britishairways.com) offers three nights, room only, at the ME Madrid hotel with flights from London Heathrow from ￡274 per person.
Hong Kong
Reindeer on roof terraces! Carol singing and horse racing! Al fresco turkey dinners! Rampant consumerism! Neon snowmen 100ft high! Binge drinking! It might not be your first thought for a festive getaway, but Hong Kong is a surprisingly brilliant Christmas city. I spent my first 12 yuletides here, unquestioningly believing that Father Christmas was a mythical being who could transform between Caucasian and Chinese, with a herd of reindeer that could land on 30-storey balconies with ease. “We don’t have a chimney. Will Santa be able to find us?” my brother and I would ask. “Of course,” Mum would say. So we’d leave beer, biscuits and carrots on the windowsill.
Later, with presents safely delivered and opened, we might hop on a traditional junk with friends, swing by Aberdeen Harbour to pick up blocks of ice from the Tanka boat people, and glide to Lamma Island for a barbecue, with swimsuits, tinsel and red felt hats. The journey home took us back through Victoria Harbour, 10 times more glittery than usual, with almost every waterfront building adorned with gigantic flashing, pulsing, shimmering Christmas figures.
Three decades on, the city has more Christmas glitz than ever. Bows of LED holly levitate up and down the 118-storey International Commerce Centre, there’s a 62ft Christmas tree in Statue Square, Disneyland has decked the halls with trees, lights and fake snow, and the new Hong Kong Pulse Light Festival has cartoon elves projected on to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and glowing art installations along the Kowloon waterfront.
Lee Cobaj
How to get there
Lightfoot Travel (020 3950 9105; lightfoottravel.com) is offering a five-night stay at The Murray in Hong Kong from ￡1,973 per person, including breakfast. The price also includes return flights from London Heathrow with Cathay Pacific.
Lisbon
The Portuguese know how to throw a Christmas party and nowhere is this more obvious than in the 42 squares and cobbled streets of their capital, which are illuminated this year by around two million LEDs. It used to have the tallest artificial Christmas tree in Europe (making the Guinness World Records in 2005 and surpassing that in 2007, with a 249ft structure) but now it is more about elegance than elongation, with this year’s tree a petite 98ft.
Every year at the end of November, fireworks above the city signify the turning on of the lights on the tree in beautiful 18th-century Praca do Comercio which opens out on to the Tagus river. It is not just here that Christmas is in evidence, though: it is in the smell from the bakers where the Bolo-rei is being baked, the traditional king’s cake that we eat at this time, made from soft white bread with candied fruit and raisins; and in the music that seeps out from under the church doors where Christmas concerts are held. I try to catch one in the 16th-century Church of Sao Roque, whose plain exterior gives no hint of the opulent baroque interiors ornate with lapis lazuli, gold, silver and agate, considered a masterpiece of European art.
In the Praca de Luis de Camoes, named after Portugal’s greatest poet who lived in the 16th century, a huge Father Christmas stands guard beside a statue of Camoes himself. Children are allowed to stay up on Christmas Eve, eating traditional bacalhau (dried cod) and a variety of cakes and pastries. The moment they long for arrives on their return from Midnight Mass where they find that baby Jesus has arrived in the crib and finally they can open their presents.
Mary Lussiana
How to get there
Abercrombie & Kent (01242 547703; abercrombiekent.co.uk) offers a week-long trip to Lisbon, staying at the Pousada de Lisboa from ￡1,215pp including easyJet flights and private transfers, on a B&B basis.
Haute-Savoie, France
There’s no rest for the wicked in my food-obsessed village in France on Christmas Eve. Shopping for the grandest feast of the year – Le Réveillon, aka a December 24th all-nighter – beckons. And this being agricultural Haute-Savoie on the rural shores of Lake Geneva, there is exceptional local produce to be sampled at each titillating port of call.
Caviar pearls, scallops, fleshy, white, lake-caught féra, garlicky snails, guinea fowl or goose and a chocolate log from the village boulangerie are Réveillon staples. The French pop briny Breton oysters like sweets at Christmas, and those with epicurean nous join the festive queue at a seasonal street kiosk that sprouts each winter at Square Aristide Briand in spa town Thonon-les-Bains. I savour one slow fortifying slurp of plump mollusc before buying several dozen to take home.
On nearby rue Saint-Sébastien, aromatic wheels of Beaufort and Comté ripen in subterranean cellars at Fromagerie Bougon. Choosing from the 400 different cheeses, hand-churned butters, bowls of creamy fromage blanc and boutique Alpine cheeses impossible to find elsewhere is agony. No cheeseboard is complete without an incongruously ugly chunk of ginger-crusted, green-veined Bleu de Termignon, crafted from raw cow’s milk by just five producers in the Alps.
From Thonon-les-Bains, the Christmas Eve trail tangoes south along the lake and inland, through vine-ribboned hills, to duck farm La Mère Gaud. Savoyard hedonists have shopped here for velvety foie gras, gizzards, preserved duck confit, smoked duck breast and glass jars of duck fat for more than a century. I succumb, yet again, to the sacrosanct pre-sale degustation (tasting) and vow to not eat another morsel until dinner… or my next stop at least.
Nicola Williams
How to get there
Peak Retreats (023 9283 9310; peakretreats.co.uk) offers week-long trips to évian-les-Bains from ￡100pp including a P&O Dover-Calais ferry crossing and a self-catering chalet with a Lake Geneva view.
Sydney
Christmas in Australia is a sweaty affair. There’s nothing white or cosy about it (save for repeated viewings of Love, Actually). The chardonnay flows and seafood is non-negotiable. I experienced my first Australian Christmas aged 23 when my friend Jessica invited me to her family’s annual picnic at Balmoral Beach. Growing up Jewish in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, our tradition was to eat Chinese food on Christmas Day – the rattle of the Yum Cha lady’s trolley and the promise of a cookie’s fortune was what Christmas meant to me.
Crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I took the winding road to Balmoral Beach, gawking at homes owned by radio hosts and retired rugby players. It’s a sheltered spot in Middle Harbour, with calm waters framed by majestic Moreton Bay fig trees and dotted with boats. The scene exudes a sense of privilege and Old Australiana: sandstone cliffs casting shadows across the rocks, children clambering to spot hermit crabs and sea snails in tiny rock pools.
We arrived early enough to snag the coveted spot under the biggest tree, with a branch stretched out so far over the sand we were protected from the sun, and three steps from the tide. Jessica’s uncle arrived late with the biggest glazed ham I’d seen. The teenagers jumped off the jetty into the clear, blue water. Someone emptied a bag of cooked prawns on to a willow-patterned plate and we peeled and beheaded them with salty fingers, dunking them in cocktail sauce. When we got too hot we cooled off with a swim, and ate cold watermelon slices from the ice box. We lathered each other in sunscreen and played cricket, Jess’s uncle fell asleep under the tree, and I vowed never to spend another Christmas indoors eating Chinese food again.
Ariela Bard
How to get there
Trailfinders (020 7084 6500; trailfinders.com) is offering a 12-night trip around the coast and countryside of New South Wales, including Sydney, from ￡1,055 per person. The price includes car hire and accommodation, but international flights cost extra.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam makes a perfect retreat from the tired excesses of Christmas, while retaining a gentle air of festivity. Traditionally, the main Dutch seasonal celebrations are on December 5th (the eve of St Nicholas’s Day). That’s when Sinterklaas (with flowing white beard, in red cape and mitre hat – the ancestor of Father Christmas) leaves presents, and people compose frank poems about each other’s personal habits – a tradition that put me in a paranoid spin on my first encounter with it, in my then-landlady’s house.
But Christmas here is still low-key: a meal with friends maybe, a concert, skating on the open-air rink behind the Rijksmuseum. Most cinemas, many restaurants and some theatres open on Christmas Day. This year, for instance, the Dutch National Opera performs George Enescu’s Oedipe.
Pretty lights and an upbeat air to entertainment help dispel winter gloom, and restaurants often have festive menus (with not a turkey in sight). I’m still undecided between Christmas brunch in the Okura Hotel ballroom – involving lobster soup, duck with yuzu gel and walnuts, sea bass with saffron potatoes and more – or an over-the-top high tea in the Duchess restaurant. I’ll certainly fit in a walk in the canal district to see the Amsterdam Light Festival – magical light sculptures and installations by international artists.
Rodney Bolt
How to get there
British Airways (ba.com) flies to Amsterdam. A double room at the Okura Hotel (four restaurants, three with Michelin stars; okura.nl) at Christmas costs from €175 (￡157).
Matera, Italy
Mel Gibson used this town in the Basilicata region as the chief location for The Passion of the Christ – and I can see why. At Christmas especially it feels distinctly Biblical as the Sassi district becomes an Italian Bethlehem – a place of secret winding lanes and dwellings that are half above ground, half rock-hewn caves.
For nine years the town has organised nativity-themed tableaux vivants (December 23rd, 28th-30th and January 4th-6th; presepematera.it) in which more than 600 actors and locals stage silent scenes from the Bible. Don’t miss the Crypt of the Original Sin, a cave chapel a few miles out of town, described as the “Sistine Chapel of Rock Painting”. Frescoes of the apostles, the Virgin Mary and the archangels adorn the walls. Back in Matera, street markets, a crib made of ice and an exhibition of vintage cribs keep the festive spirit alive.
Lee Marshall
How to get there
Exodus Travel (020 8131 2708; exodus.co.uk) offers an eight-day Puglia and Matera walking tour from ￡1,279pp, including accommodation and flights from London.
Copenhagen
Most of the year, Copenhagen lives up to its reputation as a bastion of cool, all minimal chic and muted shades. Come December, it breaks out into full-on festive mode and twinkliness abounds as fairy lights blossom in the trees, candles flicker in windows and braziers of hot coals spring up on street corners.
Along with the decorations comes a seasonal to-do list of time-honoured traditions: viewing the decorations at Hotel d’Angleterre and the festive table settings at Royal Copenhagen; squeezing into Hviids Vinstue pub for a glass of glogg; eating aebleskiver (sugar-dusted pancake balls) at Christmas markets; and queuing for a table at La Glace, where green-aproned waitresses serve decadent layer cakes and silver pots of hot chocolate. And – unmissable – taking a trip to Tivoli, where they turn the decoration dial up to 11.
Over the years, we’ve added traditions of our own: buying yet more tea light holders; wandering the Torvehallerne flower stalls with their winter displays of fiery ilex berries and pure white hellebores; and making a big dent in the festive budget, working our way around the Christmas cocktail menus. It’s not just restaurants that embrace all things seasonal: cocktail bars, too, adapt to the time of year, adding clementine sours and spiced pineapple daiquiris, eggnogs and hot buttered rums. Hunkering down in one of our favourite haunts, the cosy, candlelit Duck and Cover, catching up with friends while the weather does its worst outside and the bartender whisks up something wicked to warm the cockles and soothe the soul… it’s the living, breathing, happy definition of hygge.
Suzanne King
How to get there
Norwegian (0330 828 0854; norwegian.com) offers two nights at Nobis Hotel for ￡363 per person, including return flights from London Gatwick.
Rio de Janeiro
December in Rio, for me, means midsummer sundowners with the world’s largest floating Christmas tree and Ipanema beach for a backdrop. For more than 20 years this towering steel monstrosity has set sail on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, overlooked by Christ the Redeemer. For two years, Christmas here hasn’t been the same. In 2016, with the economy in freefall, funding was pulled for the 24-storey structure, seen by some as an expensive folly. But in these times of social and political upheaval, the tree’s return this year has been cause for celebration.
So we can once again descend on the lake and watch as the tree’s 900,000 LEDs dance in the dusk. A couple of sharp caipirinhas, at rustic Palaphita Kitch, or any of the other bars by the water, will help you make a night of it. The tree is tugged daily to a different corner of the lake for maximum exposure. On Christmas Day itself, when everyone I know makes a pilgrimage to the sands of Flamengo, Copacabana, Ipanema or Leblon beach, it makes for a perfect seasonal send-off.
This being the height of summer, Christmas lunch is eaten at midnight on Dec 24. Come Christmas afternoon, I’ll be ready to get out of the apartment and dive into the Atlantic to work off the Peru (yes, it’s Portuguese for turkey).
Doug Gray
How to get there
Dehouche (0871 284 7770; dehouche.com) offers a one-week package to Rio staying at the Emiliano hotel, including private airport transfers, cultural tour, a guided hike in the Tijuca rainforest and return flights from London with BA cost from ￡1,690 per person.
Jamaica
The biggest Christmas surprise I ever had, sitting under a palm tree on Burwood Beach, was reggae Christmas carols. Good King Wenceslas with an easy lilt (and sand that was deep and crisp and even), Silent Night in a merry, more than soulful, tone, and… m-chukka… m-chukka… an offbeat O Come, All Ye Faithful!
You feel Christmas coming in November, as poinsettia leaves turn red or white and sorrel (a type of hibiscus) appears, its sweet and spicy petals used to make a rum punch. Jamaicans take Christmas seriously. They decorate their houses, and church-goers head off to Midnight Mass. And of course they love a family get-together. I remember, on a veranda in Orange Valley, I looked out over a papaya plantation, the table groaning under bowls of candied yam, cho-cho (a light, crisp squash) in a cheese sauce, rice and gungo peas, macaroni salad and sorrel chutney. At the centre lay a huge turkey. To finish there was Christmas cake, something heavy in a place so warm, but it was steeped and flamed with rum and there was soursop ice cream.
Boxing Day is a holiday too. And where else would you spend it, if not under a palm tree, Red Stripe in hand, with offbeat carols as the backdrop?
James Henderson
How to get there
Caribtours (020 3553 7543; caribtours.co.uk) is offering seven nights at Sandy Haven from ￡1,899pp including return direct flights with Virgin Atlantic.
Tokyo
Tokyo is many things – but it’s not a typical Christmas destination. Jazzy electronic versions of Jingle Bells may play on a loop in stores across the city and there are normally enough fancy neon-lit Christmas illuminations to power a small nation. Yet Christmas Day itself is not a holiday in Japan – it’s a normal working office day (perhaps little surprise bearing in mind it’s a Shinto nation). Not to forget the occasional cultural crossed wires – in particular the startling occasion a department store displayed Father Christmas on a crucifix.
But if you do happen to find yourself in Tokyo on December 25th, there is one perfect place to head. It’s a destination best enjoyed with no clothes on and can be found on the 33rd floor of a shiny skyscraper in the Otemachi business district: it’s the sleek, contemporary onsen-style baths in the spa at the Aman Tokyo hotel.
There are few more quintessentially Japanese rituals than bathing. And along with zesty yuzu citrus fruits and crisp blue skies, hot baths are perhaps the very best thing about Japanese winters. This being the Aman, the communal baths in the spa (one for men, one for women) are exquisitely Zen – from the clean-lined grey stone and natural wood benches to the piles of fluffy white towels. But centre stage? The cinematic Tokyo views through the east-facing wall of glass windows.
As I lower myself into the steaming water, it’s hard to imagine anywhere more peaceful from which to survey the cityscape.
Danielle Demetriou
How to get there
Black Tomato (020 7426 9888; blacktomato.com) can arrange a seven-night trip through Tokyo and Kyoto from ￡5,980pp based on two travelling. The price includes four nights at the Aman Tokyo, flights from London, all other accommodation, private transfers and some activities.
Reykjavik
There’s not really a bad time or season to visit Reykjavik, but in my experience Christmas is especially memorable. The past two Decembers I was there, the city was dusted in fairy-tale white snow and the entire capital had gone out of its way to create a festive atmosphere: houses and public spaces festooned with twinkling lights, a decent range of events and activities on offer, and obligatory Christmas markets dotted throughout downtown.
One of my favourite markets is along the main harbour, where I meet friends, pick up a warm, sweet Glühwein from a cutesy Alpine hut, and admire a snow-covered Mount Esja across the sea. I’m no ice skater, but it’s always delightful to see pretty Ingolfstorg Square transformed into a local ice rink (there are skates on hire if you want to join in) – just as there’s something special about watching locals bump into each over on the local lake, Tjornin, which is always frozen into a thick sheet of ice at this time of year.
More adventurous visitors can explore glaciers and ice caves, or attempt to see the Northern Lights. Christmas is an excellent time for spotting them, since it is cold and dark. I have managed to catch them spontaneously on the way home from a bar – and once through a kitchen window at a house party.
One of the most fun things I’ve done, though, was to take a 20-minute bus ride to the lava-dotted suburb of Hafnarfjordur, whose Christmas market is one of the biggest and liveliest. I had a great time browsing the local handmade products and trying the sweet treats, but most memorable was a visit to a local geothermal pool, where we relaxed in the hot tubs as yet more snow fell gently around us.
Paul Sullivan
How to get there
easyJet (0330 365 5000; easyjet.com) is offering a three-night package, including a stay at the centrally located Radisson 1919 hotel, for ￡784 per person from Dec 23-26
Oberndorf, Austria
Like a scene from a snow globe, the Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf is where I pray for the flakes to fall. And they often do in this corner of the Austrian Alps, nudging the Bavarian border. I arrive in the blue dusk of Christmas Eve, with the temperature around 32F (0C). White tree lights glow on every chalet, a fresh dusting of snow lends a pearly sheen, and cinnamony wafts of Glühwein hang in the air.
This little town has an unparalleled claim to festive fame. On Christmas Eve in 1818, things were going awry in St Nicholas’s church. The organ was out of action and it looked as though Midnight Mass would be without song or music. But Joseph Mohr, a young priest and composer, came up with a bright idea, whipping out his poem Stille Nacht. His friend Franz Xaver Gruber, an organist, choirmaster and teacher, bashed out a simple melody on his guitar, and the world’s best-loved carol was born. On that evening 200 years ago, Silent Night was first performed around the nativity scene by candlelight. It still has a sacred place in Austrian hearts and is only ever sung on Christmas Eve.
So I will be there in time for the much-anticipated five o’clock performance, jostling for a glimpse of the dinky, octagonal Silent Night Chapel, built in 1937 to replace the original. There’s a hush as the first familiar chords are strummed and a bass and a tenor sing “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,” with voices so pure they give me goosebumps. All is calm and bright for a precious few moments as the carol drifts across the crowd as softly as a lullaby, as gently and lingeringly as snowfall.
Kerry Christiani
How to get there
easyJet (0330 365 5000; easyjet.com) offers a two-night package with a stay at Hotel Sacher for ￡840pp, including flights from London to Salzburg From there it’s a 23-minute train ride to Oberndorf (oebb.at)
Cape Town
While there is something to be said for warming your hands on a glass of mulled wine and the twinkling of Christmas lights on dark nights, I for one am happy to be miles from the hellish cheer of red-nosed reindeer and faux snow, splayed instead on the hot white sands of a Cape Town beach. Not that the city doesn’t celebrate – aside from the usual dubious men in Father Christmas suits and blaring Boney M, there’s the annual switching on of the Christmas lights that bower the length of Adderley Street. Then there are the Kirstenbosch “Carols by Candlelight” concerts, where you lie on sloping lawns admiring the forested mountain, wishing that the night was indeed more silent. I’d rather hear the tinkle of ice than the jingle of bells, toasting the departure of the sun as the lights flicker on from Signal Hill, or watching the ocean turn molten from a Bakoven boulder.
But by the time it’s Christmas, you won’t find parking for love nor money. So I’ll be heading four hours east, to the Garden Route National Park, surrounded by forests and lakes – a playground so vast you can still experience that ultimate Christmas luxury: solitude. The youngsters will go canyoning down Kaaimans river and get the year beaten out of them under a crashing waterfall, then soar over the ocean on a tandem paraglide ride.
I shall do absolutely nothing but float down the river to the sea. It’s balmier than Cape Town but still hot, so Christmas Eve dinner is preferable to sweating over lunch preparations, and the best place to do so is a little steakhouse called Joplin’s. And after the presents have been opened, a long walk at low tide to Gericke’s Point, a wild and deserted beach near Sedgefield, where I shall again immerse myself in one of the rock pools. Remembering the times I used to do so in my birthday suit. Getting old, my dear, getting old.
Pippa de Bruyn
How to get there
Livingstone Safaris (0027 21 686 3788; livsaf.com) offers a nine-night itinerary including Cape Town and the Garden Route from ￡1,175 per person sharing, including rental car but excluding international flights.
