A Very Merry British Christmas

Different:
1. Lots of people say "Happy Christmas" instead of "Merry Christmas."
2. No Christmas cookies! Christmas cake and Christmas mince pies instead.
3. Not so many houses decorate on the outside for Christmas, but the city went light-crazy with about 15 miles of lights (which they started putting up in October)!
4. Boxing Day (day after Christmas). Reminds me of a sort of British substitute for the day after Thanksgiving.
5. German Christmas Markets, full of good things to eat, smell, and buy!
6. People freely and happily say "Merry Christmas" to each other, even to people they don't really know. I don't sense any of the paranoid PCishness we have in the States with wondering if you should say "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," or just mind your own business. But this all seems funny to me because it seems much more international here.
7. No bell-ringing outside Wal-Mart for the Salvation Army here. They go out into town with a full brass ensemble.

Same!
1. Hearing Christmas carols playing in the stores and knowing that people actually know what it means (unlike Japan).
2. We're off to Christmas Eve service at church tonight.
3. Lots of good food. And plenty of slothing around.
4. Snow! (cross fingers, anyway)
5. Christmas trees. We didn't have many Christmas ornaments, so we improvised and used all of the keitai (cell phone) characters we amassed in Japan. Our tree is very uniquely decorated with the like of Hello Kitty and a goya-holding shisa, and is even topped-off with a ninja star.
6. We're very proud of the huge display of Christmas cards and letters that we received from our friends and family from all over the world.
7. At the root of it, Christmas is still Christmas, no matter how or where you celebrate it. It's easy to think Christmas is all of the fuss that we make it out to be, but really, it's as simple as sharing love with other people and remembering the amazing gift of love that God gave us over 2000 years ago. (Cheesy, I know, but true!)

A very Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Meri Kurisumasu, Feliz Navidad, etc. to you over there from us over here!

Kristy