Christmas In A Hot Country Still Feels Strange

I spent most of my life living in the United Kingdom where you can experience four different seasons in just one day. Christmas can either be wet and windy, crisp, clear and frosty, or buried in snow drifts. Clearly, one gets accustomed to the climates we live in and one of my great pleasures in life was foraging for wood to feed the log burner so that we could feel nice and cosy during the winter months. I still remember milk bottles freezing on the doorstep with the frozen milk pushing upwards and out of the top. I have always enjoyed winter in the UK and rarely complained about it. I mean, what’s the point? At least in winter, you can add to your layers of protection, but in summer there’s a limit to how much you can take off while remaining decent!

Christmas In A Hot Climate

When I moved to Argentina in 2005, it wasn’t for the weather. I had come for purely romantic reasons, to be reunited with my teenage sweetheart from 1976 whom I later married, so climate was the last thing on my mind. My first Christmas in Buenos Aires was a novelty, eating cold meat and salads outside on a wooden deck wearing a tee shirt and shorts, with the ladies dressed in their finest evening gowns. The temperature was around 26C (80F) with sub-tropical plants swaying in the gentle breeze and Christmas favourites playing from a speaker somewhere in the background. I well remember Christmas Eve 2012 because a heatwave had built up and the evening temperature never dropped below 46C (115F) and we had to place fans around the garden to keep cool. The following year, the temperature dropped to 12C (54F) during the evening, so we moved the venue indoors! I should point out here that Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December (Noche Buena) in Argentina and many other countries, with presents being handed out around midnight, so we usually don’t get home until the early hours. The 25th is usually a day of rest and recuperation shall we say and nothing much happens.

Christmas By The Beach

For those who live in the southern hemisphere or equatorial climes, this will be familiar. From December to February, there’s a mass exodus to the coast in Buenos Aires, yet it still feels strange to me, the idea of swimming in the sea at this time of the year. Mind you, the South Atlantic water is not for the faint-hearted with the sea temperature being between 14 and 17C (57-63F), which is why many prefer the beaches of Brazil where at this time of year, the sea temperature is a lovely 24C (75F).

Different Customs

In Argentina, people don’t send Christmas cards (post boxes no longer exist) and presents are rarely gift-wrapped but are generally given in the bag provided by the store it was bought from. Santa usually makes an appearance and shop windows portray snowy scenes with reindeer leaping across a wintery landscape, which always makes me chuckle. New Year’s Eve is always a more relaxed affair and we usually cook a barbeque (asado) which Argentina is famous for, not least the beef and chorizos.

So, which do you prefer at Christmas? Being huddled around a roaring fire after consuming heaps of turkey and stuffing or lounging by the pool and sipping an ice-cold beer?

In an ideal world, I would alternate from year to year, but I’m still saving up for that Learjet!

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