Steve_

You can get all the UK Christmas stuff (well most of it anyway) from Costplus World Market. If there is one near you.

But anyway I think the importance of Thanksgiving really makes Christmas less of a deal in the US. Which is fine by me because I really like Thanksgiving because it is less commercialized plus my birthday is near Christmas...

Cuthbert Rizla

Here in Ireland the computerised radio playlists all automatically change into Christmas mode on December 1st.
You wake up that morning to hear The Fairytale Of New York for the first time and everything seems warm and fuzzy and Christmassy.
By the end of the day you're heard it another five times and suddenly it becomes a bit of a drag.
By Christmas Day you positively hate the song, especially the bit where every dickhead in the pub joins in with " You scumbag, you maggot,you cheap lousy faggot "
I hate Christmas with a vengeance.

LeithAc

I'm such a sad act I have my family send me copies of the M & S, Boots and Radio Times Christmas magazines and sit and read them all with a glass of wine. Living in Boston there's a few British/Irish shops so it's easy to get the required crackers/tins of Roses and cocktail sausages that make for an enjoyable Christmas but I still miss being at home for all the reasons everyone else has mentioned. It's over far too quick here which makes me sad. It was a complete culture shock when I first arrived here a few years ago and colleagues were scheduling a meeting for Dec 26th and I realised I was going to be at work.

Poppy girl

It's over to quick for most of the Brits but look at the flip side we get a TG and then a full month of Christmas build up, the tree goes up earlier the festivities office parties etc etc

Surrey72

Absolutely!!
I thought I was the only one who remembered n missed that

margaretmwilson

Family, pigs in blankets made with "proper" butchers sausages and dare I say in..............SNOW!!!

cowtowntaff

It's 25 degrees outside. I miss the weather, it doesn't feel like Christmastime at all

Jaxbar

I've realised that I miss Boxing Day but possibly because I miss paid holidays! I have decided to bring it to the US this year and am encouraging my friends to have the day off and eat leftovers with me May even make them watch British TV on the Slingbox.

KetteringEnglandRocks2005

I like this idea a lot. Have a great holiday season.

SultanOfSwing

*sigh*

In no particular order:

- Christmas dinner. The one day of the year my ma arsed herself to cook more than sausages and chips, but well worth the wait.
- Christmas pudding
- M&S desserts. Mmmm.
- Christmas Eve piss-up with my mates down the local
- Getting more than one ****ing day off work
- Christmas songs that aren't that godawful 1950s rat pack shite
- Carolers (though you probably aren't allowed to hear Christmas Carols anymore, lest we make a Muslim cry ...)
- Work Christmas dinner/piss-up combo in mid December
- Christmas crackers
- TV Christmas specials and the double issue Radio Times
- Christmas tree spotting while driving around in December and not seeing bloody awful inflatable Santas, massive plastic raindeer or that kind of stuff.
- My old house
- Dandering over to my mate's house on Boxing Day to get pished
- Belfast City Centre all decorated and lit up.
- Selection boxes and 1kg bars of Dairy Milk

I shall stop now

Uncle Ebenezer

Damn, but you're a miserable old sod.

SultanOfSwing

I prefer disillusioned, and less of the old, please

Uncle Ebenezer

Meh ... semantics.

I miss stuffing, that's actually been cooked inside the turkey - that was always one of my favourite parts of Christmas dinner. My mum used to stuff our turkey with pork sausage meat - delicious.

SultanOfSwing

One good thing about last (and this, I think) Christmas here, to be fair and balanced and all that, was that my mother in law surprised me with a turkey for our Christmas Eve dinner to accompany the ham we have every year

Obviously, my wife made her excellent stuffing to accompany it. My mum never made her own, unless she changed her name to Marks & Spencer somewhere in my youth ...

Jerseygirl

M&S Chestnut Stuffing...to die for.