While the beginning of December is a joyful time during which we look forward to a sea or Bushveld holiday and the little ones’ wishing lists for Christmas, this time of the year also includes deep longing and nostalgia. With Christmas, we always think of the children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters who celebrate on their own on the other side of the world. This week we talked to Louise Uys to find out how they celebrate Christmas in France.

1.  Are there interesting Christmas practices and traditions, or special dishes (please send those recipes)?

Yes, quite a few in France. Every year each town holds a Christmas market. In our little town there is a large Ferris wheel and many wooden houses that sell crepes with Nutella and churros.

Each year around Christmas time the shops are full of Advent calendars, children especially like those with chocolate. They can eat chocolate every day and count down the days until Christmas. Naturally it is very nice for them to eat chocolate for 25 days of December from 06:00 in the morning.

The shops sell foie gras which is duck liver pâté. It is an horrible story. The ducks and geese are fed until they are almost ten times their size and then the liver is used for this special delicacy. It is usually spread on a baguette or a savoury biscuit.

2. Are there pretty Christmas lights in your neighbourhood or a new Christmas trend showing itself in your country?  

Our town looks extremely pretty with all the lights and it is always great excitement to drive through town and look at everything, especially as it is already dark by 18:00.

3.  Do you keep to old traditional food and celebrations or do you celebrate Christmas in new ways?

I think we celebrate Christmas in our own way. We normally buy a real Christmas tree and take pretty pictures next to the tree in our Christmas jerseys.

We watch Christmas movies from when the school closes on 19 December until Christmas day. We play in the snow in the winter holiday. There are quite a few places to ski close to our town, so a day trip to the snow is very enjoyable.

We have a Biblical Advent from 1 December to 24 December. Every evening I read a verse about the anticipation and birth of Jesus, and every evening our sons can open a small gift that fits in with the Advent set. On Christmas day we open Jesus.

For our Christmas meal we usually have a leg of lamb with pumpkin pie or another sweet vegetable dish, and of course green beans with potatoes like our grandmothers used to made it, with rice and gravy. Dessert is normally malva pudding with custard or a French Christmas chocolate cake.  

4. Also tell us your anecdote about previous Christmas celebrations. Of course photos are welcome!

In 2019 we together with friends of ours, also South Africans, decided to go on a tour. Our aim was to see how many Christmas markets we could visit and of course also top tourist attractions in the town as well as taste top pastries from that area. We were in Besancon, Zurich, Munich, Strasbourg, Alsace, Heidelberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Colmar among others.

Christmas evening we were in an Airbnb and we literally had a microwave and a kettle. So we bought a rotisserie chicken and side dishes at Picard (it is a shop that sells the tastiest frozen food and delicious Christmas puddings in pretty shapes) and we bought such delicious chocolates at a Christmas market earlier in the day. The table was quite nicely set with pretty things.