This was my fourth Christmas in Buenos Aires, and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it being in summer — oh don’t get me wrong, I like it but I’m still not used to it. My tango teacher worked in Japan for several years and he had the opposite feeling — he couldn’t get used to Christmas in winter! Anyway, Christmas is fun wherever you are, and this year was no exception.

The main celebration here is on Christmas Eve, as it is in many South American and European countries, while I’m used to celebrating Christmas Day in Canada and also in Scotland. This year I had the best of both worlds.

Venetia and I were invited to Cecilia’s for the family gathering. I had recently met a new friend, Lina, who didn’t have any plans. I had no hesitation in inviting her because Cecilia is famous for her hospitality, but it was even nicer when she invited Lina to stay overnight as well as Venetia and me. We arrived around 7 pm and were put to work making canapes, which we said we would do on condition we could drink wine while we worked!

The rest of the family arrived around 9 pm and we started eating half an hour or so later. It was all very informal, as it usually is — no ceremonial carrying in of turkey or anything like that. Oh, except for Venetia pouring whisky on the Christmas pudding and setting it alight, which was surprising to our hosts but we all enjoyed the delicious pudding. So all in all, we just simply ate, drank and chatted until midnight when we exchanged gifts in the usual chaos that involves.

Cecilia and I took the three dogs out for a walk around 2.30 am before going to bed, which was a lovely way to round out the day. Here are a couple of photos of the day. Below those is a video of the kind of thing that is typical on the train that takes me to Cecilia’s place. There are musicians of all kinds, carrying instruments and sometimes even sound systems! They are always much appreciated and everyone is very generous to them. Very Buenos Aires!

I took the selfie of the three of us, and the other photo and the video are courtesy of Venetia, our “official” photographer for all events! (Thanks Venetia.)

On Christmas Day all three of us came home on the train together, and then I had a lazy afternoon before getting ready to go to Venetia’s place for her traditional English Christmas pudding (again!) with ice cream and champagne — lots of champagne! We were a small but varied group of people and the conversation was fascinating. All in all I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. I hope you did too, wherever you are and whatever you did.