There are many reasons to enjoy going away at Christmas and one of them is experiencing Christmas in different countries to see how different cultures and how they celebrate. Over the past nine years I have had a different Christmas Experience because I have been in different parts of the world and thought I would share a few of them with you today.

When we were in Seville, Spain, we were staying approx five miles out of the city centre, however, around three in the morning we were woken up by singing, drums and a parade that was happening in the town on Christmas Day.  We never could really find out for what it was about but considering that it is a religious area we guessed it was to welcome the holy day in. It was a nice sound to hear but at that time in the morning it took a while to work out what the sound actually was!

You see on television shows that some Americans go out and feed the homeless on Christmas Day, well in Boston 2010 we witnessed this first hand. In the middle of town there was a massive hot food service set up in one of the parks and it was there to feed all the homeless and you could see the long queue and see how grateful they were. It was really heartwarming to see and sort of created a lump in your throat.

We had a very random Christmas the year we visited Switzerland as we spent our Christmas Day in a Zoo in Basel – yes it was open! It was really random going a zoo on the 25th of December but it was also really nice as it was pretty much empty and only full of the locals that were there with their families for a morning stroll. It was freezing cold so we walked around a very big zoo really fast but enjoyed seeing animals and because it was quiet they were really active. Also the cafe in the zoo put out really good swiss chocolate which was a lovely treat with hot chocolate.

A very fun Christmas was at Universal Studios in Florida – we decided to go there as we were staying in Tampa and we wanted to experience the most Christmas like experience we could so we went to a place where we knew it would be their number one priority. It was amazing, on Christmas eve we went and saw The Grinch The Musical and then on the big day they had the Thanksgiving Day parade floats and did one around the park – so fun.