UK vs NL Christmas

  • Average amount Dutch person spends on Christmas: 101 Euro
  • Average amount Brits spend on Christmas: close to 800 Euro
  • Brits spend that money on prezzies
  • Dutch spend it on food (only half decent meal of the year)
  • Christmas is on a weekend, Brits get two extra days off.
  • Christmas is on a weekend, bad luck for the Dutch
  • Dutch don’t get Christmas pudding. Lots of Christmas cake, though.

Christmas in my country, as you can see, isn’t that big a deal. You are, however, supposed to spend it with your family and yes, trees are involved.

This year, I’ll be working on Christmas Day, spend Boxing day hopefully in peace and on my own. Back to work on Monday.

23. December 2004 von Caroline
Categories: Culture | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 5 comments

Comments (5)

  1. wilco says December 23, 2004 at 3:41 pm

    > Christmas is on a weekend, Brits get two extra days off.

    My employer does that too. Because we’re part of a UK based company :-)

  2. e says December 23, 2004 at 5:30 pm

    Yeah, but Dutch people also spend a bunch of money on Sinterklaas. I know I did…

  3. ModSue says December 24, 2004 at 12:23 am

    hmmm, I’m very guilty of gross commercialism this time of year. I don’t even keep track of the amount, but I spent at least $800 U.S. between my husband and my son. I’ve spent at least $400 on friends. And we’ve spent about $500 on family (moms, brothers, nephews etc.)

    Spent $300 today on wine, beer and food for the feast, too.

    OUCH! reading it in print, it does seem excessive.

  5. ModSue says December 24, 2004 at 10:25 pm

    do you need me to pick you up off the floor?