Plaza Italia (Buenos Aires)

I've always been a sucker for classic Christmas carols at this time of year, so while I was doing a little kitchen prep, I fired up a Spotify playlist.

And then it struck me just how bizarre Christmas is to a Canadian in Buenos Aires. It's 25 degrees Celsius outside, the trees are all green, and I'm living in shorts and sandals.

"White Christmas" is only a dream to the locals, and nothing is really beginning to look a lot, or even a little bit, like Christmas.

Christmas here is pretty low-key despite it being a Christian country. We barely see more Xmas decorations here than we see in Thailand, where it's predominantly Buddhist. This is also not a country that has a lot to offer vegans in terms of special holiday meals. Even though we have a kitchen at our Airbnb, we've decided to forego any elaborate cooking and concentrate on bubbles and desserts to celebrate the holidays.

Chandon and Mumm's both have wineries in Argentina, and there are incredible wine sales at all the big supermarkets at the moment. A nice bottle of bubbles costs as little as $3.55 CAD, so we bought 4 bottles, some old favorites, and some new ones to try. We also have a bottle of Bailey's since it's our tradition to have Bailey's coffee on Christmas Eve.

The pastries are absolutely amazing in Argentina. Roch is a huge fan of panettone, and there is no shortage of them here. We have a family-size pan dulce (though I think it was meant for more than a family of two!), a dozen of the country's "Best Alfajores", eight conitos de dulce de leche and an apple crumble tarte as well.

Well, our Christmas may not be white, but it sure will be sweet, effervescent and very happy.Les mer