Christmas In Argentina

Being a predominantly Catholic country, you would think that Christmas traditions in Argentina would resemble those in North America, but you couldn't be more mistaken.

Christmas is a very laid-back affair here. The large shopping malls have Santa driven sleighs hanging from the rafters and the landmark Faro Bicentenario has been transformed into a 102 meter tall Christmas tree, but aside from that, it's business as usual.

To even find a Christmas card for our annual exchange required some effort and input from the local Facebook expat group.

There is none of the manic crowds scrambling store to store on December 23rd trying to find that last minute gift. The grocery and liquor stores have no queues of people with shopping carts brimming with food and booze impatiently waiting at the doors and cash registers. Boxing Day is not celebrated here and there is no "day-off-in-lieu-of" here. Staff will all be back on the job Monday morning. In fact, many businesses remain open on Christmas day.

Christmas is primarily celebrated on the eve with families gathering for a late evening meal as they await the stroke of midnight to exchange gifts and cards that are usually handmade .

There is no roast turkey at the Christmas meal here. Summer has just officially started and temperatures reach the high 30's in late December so running the oven for six hours to roast a turkey is out of the question. The traditional Christmas meal consists of Vitel Tone, thinly sliced veal topped with a rich sauce of tuna, mayonnaise, cream, egg yolks, white wine, anchovies and capers. It is chilled to let the flavor set and served covered in the creamy sauce. Also prevalent is Asado, either barbecued beef or pork served with a vinagery salsa of tomato, onion and red pepper.

We managed to find vegetarian versions of the latter two dishes at Rincon Verde restaurant that we accompanied with oven roasted potatoes and vegetables, a fine Malbec and a sparkling wine from Chandon.

Yeah, I'd do Christmas in Argentina again.Read more