He did try to catch a squid himself. He went with my brother and bought a squid jig at a tackle shop but when they went to try and catch one the ocean was too rough.

My parents rented a holiday cottage in a sleepy coastal village and we joined them for a few days and had Christmas there. It was my husband’s third Christmas with my family and he said it was the best one yet. Even though we were only there for a few days we did so much: swimming at the beach, fishing, canoeing on the lake, big Christmas lunch. There were even kangaroos out in the evening. It’s a myth that kangaroos jump down the street in Australia…. but sometimes, you will get kangaroos very close to houses in certain places. My husband was pretty excited to see kangaroos on the street and grazing on people’s front lawns. He also enjoys all the Christmas food and the special time with family. Christmas in Korea is not as fun or as special as it is here.

My husband did get nerf guns for Christmas… but luckily my mum made a rule that there was to be no shooting inside the cottage. So I escaped mostly. However, now that we are home in our apartment, my mum isn’t here to stop it! Currently there are nerf bullets strewn across the floor. (Also caught him having a nap at the cottage with his nerf gun in his arms.)

In a few days we are going back down to the same area to my uncle’s holiday house, so he’ll get another chance at trying to catch some squid.

What did everyone else do for Christmas? If you don’t celebrate Christmas, do you celebrate another holiday around this time of year?

We got them to help us decorate the Christmas tree, which was exciting for them.

I did laugh pretty hard at this. He really did just put a clump of red balls on the tree. Because it was so funny, I left it that way, but my mum came and did some rearranging later.

Christmas in Korea doesn’t seem to have the same meaning as it does in places like Australia. My husband told me a lot of people do nothing special and it’s common to just go out and do things with friends. He likes the Western style of Christmas because of the focus on family and traditions (and food!). It’s not really a surprise though, as Christmas has been a big holiday in Western countries a lot longer than in Korea. It’s been fun to introduce the Korean couple staying with my parents to Christmas traditions.

Does your family have any particular Christmas traditions?