Christmas and New Year Debrief

I had the privilege of spending Christmas in London and NYE in Paris and here is my hot take on who does it better.

Brits do Christmas better than the French.

I know it’s a controversial statement to start the year but I’ve been thinking about it and as the festive period has now passed I feel brave enough to speak my truth. Also I think it’s worth a debrief so we can all make the right choices for December 2025. I’ll say it again for clarity: Britain does Christmas better. The only stuff I would like to steal from France and inject into my UK Christmas is the seafood and litchis. Aside from that, and in the knowledge this will make French blood boil, Brits do it better.

Firstly French Christmas is too short. It’s an evening (the 24th) maybe a bit of day (25th) but the 26th is a regular back to work day. This just isn’t long enough to fully indulge your inertia and Richard Curtis back catalogue. Even the 25th isn’t sacrosanct in France. I’ll give you an irrefutable example: in Paris the Metro runs on the 25th of December. In a country in which a strike can happen at the drop of a hat, trains are running on Jesus’s birthday. In the UK public transport shuts down, it grinds to a non negotiable halt- even in London. My uncle had to cycle from Crystal Palace to Ealing in order to spend Christmas with us. That’s nearly 40 miles, over 60km, a 3hrs round trip. That’s how sacrosanct Christmas Day is in England.