Christmas Heart and Hearth

Dec 6

The Yuletide season is usually a time for togetherness, for gathering around the table to celebrate this time of the year. It’s the time of the year when we share a special moment with family and friends. In our home, food always played an important part every day but especially so during the festive season. We made an effort in setting up the tree, enjoyed the lengthy preparations and planned everything from how the table would be set to the food we would cook and even the wines we would have for our Christmas eve dinner. My childhood Christmas memories were all about spending time with family and enjoying the celebration at the table.

I was born in Manila and spent every single Christmas growing up first by attending an early evening mass then having Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparent’s home with my parents, my siblings, aunts, uncles and assorted cousins. We would gather around the table for what was usually a feast – roast suckling pig one year or a roast turkey the next. There were always roasted chestnuts and lots of fruit, decadent desserts and countless presents under the tree. I promised myself I’d keep the spirit of these heartwarming traditions alive wherever I’d be in the world.

I’ve been on the move since 1992. First for my studies in Paris and then later working abroad in Napa, California and Moscow.

My first Christmas without my family was when I was a student in Paris. Our parents told us we shouldn’t come back home for the holidays but instead, spend time in Europe and take advantage of being there. I decided to go to Rome to visit my best friend where we had a lovely time, first going to mass at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore surrounded by families on Christmas Eve then ending up in an expensive, touristy Chinese restaurant. It was the only place open as most restaurants were closed for the holidays.

The next few Christmases were spent in Moscow where December was a winter wonderland of snowy days, below zero temperatures and astonishingly clear blue skies. It was the kind of Christmas cliche I had watched in movies growing up.

Years later I married Alejandro, a hotelier whose job required him to be posted overseas. As serial expats, we have had the pleasure of experiencing Christmas in so many different cities, cultures and seasons. Our first Christmas together was in Santiago, Chile which was unusual as it was summertime in South America. Being a mainly Catholic country, we managed to go to church and have dinner at the hotel where my husband was working.

We often didn’t have the chance to go back home either to Manila or to my husband’s home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was usually just us and our two kids, and sometimes, friends who were also missing their families.

Over the last 25 years, we have experienced so many different Christmases: a wintry one in Montreal, Canada with our first live fir tree that we had to water every day to keep green, a traditional Spanish one where we all dressed up and sat by the fireplace in Marbella, a warm tropical one by the pool in Bali, Indonesia, a beachside Caribbean one in Dorado, Puerto Rico, a humid rainy one in Singapore and several cold and rainy ones in London.

One memorable year was spent in freezing Montreal where we had a roaring fire lit every single day to keep our home warm. We would often walk to nearby Westmount Park and take our son sledding, which he loved. We also visited the traditional markets of the city from Atwater Market in Anglophile Westmount to Marche Jean-Talon in Francophile Outremont and indulged in the special Christmas treats on sale.

Another unforgettable one in Marbella was when a dear friend, her two daughters and her sister plus Alejandro’s brother and his family were there to spend the holidays with us. There were 11 of us and we had to set two tables – one for the adults and one for the children – for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner of grilled beef, roast potatoes and vegetables. We had to force the kids to wait till the next morning before opening their presents so we could leave cookies and milk for Santa and see what other gifts he had left under the tree.

A few Christmases in summertime Buenos Aires were spent mostly outdoors in the garden enjoying the beautiful weather and indulging in traditional Argentinian asados (barbecues) where a variety of beef cuts would be wood fire grilled and served with salads and vegetables and Malbec. There would also be the impressive rogel a multi-layered dulce de leche (caramel) filled cake.

After years of Christmas celebrations on the beaches of Marbella, Bali and Puerto Rico, we moved to Dubai in 2017 and decided to spend our holidays somewhere cold. Europe made sense as it wasn’t that far away. We spent 2017, 2018 and 2019 in London - once at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown just the four of us and the other two times in rented accommodation with family who met us there. We did a cheese and charcuterie Christmas Eve dinner in 2017 with my brother in law and his family. In 2019, we had a big Christmas reunion with my husband’s side of the family.

One of our longest postings was four years in Singapore. In our first year Alejandro’s brothers and their families came to spend Christmas with us. We bought an 8-foot live fir tree and decorated it with all the ornaments we had collected with the children over the years. In total, there were more than a dozen of us gathered together for tropical Christmas Eve dinner but we still had to set a place for a teddy bear so we could be 14 instead of bad luck 13 at the table. That year we had smoked salmon blinis, mini quiches and champagne to start followed by a buffet of roast turkey, salads, potatoes and vegetables plus a massive dessert buffet.

We moved from Singapore to Dubai (again) in 2017, where we’re still based. This year, we are spending our 8th Christmas in Dubai having recently moved into our newly renovated home. After decades of renting houses all over the world, we finally bought a house. This year will probably be a quiet family Christmas with just me, Alejandro, our youngest daughter Camille and our son Jerome, who is now living and working in London and will be coming home for the holidays. I haven’t planned our Christmas menu yet, but it’ll probably be dinner in the garden enjoying the chilly Dubai winter. Who knows? We may even host a Christmas brunch barbecue with our dear friends who have become our family here.

I can’t predict where we’ll be spending Christmas in the coming years but one thing’s for sure, it will always be gathered around a table with a sumptuous spread shared with family and friends.

Roselyn Sugay Helbling | guest contributor | ws

(Images: @travelswithagourmet, @rshelbling)

Fluent in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Russian and Pilipino), Roselyn Sugay Helbling’s life as a global nomad is filled with ambrosial Adventures. Manila-born, Cordon Bleu graduate, former restaurateur, polyglot, serial expat, hotelier wife, slummy mummy, part-time blogger and full-time gourmet traveler, Roselyn has now lived more time outside her birth country. She is currently living in Dubai with her Argentine husband and their two third-culture children, Jerome and Camille. Just this month, Roselyn started a food delivery business selling gourmet empanadas via Instagram @onda.empanadas and still continues to write about her gourmet travels on @travelswithagourmet, a chronicle of a food lover’s travels, memorable meals, culinary trials and gastronomic experiences.

Roselyn Sugay Helbling

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