Celebrating Christmas in Brazil is wrong.  Christmas should be all about wet, windy and cold days that are short and oh so dark.  It should be about watching TV specials because there is nothing else to do, or wearing your dodgy reindeer jumper if you really have to go outside and brave the elements.

It shouldn’t be about wearing shorts and Havaianas, or watching Father Christmas nearly passing out from the heat, or staying indoors because the sun is too strong and will roast you to a cinder.  While Christmas is often much better in Brazil because it is the height of summer, it still doesn’t feel ‘right’.

The 24th

The big difference for me is that in the UK Christmas is on the 25th.  The 24th, or Christmas Eve, has always been about meeting up with old friends who I hadn’t seen since the previous Christmas Eve, having…