Culture Section: Geseënde Kersfees! Christmas in Cape

Geseënde Kersfees!* Christmas in Cape Town

I have been very lucky to have experienced the holiday season in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. As my family are from South Africa, I have had the chance to spend the Christmas holidays in Cape Town. As you would expect, there are many differences that contrast with a UK Christmas.

the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Making its yearly appearance to close Christmas dinner is the classic dessert: trifle. The biggest difference, that feels so strange to anyone used to a British Christmas, is the fact that in South Africa, December is in summer. It is not something that ever crosses your mind especially if all that you have known is a stereotypical ‘white Christmas’ (even though these are so rare themselves).

Food is one of the biggest parts of Christmas in Cape Town. Alongside various types of roast meat, you will also find seafood such as crayfish (lobster) and prawns, due to the city’s location on both

Despite this, most of the imagery surrounding Christmas is the same that we would expect in the UK, such as snow and Christmas trees. Santa and his reindeer can be seen everywhere, even though the temperature for December in Cape Town averages around 30 degrees. Being summer, this means that Christmas lights are not a key part of the festive experience in the same way that they are everywhere in the UK, as there are more hours of sunlight. South Africa doesn’t have the same long nights that we associate with the festive season.

The final major difference is that Boxing Day becomes Beach Day, with places such as Muizenberg beach, Camp’s Bay and Strand all becoming overrun with people looking to enjoy themselves in the open water. This could be paired with a South-African barbecue known as a ‘Braai’ to finish out the first leg of the holiday period.

*(Merry Christmas in Afrikaans, one of eleven official languages in South Africa).

by Nick Frantz