Christmas and New Year Holidays

I know this is the first year in the UK for some of the regular contributors here, so am wondering how they think the Christmas holidays in the UK compare to those in Canada?

What differences have you noticed?

Well..
Not as much snow.
All this dead looking nature with the occasional 8ft tall inflatable santa all looks a bit caricatural and depressing to me.

Lack of candy canes. Infrequency of houses with Christmas lights, and those that do have lights, have an excessive amount.

Last year I saw a house covered in what appeared to be tin foil, then was decorated with lights. Weird.

yeah. brits don't understand candy canes at all. i was told that it orginated from some christmas fable where children would get whacked by a cane if they didn't behave. somehow that didn't translate well over here.

surprisingly,i miss the crass commericalism of a good ol'north american Christmas and ofcourse the snow.

well, happy new year everyone!

Yeah there are soooo many things I miss about a Canadian Christmas. I miss the snow-but not just the snow, rather how the sun glistens on a snowy field making it all sparkly and how good snow crunches under your feet. I miss tobogan rides down a nice hill, the steel grey sky and white fluffy clouds with a cold crispness in the air.
I miss the Grinch who stole Christmas and all the other garbage TV that we get in N America.
In Britain I find Christmas damp and depressing. Even in a room full of people I can feel alone. I miss how no one gets my Canadian customs- especially baked squash with butter and or maple syrup.
I too miss candy canes-and 3 words-Frosty the snowman!
Ben

Well as far as traditional foods go, I was lucky because I made traditional Lac St-Jean tourtiere (a meat pie from Quebec) and creton (porc spread) and fruit ketchups and had people come over with traditional quebec music in the background. And on the morning, I did pancakes with maple sirup.. so that was nice.