FOR Nia Louw, this Christmas marks her second festive season in South Korea — a world away from the warm Decembers she grew up with in Durban.

She arrived in September 2024 to sweltering heat, only to face her first icy winter two months later.

“Unprepared is an understatement,” she said. But the use of layered heat-tech, thick sweaters and a proper puffer coat quickly sorted that out.

Last Christmas, newly arrived and still adjusting, she joined a few work friends for a buffet dinner. It was warm and festive, but the absence of South African flavours lingered: crab curry, breyani, peppermint tart, malva pudding with UltraMel custard.

“It was my first Christmas away from my family after a lifetime of celebrating together. It was harder than I expected,” she said.

This year feels different. Louw is more settled, equipped with a stylish red sweater, pleated skirt and boots for the day. She and a group of friends — many of them fellow South Africans — will be celebrating at a South African restaurant in Itaewon, Seoul’s cultural melting pot.

The moment she discovered the menu, featuring biltong, bunny chow and braai meat, she felt a familiar tug at her heart.

Their Christmas spread will include roasted lamb, smoked ham, creamy spinach and malva pudding. “I can hardly wait,” she said.

As she heads into her second year abroad, she says she remains grateful for the friendships she’s made, but admits the tastes and traditions of home remain irreplaceable. “Wherever I celebrate Christmas, I’ll always hold onto the magic of a true South African Christmas.”

Across the Yellow Sea in China, Danica Hansen-Vermeulen’s festive season looks different yet again.

“It’s business as usual on Christmas Day,” she said. Public festivities are minimal, with mall decorations providing the only real hint that the season is underway.

“Christmas here is treated more like a commercial holiday like Valentine’s Day than a cultural celebration,” she said.

One tradition, however, has charmed her: the gifting of apples. The Chinese words for “apple” and “Christmas” sound similar, inspiring the exchange of beautifully packaged “Christmas apples”.

The word for apple, pingguo (苹果), sounds similar to the Chinese phrase for Christmas Eve, ping’an ye (平安夜), which means peaceful night. So the tradition of giving “peace apples” is to symbolise peace and safety for the recipient for the upcoming year.

“The boxes are often more expensive than the fruit,” she joked.  But it’s a tradition she has happily adopted, taking apples to work for her colleagues.

As a foreigner, she gets December 25th off and uses the break to seek out a Western-style Christmas meal or cook her own version at home.

Video calls with loved ones help soften the distance. She also misses the deeper religious meaning of Christmas and the sense of goodwill she remembers from South Africa.

“If I can find a service nearby, I’ll go to church as well,” she said.

Though thousands of kilometres apart, both women echo the sentiment that the magic of Christmas lies not in where you are, but in the traditions you carry with you and the people who help recreate them along the way.

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