Traditionally, there is a strong focus on the family at Christmas in Ireland. In the ideal family calls are made, students are lured home from college with the promise of lots of food they don't have to cook themselves; elderly relatives are invited along; children scamper round the house and garden looking for advance signs of the Red One. It's the time of year when gaps are most noticed round a table.
But not everyone who is in this country for Christmas is Irish. For those who do stay, food (and drink), it appears, becomes very important in celebrating the day. You might be far from home, but a good meal can help create a sense of occasion in the absence of family members. So what brings those people here who are far from home, and what are they planning to do for December 25th, when they will be away from their countries?
Ricco SΘ, an actor and writer, is from "farming country" in New South Wales, Australia, and has been living in Galway for the past seven years. "It was December and I had just arrived in Dublin, and knew one of the directors in Druid in Galway. So I cycled to Galway. It took two days, and as soon as I arrived, something electric happened and I knew this would be my home."
He stayed in a hostel in Quay Street and stocked up on food to "make a little feast" for Christmas Day. With another visitor from the hostel, they went on their own walking tour of Galway for the day. "We ate sitting on a bench at Salthill, looking at the sea and drinking wine. It was freezing - I shared my gloves with the other guy."
Since then, Christmases have become a little more formal for SΘ, and the feasts have become a lot bigger. "I do what I call an Orphans' Christmas; invite all the waifs and strays. 1997 was the best Christmas ever - I had people from South Africa, New Zealand, France, Australia and Canada. The French friend was the head chef at a restaurant here at the time, and he made a huge feast for us all. It started at noon and finished at 6 a.m. next day. We danced all night."
The menu included melon and mango, Chinese consommΘ, truffle pasta in black and white, vodka sorbet, beef wellington, chocolate mousse, and a cheeseboard. The day prompted a commemorative poem, several verses long. It ends: Our feast has cleared/ A dance prevails/ Fusions of swing, old-time and jig/ Girl with boy or each with each/ 'Twas 18 hours ferocious craic/ I danced a dream this Christmas Day.
This year, the chef has moved on, so SΘ will be doing the cooking himself for his waifs and strays.
Jean Philippe Paillard, a music student from Brittany in France, was in Galway for four years, and has been in Dublin for one. He'll be heading west on Christmas Eve for SΘ's feast. "This is my second Christmas here. The first time, I was broke and working and didn't have time off to go home. This time, I'm saving money so that I can go for a big journey somewhere in the world in a year's time. Besides, not all my family will be at home in France this year, and I would be going there really to see them, so what would be the point?"
Paillard is making sure to send gifts to his godchildren in France. "I am three times a godfather, so spiritually I believe it's important for me to show them the spirit of Christmas. Christmas is a symbol of the religion they have to follow the whole year. It isn't important to me personally, though, the religious part of Christmas."
Mahmut Balkir, a Turkish rug-repairer from Istanbul who works in a carpet shop in Dublin, has been here for eight years. He originally came to study English and since married. He will be spending Christmas this year with his wife's friends in Wicklow. "Miss home? You always miss home," he muses. Balkir's strongest memory of his first Irish Christmas was being astonished that "so much time and effort went into making a meal that was eaten so quickly".
"In Istanbul, there are so many different religions: Christmas is not really important there. The big thing for us is New Year, and it still is to me here. I am saving money to make a big party on New Year's Eve." For Balkir, Christmas "in reality is a week of holiday, family, and a nice meal".
He thinks Ireland has changed in the time he's been here in the way it marks Christmas. "I do think the Christmas here eight years ago was different from now. There was less money then and more faith; only a couple of places open to find nice extras. Now it is very commercial, no feeling. People try to make up for being busy by spending money. Why?"
Julie Taylor and Nick Goodman are art teachers from England, who are coming to Dublin to visit friends for Christmas. "Our family is scattered between Australia and South Africa," explains Taylor, "so it's a long way to travel to be with them." It will be their first time in Ireland.
"If we have any rituals at Christmas, it is to try and avoid rituals. It doesn't mean anything spiritual to me: if it's about anything, it's about family and friends and people who are not with us any more."
They will be spending a family-type Christmas with their friends in Dublin. "We're looking forward to seeing Dublin. They have children and we don't, so we'll be able to share that, and they've booked a pantomime for us all.
"We wanted to bring over something special, but it seems like you can get everything there now in Ireland. We used to know these friends in Germany, and for us, Christmas begins on December 1st, when the Christmas markets open, and all the lights. You really notice it there because the weather is so dark and we need the lights to brighten it up."
Christine Monk is a PR Consultant from Melbourne, Australia, and she's been in Dublin for four years. "My first Christmas here was awful. It was so cold, and I had just been here a few weeks. I was living in a shared house, and everyone went home to their families," she recalls. "I didn't have a job, or any money, it was terrible. I know it's a clichΘ, but it does feel so utterly, utterly weird for it to be cold and Christmas. With that and the time delay in phoning home, everything feels like the whole world is upside down."
Monk went home for the next two Christmases, but will be here this year. "I feel I have enough of a world here now to risk being away from my family. I come from a really big family and we have a ritual where everyone gives everyone a present. It takes hours to open them all. This year, all my family have sent me presents, they are arriving now every day." She is going to a friend's farm in Tipperary. "Everyone will be given a job when they arrive, to do something towards making Christmas lunch. We'll go to Midnight Mass. And I'll bring all my family's presents with me and open them Christmas morning, even though their Christmas will be almost over by then."
Marco Sonzogni is from Pavia, in Italy, and teaches Italian in UCD and the Italian Cultural Institute. This is his ninth year in Ireland, and this Christmas will be a special one, since he recently got engaged to an Irishwoman. "That will keep me here for a few more years," he says.
He is planning to spend Christmas with his fiancΘe's family in Kilkenny. "I am looking forward to it all, I am even looking forward to the train journey from Dublin to Kilkenny. Usually Christmas was a milestone in my life that had to be spent with family. My first Christmas here, I spent it on my own on campus. I went to church in Trinity. The spiritual part of Christmas is very important. This year, we'll be going to Midnight Mass and then to a Protestant service - my fiancΘe is Protestant. There is no different god on Christmas Day: it is the one day when all differences should be erased."
There are a couple of rituals Sonzogni likes to keep up from Italian customs. One is drinking hot wine after Midnight Mass. The other is opening his presents. "I like to open my presents on Christmas Eve night - I would do this even if I were in the North Pole. This year, I will be meeting lots of new relatives of my fiancΘe, they will all be coming to the house on Christmas Day, so that I can introduce myself officially - there is no way back now,"
Greg Meylan, from Wellington in New Zealand, hasn't been home in almost three years. "I came to Dublin because it wasn't London," he observes laconically. He spent last Christmas with his Irish flatmate's family, joining in their rituals, and this year, he is going to an Irish friend's house, where dinner will be cooked "for all the waifs and strays. When you have lots of friends here and no family, friends are important. We'll have dinner and a big fire and maybe a walk. At home, you'd go and find a beach or park to play soccer or netball".
For Ukrainians Helena Beus and Rostyslav Shechuk, and their two daughters, Teresa Anastasia and Maya Elizabeth, this will be their first Christmas in Ireland. "In our country, we celebrate Christmas in January, on the 7th. So this year we'll have two Christmases, the Irish one and the Ukranian one."
Presents are given to children on St Nicholas' Day, December 19th, when the gifts are put on their pillows. "That's really the only time we give presents," Beus explains. Their special meal will be cooked in January, not in December.
"The tradition is to cook 12 dishes. Here I will cook some of them, not all of them. I'll be making Kutya, it is a special sort of soup, with grain and poppy seeds and honey: this is the only time of year we have it. We eat a lot of meat and sweets this time of year.
"On the night of the 6th, we pray before we eat and we don't clear away the dishes that night. That night, we don't have separate plates for everyone, we share bowls and dishes. Then we leave them on the table with lots of left-over food. They are left for the spirits of dead relatives to come and eat. We believe that they come back to us that night."