It’s the most wonderful time of the year! In this episode we talk about celebrating Christmas in a new country. We share our experience with spending Christmas alone abroad for the first time. We talk about cultural differences with celebrating Christmas in Portugal compared to our home countries. Also we talk about our favorite Christmas traditions and of course we’ll also share how we’re going to celebrate Christmas this year.
Last but not least we have some advice for anyone who’s spending Christmas alone, away from family for the first time. This Christmas special is our last episode of 2025, since we’re taking a break for the Holidays. We will be back on Tuesday January 13 with new episodes!
Enjoy listening and don’t forget to rate the podcast and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, like Spotify – it will help more hearts find our little corner of the world.
With love, April Betts & Anna Jirina.
About From Lisbon With Love
Welcome to From Lisbon With Love! A podcast about real stories of love, laughter, and life in Lisbon — from women who have left it all behind. We share real stories about moving to Lisbon, starting over and figuring life out along the way. We talk love, dating, friendships, breakups, healing, growing, all of it. Basically, the stuff we usually talk about over coffee ☕️ or vinho 🍷. If you’re thinking about moving to Lisbon, already here or just love honest conversations with heart: you’re in the right place! Learn more about our story here.
Celebrating Christmas in Portugal
Last year we celebrated Christmas for the first time in our new home country, Portugal. It was such a wonderful experience, because the Portuguese really take Christmas decoration to a next level. If you’re a Christmas lover, you’ll definitely enjoy celebrating Christmas in Portugal!
If you live in or around Lisbon, we can definitely recommend Óbidos, Cascais and Sintra for a lovely daytrip full of Christmas vibes. These villages are always worth a visit, but especially during the festive season. However these places can get very crowdy, so if you can go during the week instead of the weekend, that would be the best option!
The best Christmas markets in Lisbon
Lisbon always has something magical (if you ask us), but even more during the holiday season. Lisbon also has many amazing Christmas markets where they sell the best sandwiches and (of course) some hot wine to go with it ;-). The Christmas markets are so beautifully decorated, it really feels like you walk into a fairytale!
Just walking around the old town in december is already so much fun. Most Christmas decoration is already placed by the end of november, so you have plenty of time to enjoy all the lights. One of our favorite routes is to walk the Avenida da Liberdade to Praça do Comercio (where you’ll find the biggest Christmas tree of Lisbon). Of course you can also walk the other way around and end at Winter Wonderland (in Parque Eduardo VII, at the end of the Avenida da Liberdade).
Spending Christmas alone
With so much festivities going on in Lisbon, we almost forgot that we were to spend Christmas in a new country, away from family and friends. Luckily we don’t have any problem with spending Christmas alone, as we also discuss in this episode. But it can definitely be hard to be away from your family, especially if it’s your first Christmas in a new country… At the end of the episode we share some tips for anyone who’s spending Christmas alone, no matter where in the world you are!
Are you curious how we experienced our first full year living abroad alone? In this episode we go into depth about everything we needed to sort out in order to move to Lisbon and in this episode we share the lessons we learned from living abroad alone.
