Sheryl Tan, 28, still had two more trains to catch before she could arrive “home”, not to her family but friends who are also from Malaysia, to spend the night counting down to Christmas.
“It’s like the movies. No one goes out on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day itself here in London.
“They are all at home checking when the roast will be done, laying the table and waiting for everyone to come home to have dinner together.
“It literally feels like a Hollywood movie scene, where you can see through the brightly-decorated windows of your neighbour’s home, lit with candles, with the gaily-decorated Christmas tree as the backdrop.
“But still, I wish my family was with me. It’s family time here during Christmas, no matter how busy you are. You stop to have a meal with your family,” said Tan, recalling her journey home on Christmas Eve.
This year, Tan has her brother and friends to spend Christmas with her, as she could not get enough leave days from work to travel back to Malaysia.
“It isn’t the same. Back home, we’d be hopping from home-to-home, carolling.
“We’d usually stay up to play board games and such until the wee hours of the morning, then head home, or sometimes we’d just crash at the last house after carolling.
“And if you get hungry, you could just walk out to a random mamak stall and order up a nice warm roti canai with teh ‘o ais (iced tea).
“Roti canai costs five pounds or about RM30 here, served with a small plate of curry.
“It’s too cold to walk out here to grab a midnight snack, dangerous too. You don’t go wandering around in London in the middle of the night alone,” she told FMT.
What’s on the menu this year? Steamboat
“The weather is so cold, and when you’re away from home, all I could think of was home-cooked food, but it isn’t easy to find ingredients here to prepare a simple Asian meal.
“Steamboat it is! You don’t get as many fishballs or the standard fishcake and bean curd, but there’s fresh seafood and greens.
“So we had that boiling through the night and that was good enough for us!” Tan said.
Waking up early and getting ready to go to church with her family is something that Rachel Lim, 25, does every Christmas morning.
This year, it is not the same because she is spending the morning at a church in the outskirts of London where she hardly knows anyone.
“I woke up this morning, looked out the window. The weather was brilliant, except I wish my parents and brother were here.
“We’d be having breakfast together while we get ready to leave for church. I still went to church here in London.
“I didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately for me, at this neighbourhood where I live, the church isn’t big. Everyone welcomed me and made me feel that I belonged there.
“You usually feel sceptical over the kind of reaction you’d get, especially if you’re Asian but, thankfully, I didn’t get that sort of treatment here.
“It isn’t the same though like home back in Malaysia, where you spend some quiet morning moments in church with your family, head out for brunch with your childhood friends and look forward to a hearty family dinner at night.”
Although Christmas is not as elaborately celebrated in Malaysia when compared with western countries, Christmas is a time when Lim and her family get together — even if it means just lazing around at home. It is quality family time spent that matters.
“There is nothing like the laughter and warmth shared with your family during Christmas. You could have 10 friends over for dinner, but they aren’t your parents.”