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Welcome to our wonderfully chaotic Christmas, where five languages blend with multiple cultures under one festive roof! This year, like every year, promises a crazy mix of languages, cultures, and drama, but always lots of festive cheer.
A Christmas Like No Other
Our home turns into a mini global village during the festive season.
You'll find me, my sister and my mum chit-chatting in Cantonese, the kids talking to us in Mandarin, my husband and kids talking to one another in Russian, and everyone speaking in English when needed! This year, we’re adding a twist with my sister’s Japanese boyfriend, who speaks Dutch, thanks to his upbringing in the Netherlands. And amidst this beautiful linguistic chaos, there’s my stepdad, the steadfast monolingual English speaker.
Festive Traditions from Around the World
While we’re not a religious family, our love for Christmas knows no bounds. For us it's all about (over-)indulging in an eclectic, global selection of scrumptious foods (washed down with enough Prosecco to drown a village) – from Chinese spring rolls and dumplings to turkey and brussel sprouts!
In Russia, where my husband is from, they celebrate Noviy God, or New Year, which features a ‘yolka’ (a festive tree that looks suspiciously like a Christmas tree) and Dyed Moroz (Father Frost) – Santa Claus' Russian cousin.
Making Everyone Feel Included
How do we survive all this linguistic and cultural chaos?
It’s simple: set expectations, be respectful, and EMBRACE it!
My stepdad knows we’ll all be speaking different languages, but we always make sure he feels included.
If a conversation directly involves him, we’ll switch to English or translate where needed.
The key is making everyone feel like they’re part of the celebration while embracing the diversity.
It’s all about celebrating each other’s languages and cultures while immersing ourselves in festive cheer regardless of religion or nationality!
Looking Back at 2024
Before we wrap up, let’s take a quick look back at 2024. It’s been a year of growth—both for me personally and for this channel. Thanks to your support, I’ve grown to more than 500 subscribers on YouTube, which to me is amazing. I’ve rediscovered my passion for language learning this year, and I’m so excited to create more content for you in 2025.
In terms of my kids’ linguistic development, we’re happy that they continue to make steady progress. They’re getting better at reading and writing every day.
Maintaining consistency with speaking can be a bit trickier now that my children are both in full-time education, but we’re still managing to stay consistent as much as possible (fingers crossed).
On a more personal level, I went through a difficult period just after the summer holidays, but that led to lots of soul-searching and personal growth, and I’m continuing to work on that.
I really look forward to creating more content for my viewers and reaching a wider audience. I want to create more language-learning content, and as I promised in an earlier video, I’ll be documenting my journey learning basic Italian before our trip in May 2025.
But my main focus will stay the same: it’s all about empowering parents who want to raise multilingual kids. If there are any topics you’d like me to cover, please share them in the comments below.
So, this is going to be my last blog post and video of the year! I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Thank you so much for your support - to my regular viewers, even if it sounds super cheesy, I want to tell you how much your support has meant to me and kept me going despite the tough times. Thank you, Merry Christmas and see you in 2025!
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