Military life often means living far from family and being unable to participate in your favorite traditions. So what are unique holiday celebrations for military families stationed far from home?
I wish I had known that our first duty station together would be the ONLY time we would live close to family! For our first few Christmases, we drove home to visit relatives, but as we moved from duty station to duty station, we had to become more creative and flexible every year. Holidays during deployments and when stationed on the opposite coast or overseas make way for new traditions and ways to celebrate.
Invite ‘single’ service members to dinner
We always try to remember the service members who have no family nearby, or who are unable to return home during the holidays. Sometimes, this means bringing dinner to those on duty or dropping off cookies for the base gate guards. Other times, we send extra care packages to my husband’s deployed unit, for him to distribute to whoever receives the least mail. And if my husband is home, we invite his younger Marines to join us for a family meal.
During the last 20 years, we have had some memorable holidays with the service members who are guests in our home. In true military fashion, we have celebrated Christmas with the Brown family on two different continents!
During our time in Spain, my husband invited some deployed Marines to share our Christmas table. Brown was one of these ‘single’ Marines deployed to Spain without his wife and kids. We had a fun evening with lots of food and board games. A few years later, the Brown family shared our California duty station. When my husband and Brown deployed together, I invited his wife and kids over for Christmas dinner at our house. After spending one Christmas with just him, and a different year with just his wife and kids, next year we may finally be able to celebrate with two complete families!
During deployment, celebrate holidays with your ‘military family’
My first introduction to the ‘military family’ version of the holidays came during our first married deployment. I already had two young children, and was not able to make the long drive to my parents’ house alone. There didn’t seem to be any point in preparing a special meal, if I was the only one who would eat it. The chaplain’s wife rescued me from an otherwise depressing holiday.
She invited several of the wives and children to come over for a kid-friendly potluck. It was perfect. Everyone brought something special, but each exhausted mom only had to prepare one dish. The kids played in a huge gang outside, and we served them food on paper plates. Afterwards everyone helped with the dishes. It was the most relaxed and fun deployment holiday I can remember.
Since then, I have probably celebrated almost every holiday with some kind of potluck with fellow neighbors and military spouses. Easter potlucks have great dessert buffets! 4th of July potlucks are fun, as long as someone helps me watch the grill, haha! And I have even celebrated my birthday with a charcuterie potluck during deployment. I’m so thankful for military spouses who become family during deployment.
When stationed overseas, plan a multicultural holiday
Yes, holiday traditions can be different overseas, and sometimes that is frustrating. While we lived in Spain, we learned that the Christmas trees are sold live, with the root ball still attached. We didn’t have a saw strong enough to cut it off, so we put it in a flower pot instead of using a tree stand! We learned to embrace Spanish traditions, attend local festivals, shop at the Christmas markets, and enjoy the opportunity of being overseas, even if it meant living far from family.
It wasn’t until our second year overseas that I realized our American traditions were interesting and exciting to my Spanish friends. I had became friends with Rocio, the wife of a Spanish Naval officer. Our “Spanglish” conversations were sprinkled with questions about our children, our cultures, and plenty of laughter. Rocio wanted to know all about American food, so we invited her family to our house for a traditional holiday dinner.
While the children played, the adults chatted, sipped sherry wine, and munched olives and chorizo. For the main meal, we made authentic American dishes like honey ham, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Our Spanish friends marveled at each one. Rocio watched me whipping up mashed potatoes and asked, “So it’s like creama de patates?” She had never seen ‘creamed’ potatoes before! The Spanish typically serve potatoes either fried or in a cold salad. They were excited to taste cranberry sauce and an American pumpkin pie, since those foods are not sold in Spain. (I purchased my cans from the Commissary a month in advance.) It was fun to share our traditions, and to view our culture through their eyes.
Start new holiday celebrations for military families
Sometimes military life takes you to unusual places where you can’t enjoy your usual traditions. So you have to adapt, be flexible, and make room for new memories. Our least tradition Christmas was spent in a rented apartment in Lisbon, Portugal. On Christmas Eve, when I visited the local grocery store, I couldn’t find any ham. I did, however, find a cooked pig’s leg, with the hoof still attached! So that year, my family devoured a pig leg, while we listened to church bells chime over the historic district of Lisbon. There was no fruit cake or Christmas cookies, but it was a delicious meal celebrated in a memorable place with my family. Christmas morning found us video chatting with my family and sharing our beautiful view. So now we have a new tradition: no matter where we are in the world, we call or video chat with my family on Christmas.
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