Celebrating Thanksgiving in Seoul

Holidays as an expat always tend to make you a little homesick. You long for the coziness of all your comforts, your family, and your traditions. This usually is in deep contrast to living abroad in another culture, where nothing is ever the same. If I have learned anything about holidays abroad, it’s that new traditions can feel just as wonderful, providing memories for years to come.

How We Spent the Day

Thanksgiving in Seoul doesn’t have any turkey trots or football games, so you have to find another way to get into the spirit. We spent our Thanksgiving day serving pumpkin pie (from Costco – very American) to all the middle schoolers in our children’s International School (that’s around 400 slices). It was so much fun to share the American pumpkin pie with many kids who would otherwise never eat it.

They were all very polite and grateful for a pie break in the middle of their school day. Mo got to be the extra whipped cream guy, he was very popular. It was really wonderful to share just a small part of our American traditions with so many kids, many of who are not American.

That night we left the cooking to the experts (a local military hotel which offers all the expat holiday events) and headed to dinner with friends for all the traditional fare. I felt grateful for the chance to celebrate in a new but familiar way, it makes you feel not quite so far away.

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Celebrating Thanksgiving Abroad

Thanksgiving in Seoul is not a popular or celebrated day, for obvious reasons, but I am so grateful for an international community that enjoys being culture and a taste of home to expats living abroad. Your holidays are no less loved when they are shared in new and different ways.

More on Celebrating Holidays Abroad

If you’ve enjoyed reading about celebrating holidays and traditions abroad, here are a few more festive experiences from around the world:

• Christmas Abroad: From Pines to Palms – Swapping a traditional Christmas for sunshine and palm trees in the Caribbean.
• Halloween in Seoul – A guide to celebrating Halloween in South Korea
• Valentine’s Day in Korea: A Unique 3 Month Celebration – How Korea celebrates Valentine’s