Christmas on Tristan da Cunha

Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the "capital" of Tristan da Cunha
(Picture by Wikipedia)

If you are one of those who want to escapte the hustle and bustle of the ever more commercialised Christmas season, there is one place that should be ideal for you:

There are no package tours for independent travellers, no hotels, no airport, no holiday
reps., no night clubs no restaurants, no jet skis nor safe sea swimming.
Visitors are limited due to lack of available shipping berths (only 12 on fishing vessels).
Nevertheless, Tristan da Cunha is one of the world's most sought after destinations for
travellers determined to find a special place.....read on, take advice, plan carefully and you can make it!

I have to say that I like the above description on the website of Tristan da Cunha, the world´s most remote inhabited island. Honesty and plain facts instead of the usual tourist business jargon!

Visiting Tristan da Cunha is somewhat easier if you arrive by a cruise ship. This Christmas passengers on board the Island Sky (23 - 27th December) and the Hanseatic (25th December) will be able to share some of Tristan da Cunha´s traditional Christmas festivities together with the island´s 262 British Citizens.

This is how Christmas this year is celebrated "far away from the maddening crowd" on Tristan da Cunha:   

The Last Post
Christmas comes early on Tristan. Serious shopping begins in August with an eye to the sailing dates of the supply vessels from Cape Town. The last pre-Christmas scheduled sailing departs in mid November, so it’s not surprising that New Year diaries and calendars, together with most Christmas mail from friends and relatives overseas, literally ‘miss the boat’ and arrive here at the end of January.

Break Up Day

In early December the focus switches to the run up to the traditional Christmas / New Year holidays which cover over three weeks. On Break Up Day morning (on Friday 17th December 2010) arrangements are made to shut down over the next three weeks. Each family stocks up with supplies from the Island Store,which closes for over three weeks at noon on break-up day, and there is limited access to the store’s freezers where they rent space for frozen food. The Internet Café remains open during the lead up to Christmas, shift men will keep the electricity generators going, and the doctor holds surgeries, but both the pub and the café will be closed. Government and factory employees are invited to The Residency for drinks and afterwards, groups adjourn to their own departments for drinks, and the celebrations conclude with a number of ‘braais’ (BBQ) parties in the evening. 

Church Services

Both St Mary’s Anglican and St Joseph’s Catholic Churches hold a carol service and on Christmas Eve a midnight mass to herald Christmas Day itself. Often people attend dressed in their party clothes before going on a round of home visits to wish family and friends a Merry Christmas. Christmas Day itself starts with a morning service at St Mary’s.

Read the entire article here

PS

In order to give you an understanding of how remote Tristan da Cunha actually is, here are a few distances:

To St Helena - 2429 km - 1509 miles (nearest community)
To Cape Town - 2805 km - 1743 miles (nearest mainland city)
To Rio de Janeiro - 3353 km - 2083 miles
To Stanley, Falkland Islands - 3902 km - 2424 miles
To London UK - 9881 km - 6140 miles