Pints and the Toy Show ranked highly…
A new survey has revealed what quintessentially Irish Christmas treats and traditions Irish expats miss the most.
The research was conducted by The Paddy Box ahead of this year’s festive season as an estimated one million Irish-born people live abroad.
Upon being asked what Irish Christmas traditions people miss when spending the season away from home, a whopping 63% of the hundreds of respondents said festive drinks in their local.
Midnight mass on Christmas Eve was the next most popular answer, with Irish Christmas markets, the Panto, a Christmas Day swim and horse racing on St Stephen’s Day following close behind.
With the local pub reigning supreme, Irish emigrants were also asked what hangover cure they miss the most when abroad.
The top answer was unsurprisingly the hot chicken fillet roll with 28% of people surveyed saying they missed this iconic Irish snack.
A close second on the list was the breakfast roll with around 22% of the votes, with Tayto crisps also proving popular with over 17%.
On the topic of Irish Christmas treats, expats said they most missed a Christmas morning fry-up with Irish sausages (38%).
A tin of Cadbury Roses (16%) on Christmas Day took the second spot, with a tin of biscuits (15%) the third most popular option.
When it comes to the characteristics of the Irish nation, the overwhelming feature Irish people living abroad miss most about the population is its “sense of humour” (66%), followed by its friendliness (21%).
Lastly, Irish expats were asked how they make their Christmas abroad feel a bit more like home.
The most popular answers were watching the Late Late Toy Show online (35%) and playing ‘Fairytale of New York’ on repeat (24%).
“Our survey findings demonstrate what a unique country Ireland is when it comes to our tastes, activities, and personality traits and this becomes even more apparent at Christmas time,” the Paddy Box founder Mark Loftus said in a statement.
“It’s hard to sum-up what being Irish is in words but living abroad really drives our uniqueness home.”
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