7 Reasons Christmas in Mongolia is More Traditional than You Think

This time last year I and my comrades were heading back to Ulaan Baatar, huddled in the back of our Russian Built version of a VW camper van, which we affectionately named ‘Nastia’. This was after a week long expedition into the Gobi Desert; we were reeking of various odours, weary and very much looking to a Christmas in the Mongolian Capitol… whatever shape that would take.

To our utter delight it turned out to be a fantastic and quite traditional experience – and here, in no particular order, are seven reasons why:

1. Bucket of Cream Creamy Santa Cake
We spent Christmas Eve looking for a suitably festive cake, and look what we found…

OK so it wasn’t a fruit cake and that decoration isn’t icing but soft creamy cream. And let me tell you it was delicious… and like everything else in Mongolia it was cheap, only a couple of pounds.

2. Poorly Subtitles Videos
What Christmas would be complete without some crappy movies to watch while your half falling asleep from all the food and booze? Well, we had that covered, our cracking hostel, (UB Guesthouse – our firm recommendation by the way!) had a comprehensive selection of the latest pirate DVDs. But that wasn’t the best part, oh no, the fact that the subtitles were added, in English, to English language films, by someone who had no understanding of the language was.

Honestly, it made shockingly bad films like Beowulf hilarious and watchable.

3. Ice and Snow
Now to my English mind it should be cold at Christmas and preferably snowing; none of this, ‘oh, I do wish I was lying on a beach this Christmas’, no, that my friend is sick and wrong! So The unbelievable cold, (past minus 30) and the snow and ice made Christmas feel, well… Christmassy.

4. Chengis Khan Vodka
Possibly the finest thing you can drink in the whole of Mongolia, maybe the world, well, depending on which brand you pick… nearly all of them are named after the great man, I could tell you which one is the best but that would spoil the fun of experimentation. Honestly good reader, I kid you not, and others who’ve visited this fine country will tell you the same, Mongolian Vodka is fantastic… better than the Russian stuff in my humble opinion.

Anyway a plentiful stock of Chengis, provided us with the requisite amount of ‘Christmas Spirit’, (and its Chengis not Genghis… this is not a typo, Chengis is what they call him in Mongolia… because that’s his sodding name, so that’s what I’m going to call him, don’t believe me look it up).

5. The Camaraderie
Christmas is generally all about Family and since ours were half the world away we had to make do with what we had. But seriously, we were all in the same boat as each other, us and our fellow UB Guesthouse, er… guests, in a very remote place away from out loved ones, so we became a little family for the day, eating drinking and making merry together. I tell you dear reader it was quite the cheery scene.

6. Peace Core and the Religious Slant
I personally think of Christmas in non-religious bent; the good-will to all men, the importance of family, the looking after the people you love and even the ones you don’t are all special and important things. However, I do not think you need religion to celebrate the festive season or appreciate the better angels of human nature.

But for those of you looking for a little God at Christmas, Mongolia has you covered thanks to the abundance of US Peace Corps that are stationed there – you can wax religious with them till your hearts content.

7. Czech Food
OK, I might be reaching a little on point number seven, well not if you’re from the Czech republic I’m not ;). As a lover of food I can say this quite categorically, with a couple of exceptions Mongolia is not a country of great cuisine, therefore, we decided that for our Christmas dinner we would visit the nice little Czech restaurant near our hostel.

We probably could have found an ex-pat place serving turkey etc if we had bothered to look, but honestly it was very cold and we were very merry and didn’t feel like venturing too far from home. And beside, although it wasn’t traditional English festive fair, I thoroughly enjoyed a hearty goulash and dumplings – warming, filling and downright good.

So there you go – Christmas in Mongolia; if you’re thinking of visiting Ulaan Baatar at that time of year and were worried about it not ‘feeling festive’ I hope I’ve gone some way to elevating your fears.

And a Merry Christmas to all three of our Gonzo Tourism readers!