Warning – Christmas spirit incoming! We asked people across the European Parkinson’s community how they plan to spend the festive season this year – and their answers didn’t disappoint. Spanning a wide range of family and cultural traditions, their responses tell stories of tempting feasts and treats, laughing with loved ones, and plenty of twinkling decorations, games and wholesome winter walks.
Of course, the seasonal excitement can also mean disrupted routines, additional chores and social demands, and meals that aren’t necessarily healthy. And this can make symptoms and medication even trickier to manage. For some, enjoying peace and rest amid spending time with family and friends strikes the perfect festive balance. For others, it’s about enjoying all the social trappings of the season, but in manageable, scaled-back portions.
The common theme among our respondents is a simple message befitting the season of goodwill – life is precious, so be grateful for all you have now, and enjoy each moment. And if your schedule is starting to look a little too busy, then consider Janette Sinclair’s sound advice: ‘prioritise, simplify, delegate’. Sometimes less is more.
Janette Sinclair, person with Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s Europe Board observer, Brussels, Belgium
I am looking forward to spending Christmas at home in Brussels this year. I will be with my husband Carl and my son, Alexei, who will be coming home from university for the holidays.
I used to go over the top with everything festive. However, my Parkinson’s gradually got worse leading to a ‘moment of truth’ three years ago, when I ground to a complete halt on Christmas Eve and I had to rethink everything: prioritise, simplify, delegate. Not quite perfect, but a lot more feasible.
We have our own family traditions, which bring us together. As we will be at home for the full Christmas and New Year period this year, we will go together to get a real Christmas tree, which Alexei and I will decorate together. Nowadays he does all the ‘ladder’ jobs like putting the star and lights on the top of the tree.
We like to add one or two new decorations each year, in different styles or from places we have visited. We bought some Welsh decorations this year, and I look forward to finding them in whatever safe place they are currently hiding!
Christmas Eve is all about preparation: cooking special dishes for the next day, buying fancy chocolates and smelly cheeses, discovering last minute presents, picking up flowers.
Christmas Day is a day of two halves. We do Christmas activities in the morning – exchanging presents over a Buck’s Fizz, an oldie Christmas film on in the background while we make lunch. The three of us have very different culinary requirements but we usually agree on fish for Christmas lunch.
In the afternoon we switch into birthday mode to celebrate Carl’s birthday. We invite friends in for a birthday tea and we are usually joined by friends whose son, a great friend of Alexei’s, also shares a Christmas birthday. There is usually a lot of birthday cake, winter jumpers, and party games.
I try to pace myself through the day, keeping an eye on meal times and trying to keep my medication on track. Our guests are all close friends who are ready to help out if, for example, I go OFF just when I’m trying to put out the tea.
This year, I want our family Christmas to be really special as I am booked in for deep brain stimulation surgery (DBS) at the beginning of January. But no pressure!
Elisabeth Ildal, person with Parkinson’s, founder of the Cure4Parkinson organisation and Parkinson’s Europe Board observer, Denmark
I am spending the holiday with my family and my fantastic three kids and six grandkids. We will be in the Copenhagen area, in Denmark. We’ll be eating flæskesteg (which is pork meat with crackers), duck, caramelised potatoes, chips, red cabbage and heavy sauce.
Dessert will be Risalamande (cream almond rice pudding) topped with cherry sauce. Inside this dessert is a large almond. The person who gets that has to hide it until everyone has finished eating, and then they win a prize!
Gary Boyle, person with Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s Europe Vice-President, Ireland
There are four of us in my family and we will be together at home in Dublin, for about a week from 23 December. On Christmas Day we will join my wife’s family at my brother-in-law’s home, also in Dublin. There could be up to 10 of us together for the day and possibly the following day, St.Stephen’s Day (alternatively known as ‘Boxing Day’). My brother-in-law’s home is quite large, so it’s great for entertaining and also there are plenty of rooms to escape to if things, shall we say, get a little heated!
The four of us are vegetarian so we’ll decide a few days in advance what will be cooked on Christmas Day – I’m thinking maybe mushroom encrüte or an as yet undecided vegetable gourmand. Whatever we decide on, I’m certain it will be delicious. We’ll probably have a bottle (or two!) of Prosecco, just because it’s Christmas.
We have two traditions that we follow every Christmas. The first one is the movie Elf; we watch it every year on 23 December, at 8pm. Whatever we’re all doing, we stop to watch what is a really funny film. We’ve been doing this every year since the kids were small.
The second tradition is on Christmas Eve we head into Dublin city centre early for breakfast in our favourite café, followed by a visit to the cemetery, where our parents are buried. This year will be very sad for us. My lovely Mum died in October and I miss her terribly.
I’m on record for saying ‘Parkinson’s Disease affects everything in your life’ and Christmas is no exception. I enjoy Christmas tremendously; however I need to take proper care in trying to take care of myself. Going to the pub with family and friends is great fun, as long as I remember to stick to a couple of drinks only.
Dinner on Christmas Day is always wonderful, but I do need to fit it in around my drugs/medications timeline. I also have to remember that I probably won’t be able to stay up too late to watch Die Hard (another wonderful Christmas movie!). By 10.30pm on Christmas Day I know I’m going to be exhausted, so any strength left in me at that point will be used up in getting to bed. Hey – the good side of this is that I escape a lot of the after dinner wash-up!
Fatima Branco, person with Parkinson’s, Portugal
I will spend Christmas with my family, at home in Almada. We’ll be eating traditional Portuguese food such as codfish with cream (bacalhau com natas), Christmas sweets, king cake (Bolo Rei), azevias (fried pastries), broas (corn or almond-based cookies), dried fruits etc.
Our traditions include setting up the Christmas tree, decorating the house, going out with the family to see the Christmas lights, and enjoying a slice of Bolo Rei or even an ice cream!
Christmas at our house begins with the chill in the air and the prospect of shorter, colder days, but also with a unique brightness, as here in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is closer to the earth. There’s a sense of magic, generosity, and goodwill in the air. The lights start turning on, both inside and outside the house.
The Christmas tree is set up in November – after all, the season is there to be enjoyed! Gifts are chosen according to everyone’s wishes, and the advent calendar begins. At our house, the calendar doesn’t have chocolates, but instead a traditional Portuguese calendar filled with wishes for the new year.
We go to see ‘the lights’! The city glowing in its festive brilliance. A slice of Bolo Rei is savored at Nacional or Versailles pastry shops, and we return home, glowing ourselves!
Then comes the magical night—family, conversations, gift exchanges, kisses, and hugs! In the kitchen, it’s chaos—everything happening at once. Dinner is served, and the gifts are opened, followed by more kisses and hugs. And then, we look forward to the next celebration: New Year’s Eve!
Parkinson’s? What Parkinson’s – at Christmas, there’s too much joy and dopamine for that! So, I don’t feel that Parkinson’s affects my Christmas.
Kuhan Pushparatnam, person with Parkinson’s, co-host of podcast 2 Parkies in a Pod and creator of the Parkinson’s ON app, UK
I’m fortunate to be spending the festive break with loved ones – my partner Helen, her family and my parents. This year we’re looking forward to hosting at our home for the first time. We will probably go traditional with turkey and trimmings.
We’ll have a Christmas morning walk – my Parkinson’s doesn’t take a break for Christmas and I find morning exercise helps – followed by food, food and more food!
It’s tough, and just sitting down at a table to have a meal can be challenging and the timing of on/off periods becomes very important. Although as my condition advances things are becoming less predictable. For example, using a knife and fork has been a challenge for some time. It used to be my mother chopping up my food, but now it’s Helen. I’ve got over the embarrassment of it but it can be frustrating to be dependent on others for the littlest of things.
But more than the physical symptoms, it’s things like fatigue that spoil the day – it will just hit me and there’s little I can do about it. It can be tough to engage at those times, I just have to wait it out. I tend to have mixed emotions this time of year as a week later it’s my birthday, and this year I’ll be hitting the big 50! The following day is my ‘parkiversary’ – this year it will be 12 years since my ‘d-day’ (diagnosis). I guess one is a reason to celebrate and one is a reason to commiserate – I’m just not sure which is which! But both have taught me that time is precious, so Christmas or not, I try to celebrate life each day.
Paweł Kaczmarek, person with Parkinson’s, Poland
I will be mostly on trains this year, as my wife and I are visiting our family in the southwest of Poland. That will be a challenge since transport there still is recovering from floods in 2024. Her house is rather high up, so it wasn’t destroyed or damaged, but not all her neighbours were that lucky.
While visiting, I tend to have a small toast with her grandma since she has Parkinson’s too (just 50 years later than me!). Normally I would eat everything dead enough and thermally processed enough within range of my flip-flops while visiting family during the festive period! My current dietary conditions mean I will focus on boiled dumplings with cabbage and mushrooms, and fried carp.
Our funny festive traditions seemed to stop since my father died of cancer two years ago, and my earlier diagnosis has also lessened the frequency of fun in my family’s lives. My Parkinson’s has limited every aspect of my life since I cannot be fully present at any group activity, such as evening winter walks (especially when it has snowed) to see my city decorated in candle lights.
Chris Hamper, climber and person with Parkinson’s, Norway
I will be spending Christmas at home in Norway with my wife, my children and my grandchildren. We hope for snow so we can get out the toys and I can see if I can still use my snowboard.
On Christmas Day we will eat goose with all the trimmings, stuffing, sausages wrapped in bacon, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, sprouts, roast potatoes and gravy. For dessert we have Christmas pudding, and later in the day Christmas cake. Using a knife and fork is problematic but Christmas dinner is fairly Parkinson’s-friendly, provided that my wife cuts up the meat. I used to carve the bird but if I tried now it would be cold by the time it reached the plates.
My local climbing [group] usually holds a bouldering competition between Christmas and the new year. I used to enter this every year but now it’s too far for me to drive. Before dinner on Christmas Day we always have a family walk. Our dog used to be the most keen on this tradition so we go to the place where his ashes are spread.
I like to drink a couple of glasses of fine wine with my dinner, port with the cake and maybe a glass of whiskey. We dress up for dinner which for me means a button up shirt. Undoing buttons is always difficult but more so after alcohol so I often go to bed with my shirt on.
Dopamine is the stuff that gives you that warm feeling on Christmas Eve when you are a child, that anticipation that you get all those presents tomorrow. This dulls with age but is killed by Parkinson’s. Playing with the grandchildren was difficult when they were babies as I couldn’t pick them up. I still can’t pick them up, but now no one can.
Find out more about Chris’ film, The Parkinson’s Project, here.
Joe Gregory, person with Parkinson’s, UK
I live alone, though I am likely to visit my grown up son Josh, his wife and two-year-old daughter on Christmas Day. I am very close emotionally to my son, and he constantly makes me laugh and makes me very proud. My lovely granddaughter absolutely lifts my heart completely too, she is fantastic fun to be with.
I will otherwise likely be alone on Christmas Eve and Day, though I am good with that. I also have other family I can visit, and friends too. I will likely visit longstanding friends on Boxing Day. They are a family from the East End of London like my own family are, and are very funny – and a little chaotic at times. And the family gathering will be full of mickey-taking, laughter, swearing, and… love.
I’ve been vegetarian for over 20 years, and don’t eat turkey, chicken or other meat. I truly love nut roast though, with all the trimmings of roast potatoes, mash, carrots, swede, parsnips, brussel sprouts and so on.. I love it.
I’ve always started Christmas Day with a run or jog around the park, and will do that again this Christmas Day. Then a shower, and I’m ready to fill my belly.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s on World Parkinson’s Day in April 2019. Nothing Parkinson’s takes from me is ever equal to all that being a part of the fantastic Parkinson’s community has given me though. For the foreseeable future at least, life is really great and Parkinson’s very simply doesn’t stop me being happy. In fact, my life now is more fulfilled than before.
I’m the middle of seven children, and loved Christmas Day as a child. My eldest sister Jeanette would wake us at about four am on Christmas morning, and we’d all sneak downstairs to see what Father Christmas had left us. The mince pies we’d left out for Father Christmas and his reindeer the previous evening would be gone, and so would the glass of whisky. It wasn’t until I’d grown up that I realised our dad had helped with eating and drinking those!
Paqui Ruiz, person with Parkinson’s and President of the Con P de Parkinson association, Tenerife
Traditionally, we celebrate Christmas vacations at home, transforming a corner of the living room into a corner full of lights, memories and wishes. We celebrate it as a family: my parents, my brother with his family, and mine. It is a magical moment where we share memories and, of course, lots of laughter with the youngest at home, my three-year-old nephew.
I will spend it at home, surrounded by my family and amidst laughter and jokes that my husband makes to my parents. There is no better place to be than at home, enjoying the feeling of shelter and Christmas atmosphere.
On Christmas Eve, as is tradition, my mother prepares her famous fish soup, which warms both body and soul. My father, who is from Cadiz, excels with his shrimp omelettes. Between my mother and me, we prepare some canapés and for main courses we usually enjoy rabbit in salmorejo sauce or a delicious cod with onions. For dessert, an egg flan that is pure tenderness, or a chocolate sponge roll for those with a sweet tooth. Tonight you can ‘repeat dessert’!
We love the moment when the Christmas lights are turned on in our city, a tradition that we always finish with some good churros with chocolate, perfect to combat the cold. Although this year, due to health issues, we may enjoy it at home, warm and with chocolate in hand.
Parkinson’s has its limits, but it doesn’t take away my enthusiasm at Christmastime. I cook all day before, to avoid extreme tiredness, although I admit that I always arrive exhausted. No matter how hard I try, by half past ten or eleven o’clock, I am already in bed, letting Christmas dreams envelop me. The key is to accept my times and enjoy each moment in my own way.
Wendy van Wijk-Lugthart, person with Parkinson’s and magazine creator, Netherlands
For me, Christmas is more than just a day – it’s the whole season of magic. From the glow of twinkling lights in the streets to the cheerful sound of Christmas songs on the radio, it fills me with joy. I love decorating my home with candles, music, and sparkle, sharing cosy moments with my husband Jurgen and daughters Tessa and Anna.
In the days leading up to Christmas, we enjoy visiting Christmas markets, drinking warm drinks and walking through decorated streets. One of my favourite traditions is curling up with a classic movie like Sisi or White Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, we gather around the tree, sipping coffee or hot chocolate as excitement builds over when to open gifts. On Christmas Day we will go to Jurgen’s parents to have the Christmas dinner together. The second day is for relaxing, a walk outdoors (hopefully it is not too cold), and a cozy place to have a drink, or visit a Christmas market if it is open. And for me, Christmas isn’t complete without Bing Crosby’s voice—it’s the sound of Christmas itself.
My dream would be to escape to a warm destination – last year, we went to Tenerife on Christmas Day and it was magical. This year we’re staying at home, but shortly after Christmas, we will head to Rome for a holiday and a magical New Years Eve.
On Christmas Eve we may drink wine and eat some Oliebollen in Gouda, my hometown. These warm, deep-fried dough balls are usually eaten closer to New Year but are a treat we love at Christmas too. Normally on Christmas Day we love gourmet food, but this year we will go to Jurgens’ parents for Christmas dinner. What we will eat is a surprise for me, but we will take the dessert. Our favourite Christmas dessert is a delicious ice cream cake from our favourite ice café, Luciano. It’s the perfect sweet ending for the Christmas dinner.
One of the highlights of my childhood was ‘Candle Night’. This is when Gouda’s town square transforms into a glowing wonderland, with carol singers and thousands of candles in the windows of homes all around the square. While I now watch it on local television, the magic still holds a special place in my heart.
I’m grateful that Parkinson’s hasn’t impacted my ability to celebrate Christmas. In fact, I’ve even reduced my medication to twice daily, seven and a half years after my diagnosis. Staying positive and living life fully has been my approach, and it brings me so much joy. I’m fortunate to receive wonderful feedback on my magazine and the annual Women and Parkinson event I organise in Holland. Seeing the happiness these bring to others truly lights me up and makes me feel better.
My advice? Don’t let Parkinson’s stop you from enjoying the holidays. Plan activities that work for you and focus on the moments that matter. If you’re attending a party, let the organisers know it is possible you may need to leave earlier. Even being there for a little while can uplift your spirits. Celebrate Christmas in your own way, whatever makes it meaningful to you.
Whether that’s a quiet evening by the tree with loved ones or travelling to a sunny destination, let’s cherish the memories we create. Let’s be grateful for what we have and what we still can do.
