My First Spurs Christmas | Vicario, van de Ven, Ahtinen, Vilahamn and more...

It’s that time of year where we sit down with some of our new arrivals from the last 12 months to learn about their Christmas traditions.

As first seen in our matchday programmes for the visits of Everton in the Premier League and Arsenal in the Women’s Super League over the last week or so, here are the thoughts and memories of a host of new faces from the men’s and women’s teams in the 2023 instalment of ‘My First Spurs Christmas’...

Olga Ahtinen

Midfielder
Joined Spurs: August, 2023
National team: Finland

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“It’s almost always the same – we spend it with close family. We celebrate Christmas on 24 December and when I was a kid, it was always Santa Claus in the morning – he’s called ‘Joulupukki’ – then we’d go to the sauna. That’s how we start our day – we usually have only candles in there, so it’s a sauna by candlelight which is very cosy, then it’s just chilling, opening presents and eating Finnish traditional Christmas food. This year, I have to stay here a little bit for rehab but I get to be at home in Kokkola for a few days, which is nice. It’s a little bit more to the north and west of the country.”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“Maybe when me and my sister were kids and waiting for Joulupukki. We were super excited, all the time close to the window to try to see when he was going to come. It’s already quite snowy at home, so we’d be there looking out for him.”

What is traditional at Christmas in Finland?
“I would say the Christmas sauna is quite traditional and then eating dinner as a family on 24 December. Then people go to the cemetery and light up a candle to remember those who have died. Maybe some people go to church, too.”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“I would say probably fish, mainly salmon. We have salmon in different ways – sometimes cold, warm or raw. We don’t have potatoes with it but we have many other carbs. You also have a big Christmas ham – we have a huge one that we put in the oven. Even though ham and fish doesn’t have anything to do with each other, you have them both and then have small things that you can pick, including things with carrots.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“When I was a kid, I remember I really wanted to have this one certain type of Barbie and I got it! I would have been really small because I have a picture of that Barbie sitting next to me in the sauna!”

Guglielmo Vicario

Goalkeeper
Joined Spurs: June, 2023
National team: Italy

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“It’s a day to spend with the family, with the parents, to have a nice lunch all together and also sometimes to spend time with your other relatives like your cousins, so it’s a lovely day for us. In Italy we celebrate on 25 December like you do here in the UK.”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“When I was about seven or eight, I remember the first lunch we had at our new house with my parents and all my relatives. We had a big table, I think there were 18, 19 or 20 people around it, so it was a big dinner for sure! I remember that quite well.”

What is traditional at Christmas in Italy?
“It depends on the region but in my city, for the food, we have ham or cheese for starters, then we have some Tortellini Soup, then we typically have some boiled meat like boiled chicken and boiled beef along with some vegetables. We finish with a lot of desserts like Panettone, Pandoro or another one made with almonds. After that, we rest and then it’s a tradition for some people to go to the cinema on Christmas Day to watch a movie all together.”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“We’re not used to having one specific dinner – it’s more like a long lunch, which lasts from midday until about five or six in the evening. We have a bit of everything so it’s hard to pick a favourite, but I like all of the traditional things I’ve just mentioned.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“I remember when I was maybe four or five years old, I received a Lego digger which I was very happy with!”

Luana Bühler

Defender
Joined Spurs: July, 2023
National team: Switzerland

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“We celebrate Christmas on 24 December, not 25 December, and in the morning it’s always a bit chaotic! I have a big family, there are six children, so everyone is getting their stuff done, maybe bringing some presents, then in the afternoon we always go to church to see a play. This is all in my home town, a small village that’s close to Lucerne, where there aren’t even 2,000 residents. We have quite a big church for such a small village but the whole church is full and you see all the local families, all your friends and neighbours. I’ll be spending Christmas at home as usual this year.”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“When I was about three or four, I can remember I wished for a toy cleaners’ buggy with all the cleaning equipment. This one year, I got it and on Christmas Eve I started to go around the house and pretend like I was cleaning everything up and my parents had to stop me! I still have pictures of that.”

What is traditional at Christmas in Switzerland?
“We sometimes go to church in the afternoon, there are even night churches where you can go later on in the evening – they do that a lot – and we have a typical food in the area where I live, which is like a salty soup which you dip meat into and wait until it’s cooked. They’re all different meats like chicken and beef, but not turkey.”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“I really like that soup and meat, but the area is also known for their cheese as well, so I like to have raclette and fondue.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“I got a football signed from a player that I really liked, Yann Sommer, the Swiss goalkeeper, when I was younger. I really looked up to him, he was playing for the team we supported and for Christmas I got a ball with his signature on, which I really loved. My family got it through friends who were connected with the club, so they managed to organise one for me.”

Brennan Johnson

Forward
Joined Spurs: September, 2023
National team: Wales

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“Obviously I’m from Nottingham so when I was younger, I’d be at home there. I’d wake up early, open some presents, go for a walk, come back, have some food and then just chill and eat lots of chocolate! It would always be a quiet one with the family, which was very nice.”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“I remember getting some football boots that I really wanted this one particular year. As soon as I woke up, I remember seeing them and I went straight for them because I knew what the box was like, so I knew it was going to be those boots. That was a great feeling and a great memory.”

What is traditional at Christmas in Wales?
“It’s pretty standard, similar to our usual Christmas in Nottingham. Primarily it’s just about seeing family. My grandma and grandad are both Welsh so they bring a lot of nice Welsh cakes at this time of year – we’ve had a lot of them in our house over the years. They’re really nice!”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“Turkey, pigs in blankets, the usual stuff, although sometimes I like a bit of Jamaican food as well that my dad makes, so I like a little bit of a mix really. It’s just things like rice and peas, a bit of mutton, jerk chicken… only a little bit though, just mixed in.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“Obviously the boots that I mentioned would have to be up there, but also I always loved getting a football kit – anything with my name on the back! To be fair, growing up, I didn’t mind what team it was, even if it wasn’t one that I supported, I still liked to have a football shirt. I think I got a Brazil kit one year!”

Barbora Votíková

Goalkeeper
Joined Spurs: August, 2023
National team: Czech Republic

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“Since my sister and I have got older, we still do things the same every year so we just wake up, prepare a lot of food, have some shots, which is like a tradition for us, then we go for a walk and meet with family members, then in the evening on 24 December we have Christmas dinner and after that we give gifts from under the tree. On 25 December, we go to visit my grandma from my father’s side, have a lunch together and do the gifting thing.”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“I have some memories of running in our living room in some camo soldier clothes and equipment that I received as a gift because when I was a kid I really wanted to be a soldier. Maybe I was five or six.”

What is traditional at Christmas in Czech Republic?
“On 24 December we eat carp – fried fish with potato salad – but the whole nation argues about how to prepare the best potato salad! Every family does it differently. It’s like the question of whether pineapple belongs on pizza – we argue about whether we can put carrot into the potato salad! Away from the food, some families will go to the church, some will play some games, but it’s very specific from family to family.”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“The carp is my favourite – it’s the tradition and we’ve had it every year since I was a kid. I don’t think we actually have a dessert, but we usually drink beer or wine with it.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“It was a snowboard! I wished for one for so many years and I remember when I finally got it when I was about 13 or 14, I was so happy! We don’t live in the mountains so when you want to go snowboarding, you have to go to the mountains, but it does snow sometimes in our country.”

Micky van de Ven

Defender
Joined Spurs: August, 2023
National team: Netherlands

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“For me, it’s a really nice day, just spending time with the family, eating nice food with them and giving each other some presents. I’ve never experienced being at a club that plays football over the Christmas period before, but for me it’s okay because in previous years where you have the break, the break is nice but after that you have a small pre-season and normally I hate pre-season, so for me it’s better to play through this period!”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“That’s a tricky one. When I was a kid, we had the usual stuff with the family on Christmas morning and then I would go outside and play some football with the guys. So maybe it would be that, playing football in the street or in the garden when I was small.”

What is traditional at Christmas in the Netherlands?
“We have something called Gourmetten, which is like a small barbeque. There are little hotplates, you just put your own meat on them and you can eat whatever you want. It’s very nice. Other than the food, as I said, it’s just mainly about giving each other presents and spending time with the family.”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“For me, it’s something from the Gourmetten – a nice bit of steak. But you can put anything you want on there so sometimes you can mix it up and choose lots of different things.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“It was a PlayStation 3 that I got from my dad. It had just come out at the time and I was so excited to receive that! I always had the FIFA games on it.”

Robert Vilahamn

Women’s First Team Head Coach
Joined Spurs: July, 2023
Home country: Sweden

Describe Christmas Day for you...
“Christmas Day is actually Christmas Eve for Swedes so we celebrate on 24 December. We wake up in the morning at my wife’s family home in Vilhelmina up in northern Sweden, we have a really slow morning where we watch an episode of the daily TV series, have a late breakfast, Christmas lunch is normally just porridge, then you just go out in the snow and play some fun games with the kids. At 3pm you always watch Donald Duck! It’s the same programme every year – it has been for 50 years – and lots of people watch it, then after that Santa Claus – ‘Jultomte’ – comes, usually around five or six o’clock. Following that we have a ‘Christmas table’ at dinner time, which is a table with ham, sausage, fish – everything you can imagine – then after that, the kids open their gifts, play with their toys and we just sit down on the couch and relax. On 25 December it’s more about going to meet family. In Vilhelmina there’s snow everywhere – it’s a special place. This year we’re going to fly there from London and have a normal Christmas there.”

What is your earliest Christmas memory?
“I don’t remember how old I was exactly – it wasn’t too early – but I have five siblings and I just remember those nights where we would play board games like Monopoly.”

What is traditional at Christmas in Sweden?
“I would say our usual family Christmas as I described just now is pretty traditional. We are actually out in the snow, skiing, using a sledge, so we are just playing in the snow and enjoying the beautiful landscape.”

What is your favourite Christmas dinner?
“Good question! In Sweden, the meatballs on the Christmas table are the best – I love those! At the Christmas table, you need to have ham, meatballs and fish, then you can add a lot of different things, but the meatballs are always there.”

What was your most memorable gift as a child?
“I don’t know how old I was but my siblings and I got a Nintendo, one of the first ones. That was the first time that we could afford something like that. When we grew up, my mum was not working, just my dad worked, but we couldn’t afford too much so that was a really big thing for us to receive at that time. We used it a lot when we were kids, so that was the best gift.”

Players create Christmas cupcakes!