What will Mark Philippoussis, Silvana and son Nicholas be doing for Christmas? Source: Supplied

We countdown the 12 expats of Christmas:

Renee takes in some orphans

RENEE BARGH LIVES: LOS ANGELES

TV host Renee Bargh will be doing something charitable this year. Source: Getty Images

RENEE Bargh is Australia’s own LA lady, living the high life with an enviable gig rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.

The former Foxtel presenter moved to Tinseltown four years ago to take up the role of reporter and host of celebrity news gossip show Extra. While she’s interviewed the likes of Johnny Depp, Cameron Diaz and Usher and clicked her heels on the ruby rug at several Oscars and Golden Globes, the posting comes at a cost. It puts her on the opposite side of the globe to her Hawthorn footballer beau Josh Gibson, who she’s been dating for about a year. She’ll also miss Christmas with family in Australia for the second year running due
to work.

“I miss long days on the beach and eating prawns and amazing seafood,” the 28-year-old says.

“Instagram really makes it so much harder. I’m thankful for incredible friends who make it really special and fun over here. I’ll be cooking a feast for all the other Aussie orphans who are stuck in LA over the holidays.”

The TV glamour girl grew up in the small town of Eureka near Byron Bay.
Her earliest memories of Christmas are decorating the tree and dancing to carols with her little sister, and performing in school Christmas concerts.

“Christmas Day was always a blast with all of my cousins running around and swimming in the pool all day and stuffing ourselves silly,” she says.

EXPAT CHRISTMAS: Are you celebrating the festive season overseas this year? Tell us how you plan to mark the occassion in the comment box below or post photographs of your international Christmas using the hashtag #myexpatxmas.

Kim puts out the welcome mat

KIM BEAZLEY LIVES: WASHINGTON

Kim Beazley is looking forward to a white Christmas in Washington. Source: News Limited

KIM Beazley will spend a white Christmas in Washington dreaming of one under the scorching sun.

The former Labor leader is one of the nation’s most senior diplomats, taking up his appointment as Australian ambassador to the US in 2010. He’ll serve in the role until at least the end of 2016 after Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently extended the term.

Asked what he misses most about home during the Christmas holidays, Beazley says: “Warmth, family, the sea breeze and water”.

He lives in the US capital with wife Susie. The youngest of his three daughters, Rachel, resides in LA, where she’s studying at the University of Southern California. The rest of the family are in Perth, where Beazley, 65, was born and raised.

His fondest memory of the festive season was as a child tucking into a special Christmas feed.

“I loved a table chime which was activated by lighting four candles underneath it. They drove a propeller which struck a chime held by a small angel. It always represented to me that we would be having roast chicken and gravy. Generally speaking, the family could not afford roast chicken but we made an exception for Christmas.”

These days, geography might keep the family apart but Beazley extends the hospitality to his fellow expats.

“We used to have most of the family around us at home,” he says, “but now we take in other people’s families from the Australian compound we inhabit.”

In-laws lure Lapaglia home

JONATHON LAPAGLIA LIVES: LOS ANGELES

Australian actor Jonathan LaPaglia will return home for a 50th wedding anniversary. Source: Supplied

IT’S been two decades since Sydney GP Jonathon LaPaglia quit medicine to move to New York to study acting full-time. He was in the Big Apple for four years before visiting Los Angeles for a weekend. He never left and has called it home ever since with partner Ursula Brooks and their daughter Tilly Rose, 10.

His older brothers, fellow actor Anthony and car salesman Michael, also live nearby.

In 2011, having lived abroad for so many years, LaPaglia had to hire a dialect coach to reclaim his Aussie accent to film The Slap. He’s been spending more time in Sydney these days working on
TV drama Love Child, and this Christmas will be in Tasmania to celebrate his in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary.

“I expect lots of food and maybe a brew or two,”
he says.

He misses the surf when he’s not back for summer holidays.

“A white Christmas is fun, but there’s something special about being at the beach during this time. Oh, and the coffee.”

The actor, 45, grew up in Adelaide where his first childhood memory of Christmas was of Santa bringing him a remote-controlled car “but not the one I wanted. I was gutted”, he says with a laugh.

These days, he says Christmas is about trying to locate obscure gifts on his daughter’s wish list. It seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Asked what he’d like on December 25, LaPaglia says: “An Aquastar Benthos 500. It’s a rare dive watch from the ’70s that I haven’t yet been lucky enough to locate. Maybe Santa can help me.”

DJ Kaz stays grounded

KAZ JAMES LIVES: LONDON AND IBIZA

DJ Kaz James says his family ties keep him grounded. Source: News Corp Australia

JETSETTING DJ Kaz James will touch down in Doncaster this Christmas for non-negotiable
family time.

It’s been a stellar year for the 32-year-old. Fresh from the Stereosonic national tour, he had top 10 hit Blast Off with David Guetta, remixed Skrillex, Kaskade and The Gossip, and his solo track Show Me All Your Love was No.1 on the club chart.

He also co-owns four cafes in London. He opened the first, Shoreditch Grind, in 2011.

Christmas marks some well-earned down time for the co-founder of the BodyRockers, whose 2005 hit I Like the Way (You Move) has been used for TV ads. He’ll have Christmas Day at his grandmother’s place in Doncaster.

“I plan to come back every Christmas,” he says. “My family are a lot happier with me if I’m not working. I might land on Christmas Day but as long as I’m there for lunchtime it’s fine. Family keep you grounded.

“You could get caught up and lose perspective about what’s important. Is that extra show important? No. Life’s short so you have to have a good balance in what you do.”

James left Melbourne more than 10 years ago. He misses family, friends and his regular coffee haunts, such as Pellegrini’s in the city, St Edmonds in Prahran and St Kilda’s Galleon.

Fittingly, his first memory of Christmas is musical.

“I remember my grandfather buying me a drum kit when I was five after I saw it in the window of a toy shop in North Melbourne.”

Special time for Tina

TINA ARENA LIVES: LONDON AND PARIS

Singer Tina Arena likes to reflect at Christmas time. Source: Supplied

THIS festive season will hold special significance for the Arena family. It’s the first time in many years the Moonee Ponds-raised singer and her two sisters, Nancy and Silvana, will all be home for Christmas.

“I’m really excited about it,” Arena says. “Christmas is the time to be with family, regroup, relax, eat and reflect on the year that was.”

She’s also looking forward to the warm weather, though she does admit there’s something wonderful about a white Christmas.

For the past 20 years, the former Young Talent Time favourite has divided her time between Los Angeles, London, Paris and Melbourne.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve lived anywhere full-time to be honest. I spend some of the year in Paris, but lots of time in Australia and I have a place in London.”

Arena, 47, and her partner, French artist Vincent Mancini, have nine-year-old son Gabriel. It was when Arena became a mum she understood the meaning of
the holiday.

“(Christmas) all of a sudden became busy but through the madness came the understanding of this occasion. It’s a time of reflection, of giving, nurturing. Seeing the excitement in your child’s eyes unwrapping those presents makes it all the more special.”

Global goddess hoping to join family

JESS HART LIVES: NEW YORK

Model Jess Hart is hoping to spend Christmas with her mother and sister. Source: News Corp Australia

HEATING up the world’s runways has kept Melbourne stunner Jess Hart away from home for more than 10 years now.

She’s lived in Japan, Paris and London before moving to New York. She also has a place in Los Angeles.

“I’m always on a plane or at an airport,” the 28-year-old Chadwick model says.

Hopefully, it’ll be mum Rae, who lives near the Dandenongs, and sister Ashley, also a model, who’ll be flashing the passport this Christmas.

“I’ve been back to Australia a few times this year but we’re still working out what we’re doing for Christmas,” Hart says. “If I can’t get to Melbourne, I’m hoping mum and Ash can make it to New York, or I might go to LA and be with them there. We always do things very last minute so you could ask me the week before and I’d still not be sure.”

Kew-raised Hart shot to fame after winning the Dolly model competition in 2000. Since then she’s been in hot demand on catwalks and for magazine covers and fashion campaigns.

She says the new year holds more travel, particularly to Europe for shows, but luckily also home to Australia with commitments with fashion label Portmans and her own cosmetics range, Luma.

Oz pin-up puts on his dancing shoes

RYAN KWANTEN LIVES: LOS ANGELES

Ryan Kwanten will be at a music fesitval in Los Angeles. Source: Supplied

HE knows he’s missing the seafood extravaganza back home in Oz but acting pin-up Ryan Kwanten has his dancing shoes firmly on this holiday season.

He’s spending Christmas in LA before kicking up his heels with about 12,000 other revellers to the likes of Flume and Porter Robinson at the Snow Globe music festival in Tahoe, California.

“So while you guys are basking in the Aussie summer, I’ll be layered up and dancing up a storm,” Kwanten, 38, says.

Soon after his five-year stint as Vinnie Patterson on Home and Away ended in 2002, Kwanten moved to the US.

In 2008, he was cast as shirt-dodger Jason Stackhouse in vampire series True Blood.

After Christmas, he’d usually resume filming the HBO hit but with the seventh and final season done and dusted, he’s off to Chicago to shoot a movie.

Kwanten grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches with two younger brothers, Mitchell and Lloyd.

“I remember we were all sharing the same room, waking up ridiculously early and rummaging through the Christmas sacks at the end of our beds. I would’ve been about five or six.”

As an adult, Christmas is a time to reflect.

“I do get into the festivities,” he says. “I love any chance to celebrate but it’s also a time to relax and smell the roses a bit.”

His Christmas wish?

“I’m a simple man of simple pleasures. I don’t really need that much to be happy so a nice cold beer would be good.”

Scud’s son takes centre court

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS LIVES: SAN DIEGO

Mark Philippoussis adores his son Nicholas. Picture: Instagram Source: Supplied

TEN years ago, Mark Philippoussis would have been juggling Christmas celebrations with training for January’s Australian Open. Now he’s preparing for his first Christmas as a dad.

The Scud and his wife, model Silvana Lovin, welcomed son Nicholas in February, five months after tying the knot near their San Diego home.

“Without question the holidays will be all about my son and making his first Christmas incredibly special so he can look back at photos and take the journey together again,” the 38-year-old says.

The tennis ace hasn’t been based in Melbourne for about five years. He says living in San Diego allows him to tap into business and tennis opportunities while enjoying the area’s cafe culture and beaches. When not playing on the champions tennis tour, Philippoussis has been busy launching his Phl!p Apparel brand in the US. It’s been picked up by five Barneys stores and he hopes to bring it to Australia soon.

It’s touch and go whether work commitments will allow the new family to return home for Christmas.

“I miss how relaxed Melbourne gets around this time of year,” he says.

He stays in contact with his mum and sister in Melbourne via Skype but misses being able to drop in for a family meal.

He has fond memories of growing up in Footscray and Williamstown, and summer fishing trips with the family.

“I loved growing up in an area that was so culturally diverse and that had a strong European flair,” he says.

Kym pines for slice of mum’s pav

KYM JOHNSON LIVES: LOS ANGELES

Dancer Kym Johnson will miss her mum’s pavlova. Source: News Corp Australia

AFTER adding glamour to the Dancing with the Stars judging panel, Kym Johnson is heading back to her adopted Tinseltown for Christmas. Just don’t ask her to recreate her mum’s pavlova for the festivities.

Johnson, 38, joined DWTS in 2004, partnering Home and Away hunk Justin Melvey. The following year she teamed with then The Great Outdoors presenter Tom Williams to win the TV dance-off before joining the US version of the show nine years ago and moving to LA.

Over 13 seasons, she’s partnered talk show host Jerry Springer, Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff, Joey Fatone of N’Sync fame and actor David Arquette, and became the only dance professional to win DWTS in two countries when she won series nine with Donny Osmond.

With a year still left on her contract in the US, Johnson’s dividing her time between LA and Sydney where her family live. She’s sad to miss Christmas this year with them.

“Being away from my family is hard but I have great friends in the USA, and they will be my family this year,” she says.

“I will miss waking up to see my brother’s kids running around the house seeing if Santa has visited and eaten the Christmas cake and beer they put out the night before.”

She’ll also long for a slice of her mum’s pavlova.

“She makes the best pav in the world. I tried to recreate it one year and spent an hour on the phone from LA to mum in Sydney. Needless to say, it wasn’t as good as hers.”

Home where the heart is

CURTIS STONE LIVES: LOS ANGELES

Curtis Stone will spend in Los Angeles Source: Supplied

IT’S been a busy year for homegrown chef Curtis Stone. He launched his restaurant Maude, named after his beloved grandmother, in Beverly Hills in February, worked on his sixth cookbook Good Food, Good Life and continued his TV career hosting new culinary competition Kitchen Inferno and regularly co-hosting The Rachael Ray Show.

In September he and his wife, actor Lindsay Price, welcomed their second child, Emerson, a little brother for Hudson, 3.

“This year will be Emerson’s first Chrissie and Hudson is just starting to get into it so I’m super excited for it this year,” Stone says. “I feel like everyone just goes that extra mile to make it fun when kids are around at Christmas time.”

Keilor-raised Stone, 39, packed his bags for London in his early 20s, earning his stripes in the kitchens of Marco Pierre White. He’s been away almost 20 years, nine of them based in LA.

“I came with a suitcase and now I have a wife, two babies, a house, a restaurant and a little thriving vegie garden here,” he says.

Luckily work commitments means Stone returns to Melbourne five or six times year. Like many of us, the kitchen whiz’s Christmas memories involve food.

“Ever since I can remember, my darling mum Lozza has cooked the most delicious roast pork with crackling and crispy potatoes each Christmas,” he says. “Everyone in my family loves this roast as much as I do. I have beautiful memories of us sitting around the table enjoying it together. No matter where I am at Christmas time, I make sure her roast pork is on the table.”

Stone will spend December 25 in LA, after enjoying time with family and mates in Melbourne in the lead-up. “Melburnians definitely don’t cut corners when it comes to the silly social season. Actually, let’s face it, we go all out, so I’m stoked that I get to be a part of that this year.”

Lette’s have some family fun

KATHY LETTE LIVES: LONDON

Author Kathy Lette remembers Christmas as a child. Source: News Corp Australia

CACKLING like kookaburras with her mum and three sisters is how Kathy Lette plans to spend her cool yule.

In the 26 years she’s been living large in London, the author has only missed one Christmas Down Under when her daughter Georgie had exams.

“Oh, and it was a miserable Christmas,” she laments. “It was one of those bleak, wet winters with air colder than a meat locker. There was very little Christmas spirit around, not counting what you could buy in a bottle anyway. I missed my three sisters and beloved parents and cherished girlfriends so fiercely.”

Most of her family live near Cronulla in Sydney .

“When I tell friends in Europe that I am from the Shire, they think I’m some kind of hobbit.”

As a kid, Lette distinctly remembers her dad’s work Christmas party one year when Santa rowed on to the beach in a rubber dingy wearing a white beard and “budgie smugglers” to hand out presents to the kids.

Christmas is still spent on the beach, with a barbecue followed by an ocean swimming race with the family.

“Sharks are a good incentive. Believe me, you can swim like Ian Thorpe when something much, much bigger is trying to nibble your toes.”

So what does Lette, 56, hope is in Santa’s sack this year? “I’d like what every mum secretly craves — for Hugh Jackman to whisk me off to a deserted island where he proceeds to lick the roe of virgin sturgeon from my navel beneath a tropical palm. Failing that, do you know what a woman really wants in bed? Breakfast.”

Back for armchair sport

WIL ANDERSON LIVES: LOS ANGELES

Wil Anderson is returning to the family farm in Gippsland for Christmas. Source: Supplied

AFTER months chasing laughs around the globe, Wil Anderson’s home for Christmas. Just don’t expect any spirited carolling.

“I don’t think it’s a great look for a bunch of Aussies to stand around in the heat singing I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, particularly in the current political environment,” he says with a smile.

For the past four years, the comedian’s spent at least six months of each year overseas, mostly on the road living out of a suitcase with an apartment in trendy West Hollywood as his base.

Without filming commitments on ABC’s The Gruen Transfer, this year was his longest stint away, but he’ll be back at the family farm in Gippsland this Christmas after missing the past two festive seasons. Anderson, 40, grew up in Denison near Sale in Victoria’s east.

“We were farm kids so we used to get pets as presents, so we would name them after what we really wanted,” he says. “We had a cat called Cricket Bat, dog called Trampoline and a couple of goldfish called Decent Bloody Parents.”

These days, the holiday is about armchair sport.

“I like to think of Christmas as the day before the Boxing Day Test,” he says.

“There is really no overseas equivalent where you are allowed to take five days in a row off
to watch a single game. That’s a holiday sport.”

The new year will see Anderson Down Under more with the return of the Gruen franchise and his Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Free Wil.

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