Hello friends! I’m really pleased to share with you that I became a British Citizen in June! I’ve lived in the UK since September 2011, so this moment was a long time coming. I wanted to make this post to mark the occasion and share my celebrations with you. Here is what I did to celebrate my British Citizenship!
The Ceremony
I really enjoyed the ceremony! So much of the visa process is bureaucratic and frankly heartless, but this ceremony was completely the opposite. The facilitators welcomed us at the County Council building’s entrance and they had tea and coffee for while we waited. I think there were around 30-40 people becoming citizens at my ceremony, and we represented 21 different countries!
During the ceremony, there was a heartfelt speech about the difficult journey, how we contribute our skills and that we are members of a diverse community. We then had to swear allegiance and pledge loyalty to the UK and the King. You can find the exact wording here. We each went up to receive our certificates and there were lots of opportunities to photos. Lucy and I had lots of fun and it was such a special moment!
Celebrations
After the ceremony, Lucy and I went for a drink and then we went for afternoon tea. I know, how British! Again, those celebrations were lovely and our server for afternoon tea was so kind and took photos for us.
I also planned a Dual Citizenship party for the family, to celebrate all things British and Canadian! I even sent out invitations to the family. It was on Father’s day and I’m glad I was able to celebrate in spirit with my Dad.
We had classic British foods like cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, scones with cream and jam, and sausage rolls. I also made Nanaimo bars – you can find the recipe here and vanilla cupcakes with little Union Jacks (recipe here).
I purchased some arts and crafts bits for the kids, and we had garden games like corn hole and skittles. Then, we played the ultimate quiz I created! This was a Jeopardy-style multiple choice trivia game with Canadian and British questions. All of the British questions were exactly the ones you’d get on the Life in the UK test (which I took a few years ago). Everyone picked a random number which assigned their order and then, like Jeopardy, they got to pick their category and points amount. If they didn’t guess correctly, it went on to the next number until either someone answered correctly, or by default the next person in the queue got the points. By pure luck, Stanley (aged 5) won! He was so pleased with himself! He received a certificate to be Dual Citizen for the day and the “Canadian pencil of destiny”. So much fun!
I’m relieved my visa journey is over, and I can’t wait for my next adventures in the UK!
