Moving to Portugal in December: How We Set Up a Family of 6 in Under a Month
A real account of setting up a full home - utilities, furniture, Christmas presents, and all - for a family of six arriving in Portugal on December 25th.
FAMILY RELOCATIONEXPAT LIFEMOVING TO PORTUGALCASCAISPERSONAL ASSISTANTRELOCATION TIPS
6/1/20263 min read
December 1st. I get a message from a client in Brazil. Her family - husband, four daughters under 10, and an impressive amount of luggage - is arriving in Portugal on December 25th. Christmas Day.
She needs everything done before they land.
Twenty-four days. December. Portugal.
Let me tell you how that went.
The Brief (and Why It Was Complicated)
When someone hires me for a full relocation setup, there's a list of things I expect: finding a cleaner, coordinating utilities, dealing with paperwork. Standard.
This wasn't standard.
The family was six people moving from Brazil to a new country, arriving on one of the only days a year when Portugal essentially stops functioning. No shops open, no deliveries, no contractors available. Whatever needed to be done had to be done before December 25th - or it didn't get done.
On top of that, this client had four daughters. Everything had to be multiplied by four. One camera? No. Four cameras. One hoverboard? No. Four hoverboards. Every present, every item, every detail - duplicated four times.
I want to be honest: this was one of the most demanding projects I've taken on. Not because the tasks were impossible, but because of the timing, the volume, and the expectation that everything would be ready the moment they walked through the door.
What I Actually Did in 24 Days
Here's the real list. Not a summary - the actual work.
The house setup:
Coordinated with the estate agent to visit and assess the property
Organised cleaning before the family's arrival
Arranged a reliable cleaning service for ongoing home management
Set up all utilities: water, gas, electricity, and internet contracts
Coordinated and was present for the internet installation
Organised furniture assembly and a moving company for larger pieces
Did grocery shopping to stock the house before they arrived
The airport arrival:
Booked a transfer from the airport to their new home
Arranged a dedicated luggage assistance service at the airport - a family of six with Brazilian luggage is not a small operation
The Christmas setup: This is where it got particularly intense. The client wanted Christmas to feel like Christmas for her daughters, even though they were arriving in a new country on the day itself. So I sourced, ordered, and organised:
4 hoverboards (Worten)
4 cameras (Amazon)
1 electronic piano (Amazon)
1 electric drum kit (Amazon)
Multiple wooden toys from Zara Home
Various other gifts from toy retailers
Every single present was delivered to the house, wrapped, and staged before the family arrived. When those four girls walked into their new home on Christmas morning, there were presents under a tree waiting for them.
That part, I'm proud of.
What Made This Hard (Besides the Obvious)
December in Portugal means delayed deliveries. Some items took longer than expected to arrive. Certain suppliers weren't responding until mid-month. Coordinating multiple deliveries to the same address across different platforms - Amazon, Worten, Zara Home - required constant tracking and follow-up.
There was also the coordination challenge of managing everything remotely with a client who was still in Brazil. She couldn't see the house. She couldn't pop over to check on anything. She had to trust that what I was telling her was accurate, and that what I was doing was actually getting done.
That trust is something I take seriously.
What This Kind of Service Actually Means
People often ask me what a personal assistant does. This is what it means in practice.
It's not just scheduling appointments or answering emails. It's being the person on the ground when you can't be. It's knowing which furniture shop will actually deliver in time, which internet provider installs fastest in your area, which services are reliable and which ones will disappear mid-job.
It's doing the supermarket run so your fridge isn't empty when you arrive. It's making sure the internet works before you need to log into a work call. It's wrapping four sets of Christmas presents so your daughters wake up on December 25th feeling like home is already home.
That's the job.
If You're Planning a Relocation to Portugal
Timing matters more than most people expect. December specifically is difficult - not impossible, but difficult. If you're planning a move around the Christmas period, start earlier than you think you need to.
The work I do is available before you arrive - not just after. Most of the value I add happens in the weeks before a client lands, not after.
If you'd like to talk through what your relocation could look like, get in touch. We'll figure out what you need and whether I'm the right person to help.
Sofia Peten is a trilingual personal and business assistant based in Cascais, working with expats and businesses across the Cascais–Lisbon area and remotely worldwide.
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