For those of you who don't live in North America..

[Darcy Baldwin]

..I'd love to hear about your Christmas traditions..no matter how small or how big. How do you do it?

[KristinCB]

well fine.. i was getting set to tell you about opening our presents inside our igloo but since you could care less about canadian traditions i'm not going to bother :P


(don't mind me.. not sure where my head is at today. :P)

[jacinda]

Here in New Zealand we generally keep things pretty casual. Pancake breakfast, open presents, kids have a play, and then maybe a get together with family for lunch. Because our Christmas is in the summertime, we usually have a BBQ with lots of salads and fresh bread. A pavlova with strawberries is generally on the menu somewhere. The rest of the afternoon is spent chilling out with family. Sometimes we'll take off to the beach too.

This year we'll be going down to the in-laws for Christmas. They usually have a family get together for lunch or dinner. Everyone brings a dish or two, and we spend the time just talking and the kids playing.

Very casual here. No turkey dinners. Meat of choice is usually ham, chicken, or BBQ meat.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

well fine.. i was getting set to tell you about opening our presents inside our igloo but since you could care less about canadian traditions i'm not going to bother :P


(don't mind me.. not sure where my head is at today. :P)

BUWHAHAHAHAHA - since Canadians and Americans 'tend' to celebrate similarly...I thought it was time the non-North Americans had a place to share what they do and let us learn from them That's actually, of course, unless you're from Quebec and do everything weird :P

[DawnMarch]

BUWHAHAHAHAHA - since Canadians and Americans 'tend' to celebrate similarly...I thought it was time the non-North Americans had a place to share what they do and let us learn from them That's actually, of course, unless you're from Quebec and do everything weird :P

And of course, there is the mysterious Boxing Day, which I'm still trying to figure out after having been married to a Canadian for 15 years.

[adrianka]

I think the biggest difference between Slovakia and US is that we unpack our gifts on Christmas Eve.

Of course, the menu is different and some customs (that I don't adhere to mostly), but the gift part seems to me as the most evident difference. :-)

[ksbella]

Originally Posted by jacinda

Here in New Zealand we generally keep things pretty casual. Pancake breakfast, open presents, kids have a play, and then maybe a get together with family for lunch. Because our Christmas is in the summertime, we usually have a BBQ with lots of salads and fresh bread. A pavlova with strawberries is generally on the menu somewhere. The rest of the afternoon is spent chilling out with family. Sometimes we'll take off to the beach too.
Very casual here. No turkey dinners. Meat of choice is usually ham, chicken, or BBQ meat.

Thats pretty much exactly how we do it here in Australia too! the kids get their Santa sacks when they first wake up and we do the big pancake, fresh fruit breakfasts, then open presents when all the family arrives and then play time, the male adults doze the afternoon away or we have water frights/swim in pool!

We do the big ham, chicken and also Turkey but also BBQ prawns

[Giseli Freitas]

Originally Posted by adrianka

I think the biggest difference between Slovakia and US is that we unpack our gifts on Christmas Eve.

Of course, the menu is different and some customs (that I don't adhere to mostly), but the gift part seems to me as the most evident difference. :-)

^^
what she said. Most of the children open theirs on 12/25 in the morning b/c they go to sleep earlier, though.
We always have roasted turkey for dinner, xmas eve. It's summer here so we have lots and lots of fresh fruits - mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, apple, grape, peach, plum, pear, loquat... - we put a huge basket on the table so you can pick what you like most and/or do a huge 'fruit salad'. And ice-cream. It's time for some fruit nuts too: walnuts, chestnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts... and for dried plums and raisins.
For Xmas breakfast we always do our own version of 'french toast'. People only do it for xmas and even as a desert on xmas eve, but I do very often the entire year: DD loves it.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by adrianka

I

Of course, the menu is different and some customs (that I don't adhere to mostly), but the gift part seems to me as the most evident difference. :-)

Well, that's the part that's interesting!

[adrianka]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

Well, that's the part that's interesting!

Glad to have provided something of interest.

Slovak children get their share of overnight waiting at St Nicholas (6th December), when they find some chocolates and such in the stocking (or just in a little treat bag) in the morning.

Which brings me to another important one!

Since St Nicholas is actually what became Santa Claus in English, the gifts received at Christmas Eve are brought by "Baby Jesus" and not by Santa Claus. I think this is Austrian influence, as in Austria it's the Christkind (Christ Child) that brings the presents.

During Communist times, Jesus Child was replaced by "Grandpa Frost" (Ded Moroz). As a typical child, I didn't find anything confusing about receiving two different information as to who brings the presents, as long as I got them. :-)

[adrianka]

Just in case anybody is interesting, here is Wikipedia's take on the "Baby Jesus" as a gift giver. It was really interesting for me, as I had no idea that Baby Jesus was Luther's invention to oppose St Nicholas. :-) Throw in Ded Moroz of Communist times, and you get the picture of how much these things are ideology-influenced.

If I wasn't a linguist I'd love to do sociology. :-)

[Darcy Baldwin]

Actually, I messed up when posting that LOL

The part that's interesting isn't when you open presents, but about the customs and food that make celebrations so unique. It's what sets the cultures apart.

And yeah - Luther wasn't a big fan of the icons, was he?

[adrianka]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

Actually, I messed up when posting that LOL

The part that's interesting isn't when you open presents, but about the customs and food that make celebrations so unique. It's what sets the cultures apart.

And yeah - Luther wasn't a big fan of the icons, was he?

It's totally ironic though, that over time, it's the Catholic countries that took over Baby Jesus, while the Protestants have Father Christmas / Santa Claus.

Just in case - here is my take on the Slovak Christmas Eve menu, even though I don't feel like the most knowledgeable person on that matter. :-)

[chloe]

Well, things are pretty similar to the US in France, but each region have it's own tradition, of course. Here in Alsace (North-East) we celebrate St Nicholas too. The kids prepare their boots (they often try to pick the biggest ones, of course) where St Nick will give them candies, chocolate and little gifts. They also prepare some carrots for his donkey. But they have to behave because Saint Nicholas always come with "the whipping father" (litteral translation) that punishes naughty kids! LOL

In my (huge) family, Christmas is always celebrated with lots and lots of people and games or shows. Some play an instrument, we invent games, and we usually end up with a snowball fight around midnight. This year, for the first time, we will celebrate separately from our granparents because it's too stressful for them (they are both 88 years old) to have all those people around at once, so they will celebrate for about 1 week with 15-20 people each day.

[livelys]

In the UK we have our Christmas dinner usually late lunchtime - but everyone varies. Turkey is traditional, lots of sausages wrapped in bacon (I like prunes wrapped in bacon too), stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, roast & mashed potatoes, lots of veg including the dreaded sprouts - but only 'cos DH likes them (ugh). Christmas crackers with hats & terrible jokes are all part of the occasion too.

Goose is also a traditional meat for Christmas day too, whereas a ham is usually for the evening or Boxing Day. I think I prefer Boxing Day as its alot more relaxed and a general grazing day, playing with presents and being lovely & lazy. Christmas Eve also has a lovely feel to it, we usually have a favourite meal, lots of candle light, and nibbles everywhere - the Day itself often feels too stressful.

I l-o-v-e Christmas Pudding, but many find it too heavy after such a huge meal, and go with such as trifle. Mine I like with rum sauce - my mum's homemade pudding & sauce is the best ever.

We open our presents on Christmas morning, though some do open a single gift on Christmas Eve, I guess reflecting more European traditions. Actually, we've personally started staggering the present opening just so Alex doesn't get too overwhelmed all in one go.

Going to a Panto (pantomime) is a silly Christmas tradition over here too - usually based on a childrens story like Jack & the Beanstalk or Cinderella, complete with a Dame played by a very camp man in outrageous costume & makeup, lots of naughty jokes and music. I take Alex each Boxing Day (though they're on throughout the month) and its just a couple of hours of very silly fun.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by livelys

Christmas crackers with hats & terrible jokes are all part of the occasion too.

THANKS for reminding me!!! I haven't purchased ours yet for the year!

[Ginger_79]

As Adrianka already told you, here the gifts are brought by the "Christkind". We do celebrate St. Nikolaus with the boots, too.

And Germany is another country, where the big celebration is done on christmas eve. Unless the kids are very young. Traditionally there is an earlier mass for the families and then the big evening mass at church. Though a lot of families don't do that anymore. Germany isn't overly religious in general. And many only go at chistmas.

However, afterwards there is a big family dinner. We don't have real traditional dinners. They vary a lot between different regions and families. Usually it's something heavy. All sorts of roasts are popular as well as goose or venison. Afterwards the gifts are opened and we enjoy the christmas tree. In most households it goes up directly before christmas and not during advent. To celebrate December we have an advent wrath with four candles. Each Sunday another one is lightened. So everyone marvels at the tree for a bit. Many families sing christmas songs together then.

After the gift opening the kids play with their new stuff. The adults enjoy some conversations and/or games. As in my family we don't have any small kids at the moment, we usually play a lot of board and family games.

My family has another tradition. After dinner in the dark, best if the bells ringing, we go through the quiet streets to the graveyard nearby. The fresh air and unique atmosphere is good after the dinner. At the graveyard we light a candle at my grandparent's grave. It's magical! There are lights on almost every grave, you would not believe the sacred feeling this is. We originally did this one year, because we were all so full and my mom forget to light a candle earlier. Since then we do it every time.

This year I will have a very very different christmas, because I will celebrate it in Nothern Ireland with my BF and his family. I hope I get to experience all the cool British/Irish traditions. A mistletoe would be awesome. Like in the movies! Last year he was here and got us christmas crackers. Great fun! "Why did the skeleton not go to the party? Because it had no-body to go with!" Muahahah.

[livelys]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

THANKS for reminding me!!! I haven't purchased ours yet for the year!

You're welcome - I think!? ...and remember to buy next years in the sales - why pay full price for jokes that bad?

[Darcy Baldwin]

Yep - I usually do buy them on sale, but we weren't anywhere that carried them last year (rural KY usually doesn't really go for crackers lol), so when we got home, they were all gone We may do 'boxing day' crackers instead LOL

[pomi]

Czech traditions are similar to the Slovak ones - festive dinner and present opening on Christmas Eve, Baby Jesus brings the presents. We don't have Slovak cabbage soup, but it's YUM! I'm thinking of including some traditions of different countries into our advent and Christmas traditions and this soup would definitely be the Slovak one. LOL.

There is lots of old pagan traditions known here and in many families they're actually held, ie. putting little candles into walnut half-shells and letting them float in a bucket. When the boat stays at the edge, its owner stays at home, when it floats away, there is a trip or moving expected. Or cutting an apple in halves - star inside means good health, cross means not so good or even death (personally, I wouldn't like to know that ). Maybe there are these "old-Czech traditions" so known, because the communist totality wanted to take the Christian meaning and traditions off the Christmas, but replacing them with the Russian (like Adri mentioned Ded Moroz) didn't work well.

Yes, and we don't watch Christmas movies, but have a lot of classical fairy tales movies that are on TV on Christmas and I think this is a big tradition. I get teary eyed when I watch them.

[Gabbina]

Here in Italy we have not only Santa bringing gifts, but even Saint Nicholas (San Nicolò) on the 6th, Saint Lucy (Santa Lucia) on the 14th and on January the 6th (on Epiphany) we have the "befana". Those are mostly old and local tradition though. Not everywhere they celbrate them, and somewhere they celebrate just one of them. For exemple, in Milan they celebrate saint Nicholas (I dont in my region) and in the south they don't have saint Lucy. Somewhere in the south, they even care MORE to saint Lucy than to Santa, so kid will have smaller stocking stuff for Santa, and the big present on the 14th. As for my family, since my mum is from the center Italy, my dad from the south, and we've always lived in the very north... we celebrate all of them besides Nicholas, but we just get small stuff like books or needed clothing stuff, saving the big gift for Santa.
In some region in the south, they don't have Santa bringing gifts, but Baby Jesus.
As for opening presents, it depends, not every family do at the same time, some on the 24th night before the Church, some on hthe 25th morning.

As for the food, we have large dinner on the 24th night, then go to church... and a very larghe lunch on the 25th, AND another one on the 26th, that's another holiday here. (As it is the 8th, another big lunch...).
Yes, Italians basically spend the whole Christmas time sitting at the table, eating and celebrating.

We have the tree, of course, and we have the Presepe, not sure if there's a word for it, it's a Nativity set. That's a HUGE deal in the south of Italy, in Naple there are people who do items for the Nativity as a job. So, my dad comes from there, and he put up a large pretty one.

Well, I think I said pretty much everything

[adrianka]

Originally Posted by pomi

We don't have Slovak cabbage soup, but it's YUM! I'm thinking of including some traditions of different countries into our advent and Christmas traditions and this soup would definitely be the Slovak one. LOL.

Good to know good things are appreciated. It's really one of my fave soups ever and it's perfect for winter (sauerkraut being a source of vitamins etc.). :-)

Slovaks have lots of these pagan traditions, too, it's just I'm not too familiar with them. The only thing Grandma did was to make a cross on our foreheads with honey (and honey had to be on the Christmas table), which I didn't like too much as it's sticky. We didn't do the apple thing, but I know it exists.

Another thing Grandma did was to make me throw a shoe behind me - if the shoe pointed away from you, it meant I would be leaving house, i.e. get married next year (completely valid with a girl of 6 and so, hehe), if it pointed the other way, it meant I would stay, i.e. not marry. We only did this when I was a kiddo though.

Being a small family, it was just my grandparents, Mother and me - we ate the dinner, unpacked the gift and watched fairy tales (the Czech Cinderella, if possible, it's just the best). Nothing special really.

[pomi]

Originally Posted by adrianka

and watched fairy tales (the Czech Cinderella, if possible, it's just the best).

Amen!

[NeverendingJen]

Originally Posted by Gabbina

Here in Italy we have not only Santa bringing gifts, but even Saint Nicholas (San Nicolò) on the 6th, Saint Lucy (Santa Lucia) on the 14th and on January the 6th (on Epiphany) we have the "befana". Those are mostly old and local tradition though. Not everywhere they celbrate them, and somewhere they celebrate just one of them. For exemple, in Milan they celebrate saint Nicholas (I dont in my region) and in the south they don't have saint Lucy. Somewhere in the south, they even care MORE to saint Lucy than to Santa, so kid will have smaller stocking stuff for Santa, and the big present on the 14th. As for my family, since my mum is from the center Italy, my dad from the south, and we've always lived in the very north... we celebrate all of them besides Nicholas, but we just get small stuff like books or needed clothing stuff, saving the big gift for Santa.
In some region in the south, they don't have Santa bringing gifts, but Baby Jesus.
As for opening presents, it depends, not every family do at the same time, some on the 24th night before the Church, some on hthe 25th morning.

As for the food, we have large dinner on the 24th night, then go to church... and a very larghe lunch on the 25th, AND another one on the 26th, that's another holiday here. (As it is the 8th, another big lunch...).
Yes, Italians basically spend the whole Christmas time sitting at the table, eating and celebrating.

We have the tree, of course, and we have the Presepe, not sure if there's a word for it, it's a Nativity set. That's a HUGE deal in the south of Italy, in Naple there are people who do items for the Nativity as a job. So, my dad comes from there, and he put up a large pretty one.

Well, I think I said pretty much everything

*whimper* reading this post makes me miss italy sooo bad!

[lovely1m]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

well fine.. i was getting set to tell you about opening our presents inside our igloo but since you could care less about canadian traditions i'm not going to bother :P

OMG, you totally made me bust out LOLing. Like hard, glad I was home alone.