What are your top three Christmas traditions?

Hi All,

I'm writing a post on Christmas around the world - I'm looking for your country's top three Christmas traditions. Food, of course, but any other unusual customs. I'll be happy to acknowledge you in the post!

I've already covered the UK, North America, and France, so the field is wide open!

Thanks for your help, Leyla

Christmas in New Zealand is fairly low key. It is the middle of Summer and whilst many European immigrants try and keep the old traditions going, ie roast turkey when its 34 degrees outside. Kiwis tend to have a BBQ as the Xmas meal, with seafood featuring prominently.

Here in Australia it is also the middle of summer. Most people have a family lunch which will either be the traditional roast of some description, or a seafood & cold meats meal (with things like salad to accompany). Most people will also set up a Christmas tree and some common family activities are going swimming or playing some backyard cricket, unless they are hiding out inside in the airconditioning!

Australians also love Christmas light displays. Lots of people will put up a little display - maybe just a string of lights across the front windows - but some people will put up very elaborate displays. It is a common tradition in the week before Christmas for families and friends to do tours of their cities to look at the Christmas light displays.

Thanks for the Australia and New Zealand Christmas traditions! As a Canadian the thought of seafood or swimming is pretty darn attractive, as we sit wrapped in our ski suits...

Would love to hear more traditions from around the world...

Cheers, Leyla

In the U.S., people often go home to visit their parents or extended family. Many people go to church, even if they don't go the rest of the year (Easter is another church-going holiday.) There's often a big Christmas dinner. In our house, it was usually ham, although some people choose roast chicken or goose.

We usually opened gifts from one another on Christmas Eve, and then enjoyed seeing what Santa left in our stockings on Christmas morning. Many families open all their gifts on Christmas morning.

My father-in-law started a funny tradition. Since all of us are too old to believe in Santa anymore, any gifts that would have been from Santa instead have some other name that gives a hint about what's inside. So, for instance, a gift of a cashmere scarf might be from Frosty the Snowman since you would wear it when it's frosty outside.

Since the US is such a melting pot of different cultures, everyone here pretty much has their own tradition.

I am an Italian American and my family celebrates with some Italian/Catholic traditions such as
Midnight mass on Christmas eve and eating Lasagna or Linguini with clam sauce for dinner. The cooking itself is our tradition and takes all day.

I would say some "American" traditions are...

1. secret santa gift exchange. This activity entails secretly drawing one person name from a
bowl or hat and purchasing a gift for the person whose name you have drawn. The name
drawn remains a secret until Christmas when the recipient is presented with the gift.

2. Kissing underneath the misletoe

3. Making a gingerbread house and other Christmas cookies.

Guess some from the US don't realize it's a part of NA.

Back to the question this expat Canuck is going to start a new tradition for his 2nd Xmas in El Salvador by lazing in a hammock by the pool with a bottle of Flor de Caña rum with a few pupusas for lunch.

http://www.whats4eats.com/breads/pupusas-recipe

Not believe in Santa Claus??

Thanks so much for the US traditions - and yes, it's fine if you start your own, they count too!

I'd love to hear some traditions from Latin America (pupusas plus?), Africa and Asia, as well as other countries in Europe...

I'm in Canada... for me, I'm not religious at all, but I do celebrate Christmas for the tradition of seeing family, exchanging presents, eating lots of delicious food, and decorating a Christmas tree!

loolie wrote:I'm in Canada... for me, I'm not religious at all, but I do celebrate Christmas for the tradition of seeing family, exchanging presents, eating lots of delicious food, and decorating a Christmas tree!

Another old thread dredged from the depths so I feel justified in correcting a couple of errors in he 2013 post, since the poster is from Ontario Canada where it is illegal to "celebrate Christmas" it now is known as 'the Holiday Season' & "decorating a Christmas tree" is a most heinous crime however it is (so far) tolerated to 'decorate' a holiday tree.

busman7 wrote:

loolie wrote:I'm in Canada... for me, I'm not religious at all, but I do celebrate Christmas for the tradition of seeing family, exchanging presents, eating lots of delicious food, and decorating a Christmas tree!

Another old thread dredged from the depths so I feel justified in correcting a couple of errors in he 2013 post, since the poster is from Ontario Canada where it is illegal to "celebrate Christmas" it now is known as 'the Holiday Season' & "decorating a Christmas tree" is a most heinous crime however it is (so far) tolerated to 'decorate' a holiday tree.

Illegal to celebrate Christmas? I don't know what you're talking about! People still call it Christmas around here....we also recognize other holiday celebrations of other religions from around the same time of year! When I was growing up, there were a lot of Jewish kids at my school, so we sang both Christmas carols and Hannukah songs. It was nice to learn about other traditions and cultures...which is the whole reason why a lot of us like to travel, hence posting in these forums!

Also, what is your problem? Are you just going into threads where I am posting and deliberately being negative? Get a life!

loolie wrote:Also, what is your problem? Are you just going into threads where I am posting and deliberately being negative? Get a life!

Oh Great Turtle do you not recognize sarcasm

Why not save your wrath for the judge that ordered the Christmas Tree removed from a courthouse in Toronto, the politically correct capital of the former McGuilty land Besides if you used a modicum of forum etiquette & didn't dredge up long dead threads to comment on, you wouldn't put yourself in a position to be made lite of.

Besides the forum is dead & one needs a bit of fun, it's not like you're contributing any useful new information to the forum