 | Christmas is a time of giving and tradition. Here are some wonderful Christmas facts from around the world.
In Australia, Christmas is celebrated with a traditional ham or turkey dinner, with a plum pudding for dessert. In the gold rush times, a gold nugget was often hid in the pudding. In modern times, however, a small gift is usually baked inside and whoever gets the gift, know they will have good luck coming to them.
Christmas in Australia also includes Carols by Candlelight, a Christmas tradition that began in approximately 1937. Thousands of people gather on Christmas Eve in the city of Melbourne to sing Christmas carols.
One of the biggest Christmas traditions in China is the tree being decorated with paper chains, paper flowers, and paper lanterns. They call their Christmas trees “Trees of Light“.
The children of China call Santa Claus Dun Che Lao Ren, which translates to Christmas Old Man. They hang muslin stockings and they are filled with gifts and treats.
In Japan, the parents give their children presents, however, the children do not give presents to their parents. The reasoning for this is that only Santa Claus brings presents, so when the child no longer believes in Santa, presents are no longer given to the child.
Japanese also decorate their homes and stores with evergreens.
Christmas in Sweden is celebrated from December 13th, on the feast of St. Lucia, until January 13th, which is St. Canute’s Day. For the feast, the oldest daughter in the family dresses up in a white dress with a red sash. She also puts on a wreath of candles on her head and then carries coffee and buns to every member of her family in their rooms.
In Sweden, the Christmas gnome, Tomte, comes out from where he lives under the floors of houses and barns and leaves gifts for all.
In Scotland, Christmas is celebrated rather quietly as they save all their merriment for their New Year’s Day, known as Hogmanay.
In Mexico, they use the Poinsettia, which is native to their country, to decorate. They celebrate Christmas by las posada, the reenactment of the search Joseph and Mary took in finding a place to stay.
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