Holidays Around the World!

Dear Journal,

Last night, my dad and I were decorating our Christmas tree, and we started talking about how we celebrated Christmas in Paris last year. It was so much fun! In the evenings, the streets were all lit up and people were doing their shopping bundled up in long coats and chic scarves. The scene looked just like a postcard! Soooo pretty.

We didn’t have a tree to decorate last year, though. A lot of Parisians don’t have Christmas trees in their homes. But, almost everyone has a crèche, which is a group of small statues called santons (“little saints”). They aren’t always just statues of saints, though—some of the most impressive crèches even have little policemen! All the statues are arranged in a scene that shows the story of the birth of Jesus, which is what Christmas celebrates.

On Christmas Eve in Paris, a lot of people stay up reeeeeally late and go to church at midnight. When they get home, they have a super-late-night (actually, super-early-morning!) dinner called le réveillon. And, the food they eat is way different from Christmas dinner here in the U.S. Like, they start the meal with oysters, move on to foie gras (goose liver paste!), and finish up with a cake shaped like a log! The cake is supposed to represent the bûche de Noël, or Yule log. In the olden days, people actually used to burn a special log on Christmas Eve. Now, they just eat cake!

Finally, before everybody goes to sleep on Christmas Eve, kids in Paris put out their shoes by the fireplace so Santa (known as le père de Noël) will leave them presents. Everybody used to use wooden shoes, called sabots, but now just any old shoes will do. No stockings here!

I felt all warm and fuzzy talking about those memories with my dad. Then I started wondering about how people in other countries celebrate winter holidays. Not everyone celebrates Christmas, so it was fun to learn about the traditions of other countries and regions. Check out all the cool facts I found:

Australia: This one’s easy, because I used to lived there! The weird thing about Christmas in Australia is that it happens in the summer because the country is in the Southern Hemisphere. A lot of people actually head to the beach on Christmas Day!

Japan: A special kind of Christmas cake is really popular in Japan. It’s sort of like strawberry shortcake—a round sponge cake topped with whipped cream frosting and strawberries. Mmmm!

Norway: Some people in Norway say that barn gnomes appear around the holidays and cause trouble. But, they say if you put out a bowl of rice porridge with butter, sugar, and cinnamon in your barn, the gnomes will be happy and leave you alone. Sounds like yummy solution!

England: In England, holiday celebrations don’t end on December 25. The day after Christmas is called “Boxing Day,” because long ago, British people used to give a Christmas box (gift) to all the delivery people came to the door. Today, many British people volunteer their time or donate money to different charities on Boxing Day.

Israel: Many people in Israel celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday of lights. A favorite tradition is eating fried doughnuts called sufganiot that are filled with jelly or other tasty things. Scrumptialicious!

Greece: This one is spooky! Some people in Greece believe that creepy little goblins called kallikantzeri appear during the time between Christmas Day and January 6 and cause trouble for everybody. Yikes!

Mexico: Did you know that poinsettias are from Mexico? It’s true! A man named Joel Poinsett first introduced them to the U.S. in 1828, and the flower was named after him. Then around 1870, stores in New York started selling them as Christmas plants, and the trend took off.

you tell us ...

What kinds of traditions does your family practice during the holidays?

Your friend,

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