What is Christmas like in other countries, that you have experience of?

According to my mum it’s not a huge thing in France, chrimbo decs go u on Christmas eve. In the USA it is broadly similar to here but fairly low key. People only get Christmas day off work, and if it’s a weekend you get nothing, so a lit of people can’t organise big get togethers.

Many of us here do seem to organise pretty big feasts and pissups, it can get Bacchanalian. It occurred to me that because we get three public holidays so close together so many people are off work for quite a while, which really helps.

I got a Happy Yalda email from some friends-of-friends in Iran…

Dutch Christmas ?

While our Santa flies on a sled, the Dutch version arrives by boat and then transfers to a white horse. The event is televised, and great crowds gather at the waterfront to greet him. I’m not sure if there’s a set date, but he generally docks in late November and spends a few weeks hanging out asking people what they want.

“Is it just him alone?” I asked. “Or does he come with some backup?”

Oscar’s English was close to perfect, but he seemed thrown by a term normally reserved for police reinforcement.

“Helpers,” I said. “Does he have any elves?”

Maybe I’m overly sensitive, but I couldnt help but feel personally insulted when Oscar denounced the very idea as grotesque and unrealistic. “Elves,” he said. “They are just so silly.”

The words were redefined when I learned that Saint Nicolas travels with what was consistently described as six to eight black men. I asked several Dutch people to narrow it down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always six to eight, which seems strange, seeing as theyve had hundreds of years to get an accurate head count.

The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves until the mid 1950s, when the political climate changed and it was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good friends. I think that history has proved that something usually comes slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by cookies and quiet hours beside the fire but by bloodshed and mutual hostility. They have such violence in the Netherlands, but rather than duking it out amongst themselves, Santa and his former slaves decided to take it out on the public. In the early years if a child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would beat him with what Oscar described as the small branch of a tree.

“A switch?”

“Yes,” he said, “Thats it. Theyd kick him and beat him with a switch. Then if the youngster was really bad, theyd put him in a sack and take him back to Spain.”

“Saint Nicholas would ?”

“Well, not anymore,” Oscar said. “Now he just to kick you.”

The Full Story…

Christmas elsewhere

Australia

Anything and everything, we are also blessed with plenty of Holidays so lots of getting together. Everything from full turkey roast and Norther Hemisphere stuff in 40c to a nice fish barbie on the beach and most in between. Follow it up with the Boxing Day test and some beer and it’s all good.

In Estonia (where I am right now), my wifes family celebrate on Christmas Eve with lots of Pork, Potatoes, Sauerkraut and pickled veg. Church Christmas morning and then another big meal which is quite similar. Its normally snowed (so last time we were here at Christmas we went cx skiing on Christmas day), however at the moment it is not cold enough so there is none. Presents here are traditionally done on Christmas Eve, however we are starting a new tradition of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day presents (one big, one small).

Most offices close down on Christmas Day, but shops are normally reduced hours over the period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July

Nothing really here in China.

The shops participate in it, obviously, but otherwise it’s a normal week for most people.

If you work in a foreign company which is office based, rather than manufacturing, you may have Christmas off, as all the expats go home.

Luna festival is when it all goes Pete Tong here.

I’ve spent Christmas in Greece, it was lovely and much more low key than here. Easter is a much bigger festival over there.

I’ve spent Xmases’s in Hungary and like most Eastern European countries they celebrate it on Xmas Eve. In Austria it’s all a bit kitsch but fun, but I prefer the simple family gathering rather than the tinsel traps of Western Europe. 😉

I like the big family gathering and associated feasting 🙂

i was hoping that this was going to be a call for a national christmas where the country just closes down for a week.

I like the big family gathering and associated feasting

I’m firmly in the Bacchus camp. When else can you have a pint of Guiness with breakfast?

5e is doin it right.

My work has effectively shut down for two weeks, which helps the mood 🙂

That’s right the only time of year it seems normal to get up at a ridiculous hour with the kids and then have a beer with breakfast (not the kids they have Buck’s Fizz! )

Basque Christmas is on the 24th. Big evening meal, then the teens go out on the lash at about midnight until next day. The ‘santa’ figure is Olentzero, a charcoal burner who comes down from the hills drunk on red wine, handing out presents or lumps of coal. If you’re not in bed, he threatens to cut your throat and drops a sickle down the chimney. Though his image has been toned down in recent years.

More and more, the kids are adopting Santa Claus on the 25th, and the Spanish Christmas on 6th Jan. So they essentially get three.

Pretty low key – we’ve been up to Bordeaux the last couple of years and it seems a lot more festive than here.

righog – Member

Dutch Christmas ?

It’s a great story, best with audio though as his delivery is fantastic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYdpte1W0vk