Christmas around the world

Christmas is one of the most important festivities in the world: everyone loves to celebreate it, but no one has the same traditions. Here’s how we live the Christmas time in our countries.

CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY is a very important holiday: that’s why we start thinking about it in late November. In fact, at the end of November, we buy the advent wreaths, or we make one by ourselves.

Usually, we light a candle every Sunday in December and we also buy Christmas calendars. The Christmas markets are also open: they are always a highlight for everyone. Sadly, they are not allowed to be open during the Corona time.

In the night from the 5th- 6th December, we have a little celebration, called Nikolaus. Every Family is putting their cleaned shoes outside and, during the night, Nikolaus comes and puts some sweets and presents in the shoes. We believe he is from Turkey. At the beginning of December, we start baking some Christmas cookies and building gingerbread houses.

Few days before Christmas everyone buys a Christmas tree and decores it.

In addition to these traditions, everyone listens to Christmas music.

On the Christmas eve, we go to church in the afternoon. There everybody sings, drinks red wine (or grape juice for the children) and watches a performance about the

Lia’s Christmas in 2008 Christmas scene, which also includes some Christmas songs. After that, we get a peace candle from the scout team and walk home with it.

After church, we eat sausages and potato salad, which is a traditional meal for Christmas (it tastes really good!!).

In the evening, the children get their presents. In some families, comes a person clothed like Santa Claus, or (for an example at my family) Santa Claus brings the presents, while we are at the church. Our Santa Claus comes from the North pole.

On the 25th of December, people eat a festive meal: everyone helps to prepare everything. We usually eat with our relatives, especially with our grandparents that can give us some more presents. On the 26th (the second celebration day) we eat rest of the festive meal and spend a lovely day with our family.

Santa Claus

CHRISTMAS IN ITALY is mostly a religious holiday, in fact on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning religious people usually go to Church. Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December, but the real holiday starts on the 24th and ends on the 26th. Usually, we celebrate Christmas with our families.

During Christmas Eve (24th), we have a big dinner with all our relatives (at least 20 people): we eat fish dishes and we exchange gifts. Someone opens the presents right after the exchange, someone waits until midnight and someone opens them on Christmas morning.

Of course during the night comes Santa Claus, who brings presents for all the good kids. He usually goes inside the houses through the chimney and leaves the presents under the Christmas trees.

In some part of Italy, also Saint Nicolas comes before Santa Claus. Saint Nicolas travels on a donkey and, on the night between September 5th and 6th, he brings presents to every kid. You can send a letter to Saint Nicolas with your wish list and hopefully he will make your wishes come true. Saint Nicolas comes only if you go to bed early and if you leave a glass of red wine and something sweet for him and a carrot with some water for his donkey.

On Christmas day we have another big lunch with our relatives. Every region has its different traditional courses, but the most popular Christmas dishes are lamb with potatoes, cotechino (gelatinous pork sausage in a natural casing) with lentils and dumplings.

Panettone and pandoro are the ultimate Christmas desserts. They are also the most common gift: usually everyone gets at least six of them

Emma’s Christmas tree

as a gift: that is why we start eating pandoro and panettone since late November and we finish them in February.

You can find every type of panettone you can think of: the traditional one with candied fruit, or the one with chocolate, or the version with pistachio cream and more.

During the Christmas day, we usually play some traditional games such as tombola (a board game similar to bingo), we sing a lot of Christmas songs or others in dialect.

On the 26th we still celebrate Christmas. Usually we have a small lunch with the leftovers from the day before and we spend the day with friends and relatives.

Before the actual holidays, we have a lot of traditional things to do.We make the Christmas tree and we decorate all the house with lights and Christmas decorations. People start cooking biscuits and traditional Christmas food.

One of the most important traditions is setting up the Nativity scene. Almost every family has a Gifts and food are only an excuse to stay together and enjoy this little time that we share at the end of every year.

Nativity scene in their house, even if they are not very religious. It is such a big tradition that you can see Nativity scenes in cities’ squares and sometimes in small villages people set up live manger scene.

Christmas during the lockdown

But Christmas is not only about gifts, food and traditions. Christmas is about family. Christmas is the right time of the year to be nicer to yourself and to the people around you, especially your family. That’s why we spend a lot of time with our families during the Christmas holidays: to feel that we belong to someone somewhere in the world. Text and photos Lia Ahrens, Marianna Faggin and Emma Guasti

Emma’s Christmas