BRITAIN AND THE COMMONWEALTH:

Many of our most hallowed Christmas traditions, including the Christmas card, originated in the British Isles. The merriment of a traditional British Christmas can be easily found in our favorite Holiday literature. Yule logs, plum pudding, mince pies, fruitcakes, the wassail bowl and the Christmas goose, mistletoe, holly, carol singing, are all firmly rooted in British soil. The Queen’s message on Christmas Day is probably second only to the Pope’s in the breadth of its broadcast to all parts of the world. The origins of the Christmas Celebration, distinct from earlier pagan winter holidays, date to sixth century England. By the middle ages, it was a well established important holiday, with traditional pageantry, customs, music and feasting all its own. Customs from pre Christian days were incorporated into the Celebrations of various areas as well, and many still remain. The sixteenth century saw England celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night premiered in the first year of the seventeenth century, in a performance at the court of Elizabeth the First. Later, during Queen Victoria’s rain, Christmas became a time for gift giving, and a special season for children. Boxing Day, celebrated on the Feast of Saint Steven, December 26th, was popularized in Victorian England, and is still a public holiday which many British consider quite important. Christmas songs have their roots in medieval England, when minstrels traveled from castle to castle, the forerunners of our modern carolers. Some of our favorite carols have rung out in England for centuries. Today in Wales, each village may have several choirs which rehearse well in advance of the holidays. 

These customs have taken a different twist in Australia, where carols are sung by candle light throughout the country. Even though Christmas occurs in the summer in the Southern hemisphere, those outposts of the British Empire, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, still decorate according to the white Christmas theme of old England. Snow Scenes are popular, although the sleigh has been replaced by the railway carrying Santa and his sack of gifts for children of the outback. 

In Ireland, the Christmas Season is a dual one. Advent is solemn and religious in spirit, while Saint Steven’s Day marks the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas, a light hearted time given over to merry making and fun. It is a holiday of heartwarming homecoming and family gatherings, with candles glowing in the windows as a sign of welcome. There are also glorious and bountiful Christmas feasts attended by family and friends. 
 

NORTH America:

All over Canada and the United States, Christmas is a time for gift giving, celebrating and feasting. North Americans have developed some of their own traditions, but many maintain the old Christmas customs of their ancestors. For Children in towns and cities, there are Santa Clause parades, Christmas pageants, puppet shows, community Christmas trees and department store Santas. Schools and churches give out candy canes  and wreaths, hold parties, and sponsor caroling events. In the evenings preceding Christmas, children and their families can settle down in front of the television to watch Christmas specials like The Nut Cracker, How The Grinch Stole Christmas and the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Historic homes throughout North America greet the Christmas Season with festivities and unusual activities. From New Westminster, BC to Quebec City to Mystic, Connecticut to Dearborn Michigan to San Francisco, California houses are prepared for the holidays in the old fashion spirit. 

In Canada Christmas celebrations are seen in a vast variety of ethnic forms. In most regions of this enormous country, the multi cultural fabric of communities, mean that Christmas traditions from all over the Christian world are practiced side by side, often taking elements from one another. 

In the province of British Columbia, in the capital city, Victoria, the Legislative Buildings are strung with countless lights, which outline the windows, roofs and dome of their classic turn of the century architecture, a display which is reflected in the city’s famous Inner Harbour. Elsewhere in Victoria, which the locals like to say is more English than England, another favorite place to go is to the Empress Hotel for tea. Always a pleasant interlude, it is even more so at this time of year. Here, as in other parts of Canada, those of British origin follow the old English customs. Christmas Eve dinner includes beef, Fowl and mince pie. In Accordance with British tradition, plum pudding is soaked in brandy and brought to the table aflame, with a sprig of holly on top. Houses are decorated with holly and ivy, Winter green and cranberry boughs. 

In British Columbia’s largest city, Vancouver, a lit tree stands in the middle of Lost Lagoon, at the entrance to Stanley Park, right next to the apartment towers of the city’s West End, and the down town core. At Vancouver’s Canada Harbor Place convention centre, people from all over come to gaze in wonder at the Woodward’s windows. These are a series of animated, three dimensional Christmas scenes. They show everything from a group of children building a snowman, to a group of Santa’s lively little elves. These were first created by the locally based Woodward’s department store chain. After the company went out of business in 1993, these holiday displays, which had been a local tradition for decades, were saved and moved to their new home. Perhaps the most unique celebration in Vancouver are the Carol Ships. Started inn 1961 with a mere six small boats, with just a few lights on each, they now consist of many vessels with elaborate lighted displays and live carolers. Some of these are working tugboats in the large harbor. Others take visitors on tours around the Vancouver area and nearby coastal points of interest, during the summer months. Still others are the yachts owned by some of the city’s most prominent citizens. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, these Carol Ships can be seen in various parts of the Greater Vancouver area, and people check the radio, TV and news papers to see when they will be visiting their particular community. 

The Ukrainian communities of Alberta and Saskatchewan maintain many of the traditions of their ancestral homeland. In honor of Christ’s birth, some families observe a six-week fast. They eat no meat for the six weeks leading up to Ukrainian Christmas on January 7th, December 25th by the old Julian calendar, which many Orthodox Christians still follow. On their Christmas Eve, January 6th as recalled by most people, the children stand outside to wait for the first star of the night. As soon as they see it, they run into their homes, and the Christmas Eve meal begins. Dinner consists of twelve meatless dishes, in memory of the twelve Apostles of Christ. Everyone must have at least one spoonful of each of the twelve dishes. After supper the family sings old Ukrainian and English Christmas carrels, until it is time to go to midnight mass. 

Christmas in Saskatchewan is observed quietly by the Moderates, members of a religious German farming community. For three days before Christmas all works stops and everyone takes time off to pray and contemplate. Church services are held twice a day during this period. 

Toronto, Ontario has been the scene of a huge annual Santa Clause parade since 1905. Rain or shine thousands of children come out to watch Santa, the Queen Of Hearts, Robin Hood, Goldie Locks and other favorites ride by on their floats. 

Christmas is an occasion for big family reunions and huge parties called rebellion, in the province of Quebec. First, French Canadian families attend a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, then the celebration begins. Family and friends gather together to eat, sing and dance until dawn. The Christmas feast includes all kinds of meat pies, game and fish. For Desert, there is sugar pie, sugar doughnuts and a maple syrup. The party continues with live music dancing and family games. 

In Newfoundland some people still follow the old practice of mumming. Early English settlers brought the custom with them, and it still goes on, Raucous  plays in which the actors are dressed up in odd disguises. The Plays narrated by Father Christmas, feature a contest between a folk hero and his enemy, as well as a doctor who restores the dead hero to life. Although the actual plays are rarely performed now, many people still dress up in colorful costumes and disguises to pay their Christmas calls on friends. 

In the melting pot of the United States, many Christmas customs are much the same from one side of that nation to the other. Never the less, many Unique regional traditions are to be seen. 

Although the deep snow, evergreen trees, candle-lit villages and covered bridges of New England, make it the home of the stereotypical Christmas, the holiday was not celebrated there until many years after it had gained popularity elsewhere. The residents of colonial Williamsburg, Pennsylvania’s Germans and New York’s Dutch were all celebrating Christmas long before similar festivities were allowed in Puritan New England. As a result, many of the historical restorations are restrained in the manner in which they decorate for the season. However many cities and town throughout New England more than make up for them. The Boston Common for example, is a blaze with lights, while a giant tree sparkles from the portico the Prudential Center. Festivities begin late in November, with the bells of Boston, a centuries old tradition of English origin. Over thirty choirs of bell ringers participate in the festival, and bell ringers continue to perform in the city during the entire Christmas season. Another English tradition very much alive in Boston is tea time, and a favorite place to enjoy this rest bit from Christmas shopping is at the grand Dane of Boston hotels, The Copley Plaza. The centerpiece of its marble lobby is a giant tree built entirely of Poinsettias. The famed tea cort’s marble columns gleaming crystal and gilded Ceiling, is a perfect setting for a Christmas tree. 

In the American South-West, Spanish traditions have shaped Christmas customs. In California, Texas and New Mexico, Christmas time brings Peseta Processions and Christmas plays. Missions in Southern California offer pastas that blend scriptures with Mexican-Indian folklore, the theme being one of the conflict between good and evil. The play’s characters include shepherds, the Devil, a hermit and two angels. The shepherds set out to see the Christ Child. As they travel, they encounter many obstacles that the devil puts in their way. Eventually they overcome these obstacles and reach Bethlehem safely. Music and singing are woven through the plays, which can last anywhere from half an hour to half the night. Around the Southwest Christmas lanterns glow. These lanterns called luminaries, are easily made with a small candle in a rolled paper bag, and weighted with wed sand. The River Walk in San Antonio, Texas, is lit with two-thousand of these lanterns, which brighten the way for the annual Peseta procession. 

In Northern California, in one of the largest national parks in the US There is held a special Christmas celebration. The oldest hotel in the park stages a recreation of the fictional seventeenth century English Christmas feast in Yorkshire’s Base Bridge Hall. Wandering minstrels, costumed Druids and the music of Bach carolers are all part of the feast. In addition, a medieval pageant is performed. Dinner includes a bore’s head, wassail and a Yorkshire pudding. This event has been held every year since 1927. 

The American South is noted for it’s reverence for tradition. Historical tours and festivities are popular Christmas time activities. In some areas people still observe the old tradition of firing guns and setting off firecrackers to welcome in the holiday. In Williamsburg, Virginia, old seventeenth century customs are revived for Christmas visitors. The town’s people wear colonial costumes, the buildings are decorated with garlands and wreaths, and an annual Dr. Whites Christmas party is held. A string Ensemble plays in the parlor of the Doctor’s home, and the guests mingle as they drink an old fashion fruit punch. Highlights are Christmas concerts, caroling parties, and reenactments of colonial sports events like foot races, wrestling. And hoop races. 

New York City bustles with shoppers finding gifts for their families and friends. Department store windows are filled with fantastic Christmas scenes. Up and down 5th Avenue Christmas music rings out from Salvation Army bands, raising money for the poor. Ice Skaters spin beneath a huge glowing Christmas tree in the Rockefeller Center. Special Christmas displays and performances abound. New York’s enormous Metropolitan Museum exhibits a beautiful Christmas tree and a Baroque Nativity scene. Radio City Music Hall hosts a Christmas spectacular, and the New York ballet performs the Nut Cracker. All over the city churches resound with the joyful music of the season. 

In the Mid West, many families continue to celebrate with European traditions of their ancestors. Many Swedish families in Minnesota make sure to include traditional foods like white pudding in their Christmas meal. Families of Norwegian decent still follow the tradition of giving the year’s largest sheath of grain to the children to hang up on a pole or tree, as a treat for the birds. 
 

MEXICO AND SOUTH AMERICA:

When the Spaniards came to South America in the 1500s, they brought many of their traditions with them, including those of Christmas. In their efforts to spread Christianity, the Catholic priests encouraged people to participate in Christian morality plays, which have become colorful Christmas Processions and pageants. December 16th marks the beginning of the Holiday Season in Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.  This is the first of nine nights of Les Passadas. Passada is the Spanish word for lodging. The Christmas time passadas are colorful Processions that re enact Joseph and Mary’s search for an inn. Families and friends gather together for Les passadas. At the head of each procession is a child dressed as an angel, followed by two more children dressed as Joseph and Mary. More angels, shepherds and the three kings follow. Everyone carries a lit candle. As they walk, the participants sing special carols. Eventually the procession stops at the house of a friend or family member. Joseph and Mary knock at the door, and ask for a room for the night. “Go away!”, the people behind the door say. “My wife is with child and needs a place to rest.”, Joseph says. “Go away!”, the people in the house shout. Finally Joseph reveals the fact that Mary is about to give birth to the Christ Child. The door opens and the procession goes in. After a prayer is said, the party begins. Pinyatas, special candies, sandwiches, fruit punch, singing and games highlight the occasion. 

Nativity scenes can be seen all over Mexico and South America at Christmas time. Setting them up is a family affair, just as setting up the Christmas tree is in North America. Each year before Christmas, the figures are placed with the manger with great care. The Christ Child is never put in until after Christmas Eve. 

 Christmas Eve signifies a good night. At midnight everyone goes to mass. Afterward, families gather together for Christmas supper. Celebrations continue until Epiphany, when children set out their shoes to be filled by the three kings. On the three kings’ day, children receive gifts and watch special Christmas plays. When all the festivities are over, the nativity scenes are carefully packed away until the next year. 
 

GERMANY:

In Germany and other European countries Christians observe Advent, the four weeks before Christmas. The word “advent” means coming, and it is a time to contemplate the coming of Christ. The German Christmas season begins on the first Sunday of Advent. Many families have a special Advent wreath, much like those in Scandinavia, which they hang from the ceiling or set in the middle of the dining room table. A more recent Advent custom was started by German truck drivers who put a small plastic tree on their dashboards, connecting the lights to their trucks’ batteries. At night the little trees glow through the truck windows. The Advent calendar is still another German custom, one that has carries over to North America. Some calendars are large Christmas pictures with twenty-four small paper windows cut into them. Every day children in the family open a window to find a little picture of a candle, a snow man or other Christmas symbol. Advent calendars also come in star shapes, twenty-four little stars attached to a big star. Every day a little star is taken off until only the large star remains on Christmas Eve. 

During the weeks before Christmas, German homes are filled with the sweet smell of cakes and cookies baking. There are several special German Christmas treats, the tree cake, a sweet bread and the ginger bread house, to name a few. Many towns and cities in Germany also hold Christmas markets. These so called markets are more like fairs, with music, Christmas plays, singing, in addition to stalls selling gifts, food and crafts. Some of the better known markets are in Nuremberg, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. 

Christmas Eve is the climax of German Christmas. At one O’clock in the afternoon the stores and businesses close and everyone goes home from work. The Children put on their best clothes in preparation for the moment when the tree is revealed., Since most German parents hide the tree in a locked room until then. When everything is ready, a bell rings and the youngest child in the family opens the door of the Christmas tree room. The room is completely dark except for the glowing lights of the tree. Then the whole family stands around the tree and sings carols. Presents are opened, a big dinner eaten, and the family attends midnight mass. 

After the Second World War, Catholic missionary organizations revived an old custom called star singing. On the Sunday closest to Epiphany, young people form troops of carolers to collect money for missions in third world countries. Each troop includes three boys dressed up as the three kings. In towns around the country, the troops compete with one another to see who can collect the most money for the poor. 

ITALY:

At midnight the bells of Saint Peter’s Basilica, along with those of the hundreds of other churches in Rome, ring out to signal the midnight mass. Celebrated in Saint Peter’s by the Pope, and attended by everyone, from scarlet robed cardinals to the diplomatic community in full evening dress, the mass is broadcast to forty-one countries throughout the world. The Pope also celebrates mass the next morning in Saint Peter’s, followed by his Christmas address, delivered from the balcony above the main entrance. Crowds fill the great round piazza of the Vatican, which is decorated with a life-size nineteenth century Nativity scene, along with a Christmas tree decked out with silver garlands and ornaments of white and gold in a blaze of over two thousand lights. 

One of our most treasured Christmas traditions, the Nativity scene, began in Italy. Saint Frances of Assisi, in an effort to help his followers understand the Christmas story, created a living Retinue of costumed town’s people. The idea spread quickly until churches and entire towns began building Nativity scenes with carved figures gradually replacing live ones. Instead of a Christmas tree, Italian homes are decorated with wooden pyramids, on which gifts, ornaments, dried flowers fruit and Nativity figures are placed. Gifts are exchanged on a variety of holidays in various regions of Italy. Saint Lucia’s Day, Saint Nicholas Eve, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day and epiphany are all days of gift giving in some areas of the country. 

The tale of La Befana, and Italian folk figure, is told to children and adults alike. Legend has it that she rides forever on Epiphany seeking the Baby Jesus, and leaving gifts for good children as she travels. 
 

FRANCE:

Gifts are left in children’s shoes on Saint Nicholas Eve by Pere Noel, Father Christmas, according to the French. 

A traditional supper follows midnight mass and a magnificent cake in the form of a log, caps dinner on Christmas Day. 

In some parts of France a Yule log is kept burning throughout the twelve days of Christmas. 

Saint Frances’s Nativity scenes had spread to other parts of Europe by the seventeenth century, and in France these were made of clay figures. Province became the centre for their manufacture, and each year Nativity fairs herald the beginning of Advent. The clay figures, dressed in local costumes, are made by the same families that made them in earlier centuries. Each family has its own style. Some glaze them. Some don’t. Still others dress them in clothing. 
 

POLELAND:

Christmas is Essentially a religious observance in Poland, Culminating in “the vidual” celebrated at home on Christmas Eve. In pre Christian times the emphasis was on sharing and the renewal of friendships, so its celebration at the beginning of Winter coincided with both the season and spirit of Christmas. Hospitality is important, and the candles shine in windows to welcome the Christ Child. Christmas trees are decorated with real fruit and cookies, as well as ornaments of cut paper and decorated eggs. 
 

RUSSIA:

Like the Ukrainians, Russians mark Christmas on the Eastern Orthodox Christmas Day of January 7th. 

Saint Nicholas is especially popular in Russia. The legend is that the        11th-century Prince Vladimir traveled to Constantinople to be baptized, and returned with stories of miracles performed by Saint    Nicholas of Myra. Since then many Eastern Orthodox Churches have been named for the saint, and to this day, Nicholas is one of the most    common names for Russian boys. The feast of Saint Nicholas (December 6)     was observed for many centuries, but after the communist revolution,      the celebration of the feast was suppressed. During the communist years Saint Nicholas was transformed into Grandfather Frost, Dyed Maroz. He looks like    Santa Claus with his long red robe, white beard and black boots. He    has a helper called Snow Girl and comes shaking his jingle bells on New Years Day, the most important day during the festival.  Toys are    given to the children by Grandfather Frost along with spicy ginger    cakes. A Traditional gift is a set of Matryoshka dolls.  They are    unique in that they can be opened to reveal several smaller dolls    nested inside each other. 

Other religious traditions were suppressed during the communist era. Before the revolution, a figure called Babouschka would bring gifts for the children. Like Italy's La Befana, the story is that Babouschka failed to give food and shelter to the three wise men during their journey to visit the Christ Child. According to tradition, she still    roams the countryside searching for the Christ Child and visiting the  homes of children during the Christmas season. Babouschka never completely disappeared, and now in the post-communist era, has returned openly. 

Christmas trees were also banned by the Communist regime, but people continued to decorate Evergreen trees, calling them New Years trees. 

Since most Christian Russians belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is customary to fast until after the first church service on Christmas Eve. at the sight of the first star in the sky, a twelve course supper begins.    There is one course for each of the twelve apostles. Christmas Eve dinner is meatless but festive. Fish takes the    place of meat and there borsch (beet soup), cabbage stuffed with    millet, and cooked dried fruit. The most important dish of Christmas Eve is a special porridge called kutya. This is made of wheatberries or other grains, such as whole-wheat, soaked for hours,  which symbolize hope and immortality, and seasoned with honey and    crushed poppy seeds which ensure happiness, success, and untroubled rest. The kutya is eaten from a common dish to symbolize unity. Hay is spread on the floor and table to    encourage horse-feed for the coming year, and humans cluck to    encourage hens to lay eggs. 

A ceremony involving the blessing of the home is frequently observed. A priest visits the home accompanied by boys carrying vessels of holy water, and a little water is sprinkled in each room. 
 

THE NETHERLANDS:
Festivities begin in the Netherlands, as they do in other Western European countries, on December 5th, Saint Nicholas Eve. It is Saint Nicholas’s legendary gift, dropped down the chimney to three impoverished sisters, upon which the custom of hanging stockings by the chimney is probably based. Each year this patron saint of Amsterdam arrives in the city by boat with his traditional companion, Black Peter, dressed as a Moore. They are greeted with great pomp. Gifts are exchanged, treats consumed, and preparations for the season begin in earnest. 
 

SCANDINAVIA:
Saint Lucia’s Day, December 13th, marks the beginning of holiday celebrations in Sweden. Although they officially begin with the first Sunday in Advent. Early in the morning of December 13th, tradition dictates that a family’s oldest daughter, wearing a white dress and a crown of candles, brings a breakfast of saffron buns and coffee to her parents’ room. For a whole month, Scandinavians celebrate other holidays that mark this festive season, ending with children’s parties on Saint Canute’s Day, January 13th. Since Christmas arrives during the long dark days of winter, candlelight and fires on the hearth are strong traditions throughout Scandinavia. Ornaments made of straw abound, from simple stars to fat Yule goats made from bundles to more elaborate weavings. The heart is a favorite design, especially in Denmark. Yet it is not the rounded heart of Saint Valentine’s Day. It is a straight sided heart, known as the Christmas Heart. These are woven from paper in the form of little baskets, often filled with candy. Special cookies are baked, including buttery little sprites. 

It is not surprising that a festival as ancient as Christmas has taken so many widely varying forms over the centuries. Yet where ever it is celebrated, how ever it is celebrated, it is still the same occasion of wonder, love and rejoicing, that brings a vast portion of humanity together in the same universal spirit, the spirit of Christmas! 
 

Special thanks to Paul Manning for putting together this page for us!