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 Merry
Christmas, everyone! Are you having a lot of fun? I really hope so.
Aren’t you curious to find out about
how other countries celebrate Christmas? I’m
sure learning about other countries’ Christmas traditions will make your
Christmas even more fun and special!
In many western countries, families
gather together and eat a delicious dinner at Christmas. They
eat turkey, pies, and crackers.
For dessert, they eat chocolate
pudding. Many things are
hidden inside the pudding such as
a ring, button, and coin. People can predict their fortune for the coming year with the thing
found inside their puddings. For example, finding a coin
means you will become rich. A ring means
you will get married, while a button means you
won’t have a boyfriend or a girlfriend in the new year.
In the Ukraine, people believe that
finding a spider web in the house on
Christmas morning will bring good luck. So, many
families in the country decorate their Christmas
trees with artificial spider webs.
The poinsettia is a traditional
Christmas plant. It is native to Mexico.
The poinsettia is known as the “Flower of the Holy Night” in the country.
Many people all around the world use the pretty plant to decorate
their homes during Christmas season. It is red and green like the
traditional colors of Christmas.
 At Christmas,
people in many western countries decorate their homes with mistletoes. There is a beautiful
tradition about the mistletoe tree. You can kiss anyone while standing
under the mistletoe! In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was
the symbol of peace and friendship. That may be the
origin of the custom of “kissing under
the mistletoe.”
In Sweden, people use special decorations for their Christmas trees.
They make a variety of decorations
in the form of stars, angels, hearts and other
shapes. The decorations are
made of straw. People in Sweden use
straw decorations for other festivals, too.
In Greece, people burn salt or an old shoe
at Christmas to drive out evil elves. They believe
that the bad elves sometimes play troublesome pranks at
Christmas time to ruin people’s fun. They think
the burning smell drives away
the elves. People also hang a pig’s jawbone by the door and keep
a large fire so the evil elves can’t sneak down the chimney. |
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