There are so many people here with so many different traditions...so i was curious...how is Christmas like where you live?
In Romania, traditionally on Christmas eve, we go caroling (is that the verb?) to (almost) everybody we know. we get cookies or money (heheh ;))
Christmas is usually spent with the family.
Of course we have Santa and everything, but here Christmas tends to be closer to the religious meaning of the holiday.
My family is lazy: we only put the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve morning... :P
what about u guys?
In Holland Christmas is not more then getting a tree in your house (it's sucks, needles all over the place) and have a dinner with your family. The most people don't give each others presents. Therefore we celebrate Sinterklaas, another fake person with a red tablecloth around this body. But Sinterklaas don't ware a hat but a meiter. The Sinterklaas celebration is sunday (5 December). After Sinterklaas it's time to buy a tree. link
The Christen people here also visit the church on Christmas day of course.
I've got the feeling that here in Germany Christmas is getting bigger and bigger every year... like in America... as bright as possible, the more lights you have outside your house the better, and even better when they're coloured and blinking. There's nothing behind it anymore except for the commercial part... it's all about making and spending as much money as possible. At least that's the feeling you get when you take a look around.
Then we have the Christmas markets in almost every town, no matter how small the place is. They usually start 4 weeks before Christmas. There are big ones in bigger cities like Düsseldorf and Cologne. They sell all kinds of stuff... christmas stuff, clothes and most of all food and drinks. link
(this is the one in Düsseldorf)
In Germany they celebrate on the 24th in the evening, with dinner and presents. Then on the 25th and on the 26th it's usually family stuff and big lunches and dinners. Many people eat out on these days with their families.
In America in general, it's definitely been way over-commercialized. I think it's really sad, but it's been this way for quite some time, and is just an accepted fact...
As for my family traditions...
There are about fifty-million, and are all pretty small, just things we always do together. I really like that my friends and I have been having a 'Secret Santa' gift exchange/Christmas party for the past few years, though...it's a lot of fun to be able to spend so much time with my friends over the holiday.
Ja ne!
MetzgerR wrote: I really like that my friends and I have been having a 'Secret Santa' gift exchange/Christmas party for the past few years, though...it's a lot of fun to be able to spend so much time with my friends over the holiday.
Ja ne!
That's cool! We used to do that, too.
Even in school with the whole class.
And I know that when I was little the grown ups in my family did that, too. Because they never liked this "everybody has to buy everybody a present" thing...
So they did Secret Santa and the kids (which was only me for a long time till my cousins were born) got presents from everyone. which was nice actually. :-)
deleted user 03.12.2004 11:58
Here in Iceland we have 13 santa clous :P Not the same as everywhere else. And they come one and one and give the kids a gift at night (ofcorse not in real:P)
I think the christmas is similar to christmas in other countries. We go our tree late in the month and decorade it on 23 December. We eat at six o'clock in Christmas Eve with our families and open our presents :P
