Many Faces of Christmas Around the World

Christmas is an international holiday that is celebrated around the world in a variety of different ways and fashions.  Depending on where you are at in the world at the time, you will see a number of different Christmas activities, stories and symbols.

Let's start with how Christmas is celebrated in the United States.  The US version of Christmas is primarily based on European cultures and traditions.  Of course there are some other influences as well since Americans are a melting pot of cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

Santa Claus is heavily celebrated in the USA.  Parents take their children to malls all over the country where the kids have the opportunity to meet Santa Claus.  The kids get to tell Santa what they want for Christmas and the parents get to use the experience as a photo opportunity.

The citizens of Australia get to celebrate Christmas in the summertime.  Instead of visions of snowy days and cold wintery nights, their Christmas days are filled with fun in the sun, picnics in the park and even swimming and playing on the beach.

Religious worship is a major piece of the Christmas holiday in Australia.  The majority of the population is Roman Catholic or Protestant so church plays a major role in the celebration of the holiday.  Most churches have a midnight mass that you can attend and many families go to church together.

Japan is a country that celebrates Christmas despite the religious beliefs of its citizens.  Since less than 1% of the population is Christian, Christmas is considered more of a commercial holiday as oppose to a spiritual celebration.  In fact it's not even an official holiday in Japan where people get the day off.

Christmas technically is not an official holiday on the Japanese calendar.  One contradiction to most holiday traditions are the way the Japanese handle Christmas dinner.  While most cultures eat dinner together at home, the Japanese go out to eat.  In particular, there is a very popular Christmas Chicken dinner at KFC that many people actually make reservations for on Christmas!

Like Japan, China also has a very small population of citizens that profess Christianity.  However, also like the Japanese they still celebrate Christmas anyway.  The Chinese embrace the Santa Claus concept.  In China, his name means "Christmas Old Man."

Christmas is more of a prelude to the Chinese New Year, which is the major holiday in China.  However, you can most certainly see celebrations in China for Christmas.  Many of the commercial aspects like decorations, bright lights and greeting cards are celebrated and participated in by the Chinese people.

The people of France celebrate Christmas very similar to the Americans.  One thing they do not do though is decorate Christmas trees.  Instead, they spend more of their time creating Christmas stories out of their yards by creating massive displays of characters and ornaments.

One holiday tradition that is very popular in France is the placing of Christmas scenes outside of the home.  These scenes offer an illustration of Christmas stories.  In particular, the French populate their scenes with little "santons" or "saints".  Besides the typical Christmas characters that you see in outdoor scenes, it is not uncommon to see figures of local French leaders and personalities as well.

There are a wide variety of ways that Christmas around the world is celebrated.  Depending on where you go in the world you will see many different holiday traditions.  Christmas is a very popular holiday throughout the world and is one of the most widely celebrated traditions in the world today both by Christians and non Christians.

Kerry Beck offers free advent calendars with daily Christmas crafts to prepare your family for Christmas. Your family will discover more about Christmas history with many of the daily activities.   You can get her FREE Advent Calendar Countdown at http://www.ChristmasCelebrationIdeas.com

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(c) Kerry Beck, 2008
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8:09 PM - Nov. 30, 2008 - post comment