Christmas Around the World

(First published in Global eBiz Tips in December 2001 -- Additional Notes made while reprinted in Small World Ezine on 20 December 2002)

 

In Thailand we celebrate all the occasions (Christmas, 
Thai New Year, Chinese New Year, etc.) And after asking 
around I found similarity in India and China -- No conflicts. 

In the Philippines, Christmas celebrations start since
late October. See article "My Last Christmas" 

Subscriber Priya from India is visiting a beach with her 
family (she's Catholic, her husband's Hindu). Roshmi 
(India), a Hindu, is also partying. And here's what our new 
friend, Josh (Nepal), wrote: 

"I find, for most of the Asian countries, Christmas is just 
colorful event like, bright Christmas Trees, Santa Claus 
with presents, departments stores decorated with colorful 
items, song, dance and booze.. In Nepal, till 7 years back 
it was difficult to find a Christmas card. Now it is 
different, big hotels and discos advertise for dance and 
dinner and door prizes and department stores are full of 
Christmas items. So for most of the Nepalese Christmas is a 
time for merry making, lot of dance and booze. 

"We, a handful of Catholics (5 thousand out of 22 million 
population) celebrate it in a different ways. We believe, 
that if Jesus is God then we have to find him in our 
context. So we make cribs in Nepalese style, even the 
statues of Jesus, Mary, baby Jesus, angels, shepherds are in 
Nepalese faces wearing Nepalese dress. I am a member of a 
small group called Christian Workers Movement, we give our 
voluntary service to fight against Child Labour and Migrant 
Labour. Every year we celebrate Christmas with street 
children. We organize games and sports for them and give 
them small presents. When I see smile in their faces, I find 
baby Jesus smiling. It is so fulfilling. 

"My Christmas wish to all of you is that may the season 
bring peace, joy in your hearts and may your lives be more 
meaningful to you and all those who come in contact with 
you. May you be an instrument of World Peace." 

   

And Josh wrote this while he was telling us that there was 
a civil war in Nepal. Don't we love him? 



In America, How's Christmas? 


We also received some messages from subscribers and friends from the States. 


Here's from Char: "In Minnesota, We cut down a 6 foot pine 
tree, (or in my case, get out the artificial wire tree) drag 
it into the house, adorn it with lines of lights that are 
twinkly, tinsel, hang home made ornaments, top with a star 
or angel, hang Mistletoe over doorways (two standing below 
must kiss), wrap presents, write "from Santa Claus", play 
Christmas Carols, go caroling in the streets in groups 
singing Christmas Songs (Silent Night, Jingle Bells, etc.), 
the outsides of the houses are adorned in lights, holly is 
every where, spray frosty stuff on your windows, give away 
"candy canes" (mint, or fruit flavored), eat a big Christmas 
Dinner complete with Turkey or Ham, Cranberry, mashed 
potatoes and gravy, stuffing, olives, pickles, buns, corn, 
apple pie, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, fruit salads, jello, 
(everyone brings a dish to pass), fudge, nuts (bowl full 
with cracker: walnuts, pecans, filberts, hazelnuts, etc), 
put up a big pine bough wreath on the outside of the house, 
spray pine-scented spray, then let the kids make a huge mess 
in a room with the paper and toys and drink wine and beer 
and warm apple cider with cinnamon." 

 

And Lonny: "Christmas morning, all the little tykes in the 
nieghborhood ( some in their twenties and thirties) come 
outside and start showing off, parading around, and sharing 
their newly gained loot, well, the expressions on their 
faces just sort of washes all the other yuch off. 

"In my house we normally do the stereotypical Christmas 
scene. My wife vetoed the idea this year though. You see, it 
starts with a trip out to a "reprod" unit. For those 
unfamiliar with the term, a reprod or reproducing unit is an 
area that a timber company has clearcut at some point in the 
past and then replanted little trees that will hopefully 
grow into bigger trees. So, in the past, the tradition has 
been that we all pile into my battered old Dodge pickup, 
drive out into the woods, to a reprod unit, where, in theory 
at least, one will find a horter, well shaped Christmas 
tree. 

 

"That is the theory. But, did you know, that a tree in the 
woods looks a whole lot smaller than a tree in the house? 
Last year, when we got the tree, my friend Rod and I, 
wrapped the limbs with rope and bundled the tree prior to 
cutting it down; big mistake. You see, in an effort to 
expediate matters, I pulled the tip over and we bound it 
right with the rest of the tree. Then we dutifully cut the 
tree to the desired eight foot length, and headed proudly 
for home. We got back into town, wrasled the tree into the 
livingroom, and then the tree stand. 

"Did I mention that we had doubled over the top of the tree? 
about three feet worth. Well let me tell you, a tree grows 
wider at the bottom, and the closer to the bottom you get, 
the wider the limbs spread, so I calculated the distance 
from our picture window, to the tree stand, ased on my 
recollection of its girth in the upper six feet, while in 
fact I was emplaceing the full eleven feet. Right about the 
time I got the tree where I thought I wanted it, our eighty 
five year old nieghbor Edna, came over and stood right at 
the window, as she will often do when we are up to something 
new and unique. I cut the rope bindings of the tree and 
those limbs just naturally went all helter skelter; 
including through the picture window. 

"I watched in horror while a particular limb on the lower 
row just sort of gracefully fell through the opening where 
the window had been, and the slender twigs at the end parted 
around Edna's head. 

"Of course, in typical Edna manner, she just looked right at 
me and said " I think the trees too big." 

Aren't Char and Lonny having a great time? They also 
reminded me of National Lampoon's Christmas when Chevy Chess tried his best to set all the decoratives into places. The 
tree was too big it broke the ceiling and windows. And when 
he put too many bulbs when he turned them on the whole 
neighborhood got black-out. 


Don't we love them all? 



It's the Family Gathering Time, perhaps too commercialized: 


Subscriber Sue's in Georgia told us that "Typically, 
Christmas is celebrated with family gatherings, lots of 
house decorations, carols on the stereo, decorating the 
tree, wrapping presents and cooking galore. Years ago when 
my girls were young we used to go carolling around the 
neighborhood. To this day, I NEVER miss the showing(s) of 
"It's A Wonderful Life", "A Christmas Carol" and "White 
Christmas". Wonderful Movies! 

"While not a regular churchgoer like in years past there is 
always reflection, however, about what the day really 
celebrates: the birth of Christ. In my opinion, Christmas is 
probably Numero Ono of holidays in the U. S." 

Subscriber Don (NC) "My whole family celebrates Christmas by exchanging presents and all gathering at my daughter's house (when my wife was living, it was held at our house) for a huge meal. My daughter does most of the cooking but most others bring a dish that they have prepared. This lasts from noon till whenever. Although we all (except for a daughter that lives in New Mexico - about 2000 miles from my home in North Carolina) live within spitting distance of each other, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving are the only time we all get together. 

"Too, our homes are all decorated during the Christmas 
season which now starts before Thanksgiving. Here in the 
U.S., Christmas is very commercialized - tis the season for 
all retailers to get rich selling decorations and presents.

"When I was growing up, Christmas was a wonderful time of 
the year to me. Now it's full of stress. Why? Because we all 
spend much more than we should in buying presents, etc. 
Every year we talk about drawing names and not buying each 
and everyone presents but we never seem to get around to 
doing so. 

And Dawn said, ... 

"I live in a small town in Southern Illinois. My husband and 
I celebrate by spending time with family, exchanging gifts 
Christmas morning and staying up all night Christmas Eve 
watching a 24 hour marathon of "A Christmas Story". 

"As a Christian I feel that Christmas has become to 
commericialized. Stores are putting up Christmas stuff while 
they are trying to sell us Halloween." 



Hmmm... Guess it's also depressing having to get presents 
for everyone you know and trying not to forget a name. In 
the Philippines, we get together and bring food but do not 
give gifts. 

Companies may give gift baskets to their employees and have 
draws for bigger items. Still commercialized, though. 

Well, It's Not Too Bad After All: 


Jules from Down Under said it's not too commercialized there. 

"... in Australia, most people celebrate Christmas in a 
similar fashion to Americans. We have a public holiday and 
many businesses (non shopping) and government workers have 
the whole week off until January 2nd. 

"Most families (except probably many of those who come from 
countries the don't celebrate Christmas) get together on 
Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I have a friend who used to 
visit 4 different families on the day, just so she could see 
everyone. 

"My family is small, and this year my parents are travelling 
from their home in the country to visit us for the day. My 
sister and brother in law will come here early in the 
evening for dinner after going to my brother in laws 
relatives for the midday meal. 

"As other people have been saying, in Oz the shops are very 
busy and everyone wants you to spend money with them. Our 
city is lit up with thousands of extra lights and 
decorations. It's beautiful when you go for a drive at night 
time. 

"We used to all exchange presents, but now we only give to 
the children. My Mum decided it was too expensive so we just 
don't give presents to them at all. I didn't like the idea 
and the last couple of years I gave my parents a present. 
They were embarrassed because they didnt' have one for me, 
so I won't give them one this year. 

"My memories of Christmas as a little girl (about 35 yrs 
ago) are helping my Grandma bake puddings in cloths with 
sixpences inside the puddings, rich fruit cakes and hundreds 
and hundreds of different kinds of biscuits. She gave away 
most of the food that we baked. I can still remember those 
mouth watering smells in her kitchen. 



And from Alannah Moore, our only source from Europe (She is 
from U.K., now living in Paris): 

"Christmas in the UK is probably quite similar to what you 
do in the States, but I was talking to an American friend 
and she had no idea what Christmas pudding was, so I guess 
there are some differences! We always eat turkey or goose 
(which I guess is harder to come by these days) followed by 
Christmas pudding, a dark-coloured round steamed pudding 
full of raisins and decorated with holly on top, and set 
alight with flaming brandy, accompanied of course by brandy 
butter. We also eat mince pies (do other people have them 
outside the UK? - they're sweet rather than savoury, again 
full of raisins, nothing to do with mince!) and Christmas 
cake, a rich dark fruit cake covered in marzipan and thick 
hard white icing. No-one I know actually likes it but every 
household has one! 

"In Scotland though it's not such a big deal I don't think, 
as Hogmanay (New Year) is their really big celebration. And 
they really go to town for that. 

"Here in France, things work quite differently. When they 
have an important celebration like Christmas or New Year, 
you actually eat during the night, the night before. So you 
will be eating your Christmas dinner around midnight on 
Christmas Eve - and it will be an incredibly extravagant 
meal of oysters, foie gras, goose and Christmas log (buche 
de Noel) (luckily you've got Christmas Day to recover, 
because the 26th is not a holiday in France! People go 
straight back to work on what we call Boxing Day which I 
find awful!) Christmas isn't quite so commercialised here 
I'm happy to say - buying presents is still a big deal, but 
as for decorations and all that, they don't really go in for 
gaudy lights as we do, they decorate the streets with 
swathes of evergreen here in Paris and it's really pretty 
and old-fashioned. Decorations are for the "fetes" in 
general, as this season is known, rather than for Christmas, 
and can still be up towards the end of January. "



To Add to Alannah's comment, Boxing day is also a Holiday in 
many other countries such as Australia and Germany. When I 
heard of it the first time, I thought it's the day people 
go watch boxing matches. Hey I am from Thailand. That's the
only "Boxing" I knew :-) 

 

More:


Christmas Talks: 


"I will honor Christmas in my heart, 
and try to keep it all the year." 

-- Charles Dickens. 


"I heard the bells on Christmas Day 
Their old, familiar carols play, 
And wild and sweet the words repeat 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!" 

-- Longfellow 


"Call a truce, then, to our labours 
let us feast with friends and neighbours, 
And be merry as the custom of our caste; 
For if "faint and forced the laughter," 
and if sadness follow after, 
We are richer by one mocking Christmas past." 

-- Rudyard Kipling 




Looking for contents about Christmas? 

How about visiting these sites... 

Tracking Santa >> 
http://www.noradsanta.org/ 

Christmas Sites >> 
http://www.12days.com/ 
http://christmas.com/ 

In this time of joy, do not forget about the children of 
the world. UNICEF