Christmas is a holiday filled with joy for families around the world. Over time, different areas have come to develop very different customs for how they celebrate Christmas around the world.
1. Kentucky for Christmas
On Christmas Eve, hundreds of people would line up in front of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants all over Japan to buy meals. This tradition was kickstarted by the fast-food restaurant food campaign in 1974, with the aim of increasing sales during the holidays. The Japanese slogan “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” or Kentucky for Christmas was created during this time, and this custom is still practiced today.
2. Lucky Number on Christmas
Starting from the end of the 19th century, Spain’s national lottery would reveal its biggest prize of the year before Christmas. This prize is often referred to as “El Gordo” or “The Fat One”. Each year, the revealing of the winner of this lottery is an event the entire country watches out for, with every media platform reporting on it. On the 22nd of December, people who have bought the lottery would watch the revealing of the winner together. Traditionally, a choir composed of 22 students would sing the winning lottery number the entire country’s people are anticipating out loud together, and bring to a lucky someone, a life-changing Christmas present.
3. Hide the Brooms!
Every Christmas in Norway, each family would hide away their brooms. No, they have nothing against cleaning. They do this because they are afraid that witches would visit the Earth on Christmas Eve and steal their brooms so that they can fly in the skies!
4. Krippenmarket
Starting from November and all the way through into Christmas, you can visit Venice for its Traditional Christmas market, known as Krippenmarket. Going back as far as 1298, the Christmas market located on Rathausplatz would hold 150 separate venders, arranged in perfect order. During this busiest time of the beautiful city, you can take Christkindle Express through the entire city to explore the wonders Venice’s Christmas.
5. Christmas Spiders
In Ukraine, Christmas trees are decorated with (wait for it…) SPIDERS! These are very realistic ornaments, made into the shape of spiders or spider webs. These ornaments are believed to bring good luck according to an ancient legend. The legend goes, a long long time ago; there was a poor girl who could not afford to decorate the family’s Christmas tree. The next morning, when she woke up, she found that her tree was covered in spider webs. The sunshine hit the spiderwebs at various angles, giving it an oddly beautiful, golden shine. Other countries such as Poland and Germany believe that finding spider webs on Christmas trees brings good luck for the coming year.
6. Santa’s Mailbox
Many kids have written their Christmas wishes to Santa as a letter. But these letters aren’t simply a way for parents to find out what their children want for Christmas. They can actually be sent to get a reply! As long as you send the letter before Decembre 16th, in one of 30 different languages, including Braille, you are guaranteed a reply. The address is “Santa Claus, North Pole H0H 0H0, Canada”, no stamp needed! Aren’t we cool, Canadians?
7. The Star’s Cue
In countries like Ukraine and Poland, presents are opened at specific times. The youngest child of the family must stare at the night sky on Christmas Eve and watch for the appearance of the first star. Once they see the first star, they have received the cue to begin opening presents. On days that are cloudy, somebody will set the correct time for opening presents.
8. Skating on Christmas
Caracas is probably the coolest place to spend Christmas. People here do not walk to Christmas markets or to churches. Instead, they rollerskate there. Many streets are closed off on Christmas Eve so that people can skate smoothly to their destinations.
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