Travel Blog

Christmas as we know it today is ‘wrapped’ in layers of history and culture. Christmas traditions and legends don’t all centre around 25^th December, but for this blog, we are looking at the close equivalents. Unless of course, you live in ‘Christmas’ in Florida, the ever-festive town where even the street names are Christmas-themed, and a decorated Christmas tree can be found year-round!

Not all Christmas traditions are holly and jolly as we see with ‘Svyatki’ (Christmastide) in Russia. While of course there is feasting and music, there is also fortune-telling, local pranks and time spent diving into the country’s freezing lakes and rivers!

Some Christmas tales have unlikely characters such as Swedish Santa’s Yule Goat (sorry Rudolph, Santa has another helper) or Iceland’s Yule Cat who prowls the snow and eats anyone not dressed appropriately to handle the harsh winter weather (me-owww).

Not all Christmas characters are fantasy however, Saint Nicholas (aka Santa) was a real person once upon a time. Origins of the jolly man in red first started in Germany from a real-life priest in early 6000AD. Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day) traditions start on 5^th December as children clean and polish their shoes and leave them outside their door before going to bed. In the morning, their shoes are magically filled with small gifts from the great St Nic. Another modern tradition originated in Germany too – the advent calendar! In the 19^th century, German Protestants counted down to Christmas by marking 24 chalk lines on a door and rubbing one off each day in December. Calendars then upgraded to paper until (it’s believed) Gerhard Lang started to mass-produce them, inspired by a calendar his mother made for him as a child. He later created cardboard calendars with doors that could be opened, but it wasn't until the late 1950s that they included chocolate and other goodies.

Pagan Europeans would also bring a fir tree into their homes during the winter solstice as well as decorate a living tree outdoors with candles and ornaments. In Scandinavia, people decorated their homes and barns with greenery for New Year to ward off evil. So, it’s easy to understand how the Ukrainian legend of the Christmas Spider came about. Folklore says that a poor widow and her children watched a pine tree (cousin of fir) grow outside their home but couldn’t afford to decorate it. The widow hung fruit and nuts on the tree after her children went to bed that night (sad about their boring tree), hoping it’d make them smile on Christmas morning. Neighbouring spiders witnessed all this and worked overnight, weaving silver and gold webs around the tree to cheer up the family! Ukrainian families today, decorate their trees with a spider’s web to bring good fortune.

Big green Christmas trees aren’t for everyone however, in Mexico many families display ‘nacimientos’ (nativity scenes), elaborate nacimientos can be found in many homes or gardens throughout the Christmas season, local communities also create public sets designed by local artists and craftspeople. Characters are added as the story goes on – baby Jesus is added on Christmas Eve and the three kings step in around 5^th January. Another colourful Mexican tradition blooms from the legend of a girl who had but a handful of weeds to offer baby Jesus at a Christmas Eve service. When she knelt to place them by the nativity, the bouquet burst into bright red Poinsettias. Ever since, the flowers, and their star-of-Bethlehem-shaped leaves, have been known as the ‘Flores de Noche Buena’.

Speaking of Christmas Eve, the French are amongst some of the largest celebrators of ‘Réveillon de Noël’ and traditions have carried on in Québec also. Families gather in the country’s stunning cathedrals to sing traditional French Christmas carols and attend a midnight mass service. Upon returning home, Santa Claus magically appears with gifts for the good children. Once these are opened, everyone moves to the table for a feast of tourtière, mashed potatoes, turkey with chestnut stuffing, coquilles Saint-Jacques, goose, oysters and even foie gras, followed by bûche de Noël and sucre à la crème! (I don’t understand the dishes' names either but it all sounds delicious).

Just over the French border, the Italians are believed (by some) to have been the instigators of the modern Christmas Eve midnight mass service. In the 4^th century, a Roman pilgrim joined a group of Christians at a vigil in Bethlehem on the night of January 5^th (Christmas Eve in the Eastern tradition). When the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built in the 5^th century, Pope Sixtus III introduced midnight mass on Christmas Eve in the church, a tradition that has since spread to many countries worldwide. The Italians also have a less-known tradition, in Southern Italy and particularly Rome, you can find shepherds playing the (wait for it..) bagpipes? Usually in pairs, these musicians perform in piazzas all over, dressed in traditional sheepskins and wool cloaks to honour the traditional shepherds in the nativity, it’s quite the scene!

Another slightly more niche tradition is Christmas cracker-pulling! While the activity made its way around the world and we in Australia also partake in this tradition, the Christmas cracker was invented by English sweet maker Tom Smith, in 1846. His original plan was simply to wrap his delicious, sweet treats in a twist of fancy-coloured paper, his packages began to sell out when he included festive notes, paper crowns and made them go off with a literal BANG! It’s no wonder that England is the Guinness World Record holder for the longest Christmas cracker pulling chain, with 1,077 people in a school in South London setting the record with a (loud) bang.

Whether you celebrate Christmas with Grandma’s signature roast or with a bucket of KFC (yep, in December 1974, KFC Japan created its ‘Kentucky for Christmas’ ad campaign, promoting fried chicken as the perfect Christmas meal …and, well, it stuck). We wish you all a happy and healthy festive season!