Christmas Traditions from Around the World

Christmas Traditions Around the World

Every Country Has its Own Special
Christmas Traditions

Nearly every country in the world has its own Christmas traditions. For some, the Christmas holiday is only a day or so long. For others, though, Christmastide can last nearly two months! Some start with Martinmass in November, others on Christmas eve. Some end their holidays on New Year's Day, others on Candlemas in February. The variations are almost endless, and each is charming and inviting.

Most traditions have evolved from a country's historic roots and religions. With missionaries came new traditions and new ways of looking at things. Eventually, some of the new and old were blended to create the flavor of a given area's Christmas festivities. There are also regional differences, and I do hope my readers will be generous, and share their knowledge and traditions with me!

In some places where religion is the most important reason for the holiday, a large portion of the season is spent in reflection, thanksgiving and prayer. In others, where more worldly traditions abound, people spend more time enjoying parties and festivities.

Christmas trees can be found in nearly every country as well, and each country is famous for a particular style of ornament for those trees. Many are hand-crafted by members of the family each year. Directions for these ornament crafts will be found through links on individual pages, or directions will be found in the craft section, which is coming soon.

Each country's page will also have links to other information about Christmas traditions in that country, as well as other resources. There are some truly wonderful sites out there, and I would like to help spread the word about them!!

I Need Your Help!

It is my goal to eventually have at least one page for every country. To do this, I'm going to need your help!

Please use the "Contact Me" button on the left to send articles on Christmas traditions in your country. If you can send in pictures, too, it would be wonderful! You will get full credit, and may create a short biography for me to post with your article, if you wish.