Christmas Around the World

We are all excited because there are just a few days for Christmas. We have already bought our trees, decorated our houses with lights and eaten Christmas treats. But have you ever thought about how do other countries all around the world celebrate Christmas?

Wheeler has a lot of Hispanic and Brazilian students, so we start asking them how do they spend their Christmas and what are some traditions they make in their countries. “My family lives in Rio next to the beach so on New Year’s night we do big bonfires and fireworks.” tells as Maria, from Brazil. “The biggest day for us is Christmas Eve. – Sais Vicali, from Venezuela – We have a huge family meal, and we stay up till 12 am to open the presents. Some of the traditional meals we eat are hallacas, pernil and chicken salad” Jorge’s family is from the Dominican Republic and Spain, and he celebrates the epiphany as in the majority of the other Hispanic countries. “On January 6th, the Three wise men bring as presents. Anyway, we also have Santa Claus on December 25th.”

Marcos, a Wheeler student, coming from Spain tells us how do they celebrate Christmas in his country “My favorite day of the Christmas holidays is the New Years Eve. We make a very big dinner with our family and stay up all night singing carols or watching Christmas films. We eat twelve grapes in the last twelve seconds of the year because it is thought to bring good luck. During all the Christmas we eat tons of chocolates and other treats like polvorones, turrones and mazapanes.”

And finally, we are fortunate to have students from China and India, who’s Christmas traditions and are entirely different from the American ones. Shrusti’s family is from India, so she tells us how do they celebrate Christmas there “We don’t really celebrate Christmas. Our main holiday is the Diwali that is before Christmas. We do have Santa Claus and gift exchange with friends and family, but we don’t really do it for the religious part, we just do it from a fun perspective I guess.” Rishika, also from India tells us about the New Year “We celebrate New Year but is later in the year and for us is family time with big meals. Some of the typical food is the gulab jamun and the laddoo.” And finally, we have talked with Eric, from China that tells us “For us, the biggest day is the New Year. It is the largest migration of people in the whole entire world as everyone goes back to their families. In the street, they are firecrackers, dragon dances and parades during a whole week.”