Christmas Stories around the World

Christmas is celebrated big in many Western countries, ideally with a huge feast and in the presence of the family, while outside rooftops are covered in snow. However, beyond this image of a picture-perfect Christmas, every country has their own traditions and ways to spend this time of the year.

Rowan Van den Bosch: Christmas in the Netherlands

The Sinterklaas celebration is held on the 5th of the December in the evening, which is called ‘presents evening’ when translated literally. Every kid will receive a poem written especially for them from the holy Sinterklaas telling them how well (or badly) they have been behaving the past year and why they deserve to have these presents.

Roanna Mottershead: Christmas in the UK

After parents have been dragged out of bed and presents opened, it’s time to think about food. On the table you’ll find Christmas crackers. With the person sat next to you, you pull either end of the cracker and whoever wins the body of the cracker gets its contents. Inside there is always a colorful paper hat, a small gift, and usually a badly written joke.

Erin McBrayer: American Christmas

Christmas at home usually starts with watching “White Christmas” or “Love Actually” and then decorating the tree which goes up in early December. Ever since I was a kid, my sister and I would get to pick out a new ornament each year. Now that we are both in our mid-twenties, the tree is filled with beautiful memories from over the years.

Lisa Stelling: A Very Aussie Christmas

After a lazy morning spent in our pajamas opening presents around the tree, the requisite Christmas aprons were distributed and we began preparing for our great Christmas lunch. Dad rolled the BBQ out onto the lawn, sporting a Santa hat as he flipped the sausages and rissoles.

Duong Nguyen: Vietnamese Christmas

Instead of staying home and spending time with family, local Vietnamese seem to be keen on heading out to the downtown area to celebrate Christmas. Families have dinner out at a nice restaurant, while young people like to hang out with their friends and have a drink, or walk around the Old Quarter and watch some artists that they randomly pass playing street music.

Although the Netherlands does not have the most extraordinary Christmas traditions, our Christmas celebrations are a little different than in other countries. Of course, we all love buying a tree and decorating it with bright red Christmas balls and shiny silver ribbons like every Christmas fanatic. Moreover, we send out cards to all of our loved ones to wish them a merry Christmas and happy new year. Yet, these things are not really special or different from other countries. I will first tell you a little about how we celebrate Christmas, then explain why Christmas is a little different here.

Elementary School

When it comes to schools, elementary schools are the most enthusiastic about Christmas. They decorate the whole school and organize festive walks on the days before Christmas. The kids all receive a small lantern and walk through the neighborhood visiting spots that imitate the circumstances on the night of Christ’s birth while the story is told by a guide in costume. On Christmas itself, schools prepare a big breakfast for all of the children using the traditional Christmas bread and Matze crackers. All of the kids enjoy the Christmas stories and food, and the teachers love it as well.

Gifts or No Gifts

On Christmas Eve, families gather for a tasty dinner in a cozy atmosphere. Christmas songs play all evening while everyone enjoys their food and catches up on the latest family happenings. After everyone has finished eating and is done talking about the new family additions, recent marriages, and job promotions, everyone can’t wait to open up their presents, right?

Well, this is something that is a little different in the Netherlands because not every family celebrates Christmas with presents. This is due to the fact that we also celebrate ‘Sinterklaas’ (who looks a lot like Santa Claus), especially when there are young kids in the family who still believe in the existence of Sinterklaas. The Sinterklaas celebration is held on the 5th of December in the evening, which is called ‘presents evening’ when translated literally. Every kid will receive a poem written especially for them from the holy Sinterklaas telling them how well (or badly) they have been behaving the past year and why they deserve to have these presents.

Because this is a typical Dutch tradition celebrated extensively throughout the whole country some families celebrate Christmas as more of a cozy get-together for the family, rather than the traditional American “Santa” Christmas with loads of presents. In general, it’s the families with little kids who still believe in Sinterklaas that celebrate extensively. As the kids in the families grow older, the Christmas cozy get-together overtakes Sinterklaas as the December tradition.

Second Day of Christmas

Not only do we have two bearded old men visiting the Netherlands in December, we celebrate an extended Christmas. Instead of just the regular Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we have a second day of Christmas. On this day most families celebrate with friends/the other half of the family, relax at home, or go out on a trip with loved ones. Overall, it is just an extended holiday to spend some more time with friends and family.

As you can tell, we celebrate Christmas a little bit differently to other countries because we have Sinterklaas and the second day of Christmas as well. Nevertheless, us Dutch people love to celebrate Christmas just as much as other countries!

Rowan van den Bosch is a Dutch International business student who is currently residing in Munich, Germany. He moved to Germany four months ago to do his internship at InterNations in the Member Relations department. Yet, he is already leaving before Christmas to move on to the next (warmer) chapter in his life, Seville! Rowan likes to travel and keep a healthy lifestyle while enjoying great food with friends.

Stockings, stuffing, and Christmas pudding: from setting the latter on fire, to watching classic movies after eating too much, there are many quirks to a British Christmas. Let me walk you through the holiday season in the UK.

While traditions may vary between families, there is one wish all Brits have in common at Christmas time: snow. We’re a pretty temperate island, and even in winter snow is unusual — in almost 30 years, I can remember only one snowy Christmas! From early December, the debate begins about whether this will be the year we get to build snowmen.

It’s common to work right up until Christmas Eve, but once the working day is over, the Christmas season really begins. Many people head back to their family home — usually while listening to “Driving home for Christmas” being played relentlessly by UK radio stations. While Christmas Day may be reserved for family, the night before is the time to catch up with friends at the pub.

Christmas Eve is also a time for suspense. Those with young children go through the ritual of leaving out a snack for Father Christmas. By the fireplace will be a mince pie, and maybe even a glass of sherry to sustain Santa through a tiring night — better not forget a carrot for Rudolph too! Marveling at pie crumbs, an empty glass — ahem — and teeth marks on the carrot are all part of the magic of Christmas.

Exchanging the Gifts

Some British families exchange gifts at midnight, but the majority wait until Christmas morning. Parents with young children fight for more time in bed either by distraction — a stocking of small gifts on the end of the bed — or, like in my family, clearly drawn lines on the clock and a stern warning to stay in bed for fear of scaring Santa away!

Whether on the end of the bed or by the fireplace, stockings are both a decorative and functional part of a British Christmas. Each person’s stocking is distinctive — wouldn’t want Father Christmas getting confused — often with their name or initial. In the build up to Christmas, so-called stocking-fillers are available in many stores, and it’s not uncommon to give many small gifts in a stocking instead of big presents.

After parents have been dragged out of bed and presents opened, it’s time to think about food. On the table you’ll find Christmas crackers. With the person sat next to you, you pull either end of the cracker and whoever wins the body of the cracker gets its contents. Inside there is always a colorful paper hat, a small gift, and usually a badly written joke. Pop the hat on, and take it in turns to groan at terribly British puns until dinner’s ready.

The Christmas Feast

As well as the usually items you’d expect — chicken or turkey, potatoes, vegetables — there are a couple of uniquely British items on the Christmas menu. Rather than inside the turkey, you’ll find stuffing in a bowl on the table, and one of the favorite sides is “pigs in blankets” — mini sausages wrapped in bacon. To finish the meal, there’s Christmas pudding. Packed full of dried fruit and having been patiently fed brandy or sherry for several months, it’s set on fire and brought to the table — mind your paper hat!

What happens next varies from family to family. The royalists may tune in to watch the Queen’s Speech, while young kids eagerly watch the beautifully mute animated movie “The Snowman” (again, we just want snow). Others may try and walk off dinner with a gentle stroll, or play some games.

Boxing Day

The day after Christmas, or Boxing Day as it’s best known, has as many traditions as Christmas itself. With guests gone (and perhaps nursing a small hangover), it’s a day for relaxing in front of the TV with family. The infamous Radio Times Guide is the bible of “Christmas telly” listing all the festive specials, game shows, and classic movies. Butties (sandwiches) filled with leftover turkey and stuffing to hand, it’s a day to fight over who gets the remote, which are the best chocolates in the Quality Street collection, and relax… at least until New Year’s Eve! Now, where did I put my stocking?

Roanna Mottershead is new to both the InterNations Content & Communications Department and to Munich. Determined to escape the rainy UK from a young age, she’s spent the past six years living, working, and writing her way around the world.

Growing up, my holiday season usually lasted a bit longer than most of my friends as my family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. When I was in elementary school, the season would start with my mom coming to visit my class to explain what Hanukkah was, since I was usually the only one celebrating it. My classmates would always ask me if I received twice the amount of presents since I was celebrating two holidays. Unfortunately for me, Santa seemed to know that I had already received chocolate coins and other goodies over Hanukkah, so I don’t think my friends at school had anything to be jealous of.

For my family, celebrating Hanukkah involves cooking a lot of potato latkes (shallow-fried pancakes of grated potato) as well as a delicious brisket (a beef dish), challah bread (a special braided bread), and of course lighting candles for eight nights. My sister and I both loved getting to light the tall skinny candles, and watching them slowly burn down throughout the night. I am not much of a cook, but I have managed to fry up some delicious potato latkes for my friends over the years as a way to celebrate my heritage when I’m far from home. The brisket I have yet to attempt on my own!

Christmas Preparations

Christmas at home usually starts with watching “White Christmas” or “Love Actually” and then decorating the tree which goes up in early December. Ever since I was a kid, my sister and I would get to pick out a new ornament each year. Now that we are both in our mid-twenties, the tree is filled with beautiful memories from over the years. Picking these ornaments out of the carefully wrapped boxes and placing them on the tree while sounds of Christmas music fill the air is one of my favorite moments of the year. Since living abroad, I have never bought my own tree, as I always go home for Christmas. But I love to buy small wooden ornaments or hand-painted sparkly bulbs from the Christmas markets in Europe to bring back for my family to enjoy.

My favorite part of the holiday season has to be Christmas Eve, as you still have the anticipation of Christmas Day. This is when my family gets together with some of our closest friends and we order boxes of Chinese food, followed by more traditional holiday desserts. I asked my mom how this tradition started, and while I would love to have some entertaining answer, the main reason is that there was so much cooking to do the next day, that the adults wanted something easy the night before. It is worth noting that many Jewish families eat Chinese food on Christmas Day though. At the end of the night, before everyone goes home to wait for Santa’s arrival, we all sit in a large circle around the fire and read “The Night before Christmas”. Each person reads a page aloud and passes it on to the next, then it’s off to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day means one thing: presents! When I was younger, my sister and I would wake up as early as my parents would allow, and rush downstairs to see what Santa had put in our stockings and left by the tree. Now that we are older, the day starts a bit later (usually after some coffee), but I still love pouring out my stocking to see what Santa has brought me. Then we go around and everyone takes turns opening presents, before we cook a big breakfast to hold us over until the main meal.

In the late afternoon we have a big Christmas meal with family, usually complete with a traditional Christmas ham. After stuffing ourselves with mashed potatoes, rolls, various casseroles and more, we rope everyone into playing silly games, such as charades or Taboo, until the evening comes to an end. Then at 12:01 am on December 26th, the radio changes from playing Christmas music 24/7 back to “normal” music, and the wait for the holiday season starts all over again.

Erin McBrayer is an American expat living in Munich, Germany. Originally from the state of North Carolina, she moved to Germany several years ago and found a new home in Bavaria. Erin is the Social Media Manager at InterNations and an avid traveler, who explores cities one meal at a time! 

We slumped in our seats, the pattern of the warm metal seat imprinted on the underside of my sweaty thighs. The sun was scorching the metal train tracks distorting the hot air and making it wave and shimmer as it rose. A fly was persistently niggling its way between my parched lips. The sky grew gravely darker, the blackness spreading like spilled ink. The air was thick with the smell of smoke. I had been sitting with my boyfriend at the station for three hours. Our train from rural Albury to the big-shot capital, Canberra (population 350,000), had been delayed. An approaching bush fire had halted its journey. This was not unusual, as indicated by the regular fire rating signs positioned along the highways adjusted according to the fire threat on any particular day. Today the arrow had been set menacingly at ‘catastrophic.’ “Welcome to Australia!” I laughed.

A Long Way from Bavaria

We had spent last Christmas with my boyfriend’s family in snow-blanketed Bavaria. This year we were making our way back to Canberra to have an Australian Christmas with my family. Despite the heat, the shops and houses were still adorned with “snow” (cotton wool). Obese men sweltering in red winter suits, white wigs and long beards sat sweating in shopping malls. “Ho, Ho, Ho,” they bellowed, as they had their picture taken with crying children and spoilt pets. I had laughed incredulously when I was told that German children had their presents delivered each Christmas by a flying baby Jesus. Probably not any more credible to have gifts distributed by a fat man from the north pole flying around the world on a sleigh drawn by nine flying reindeer who climbs down your chimney! As small children, we would wake up on Christmas Day to discover that the reindeers had nibbled the carrot we had left for them, and Santa had gulped down the milk even though dad always suggested he might prefer whiskey.

Our Bavarian Christmas the previous year was celebrated on Christmas Eve, curled up beside the crackling fireplace. We donned woolen socks, sipped Glühwein and ate ginger bread, read books, gazed out the window at the snowflakes falling delicately, and slept entwined to keep each other warm. This year our holiday consisted of lazing in hammocks, dressing in cotton singlets sporting varied degrees of sunburn, drinking bottles of cold beer, and sleeping with the blankets kicked off the end of the bed, the pedestal fan whirring loudly as we slept.

The Christmas Barbecue

Like any other summer morning on the bush block only half an hour from the center of the city, we awoke on Christmas to a chorus of cicadas. Today the cicadas played back up to the three Christmas carol albums my mum owns, their broken covers dusted off every year. Played in constant rotation each Christmas, we all know the songs word for word even anticipating the places the occasional song will skip. It’s a fun thing to share — singing random carols in our haphazard family choir. Mum was awake already, singing ‘dashing through the snow’ as she watered the thirsty plants by the back door. Water restrictions stipulated that plants could only be watered before 9am or after 5pm, so she was getting in early.

After a lazy morning spent in our pajamas opening presents around the tree, the requisite Christmas aprons were distributed and we began preparing for our great Christmas lunch. Dad rolled the BBQ out onto the lawn, sporting a Santa hat as he flipped the sausages and rissoles. We lunched outside, toasting one another and the year to come with cups of clinking ice and punch, and cracking open our bonbons to find colorful paper party hats and bad jokes. After emptying our plates piled with blackened sausages and a tantalizing mosaic of salads followed by plum pudding and trifles, we lethargically enjoyed the sun, played boules on the lawn, dragged the kayaks out on the dam, took a relaxed walk amongst the eucalypt trees, stomping our feet to scare off snakes and watched kangaroos scatter. We snacked on leftovers for dinner, and with the Christmas gift of full stomachs and contented hearts, we fell into bed drifting off to sleep with the lullaby of our pedestal fan.

Lisa Stelling grew up in a small country town outside of Canberra, Australia. After a two-year stint living in the hustle and bustle of London, Lisa has now relocated to the quieter pastures of Munich to be with her German partner. She works in the Groups Team here at InterNations.

Like the majority of Vietnamese people, I don’t have childhood memories of longing for the night that Santa Claus would come down the chimney and put a present in each hanging sock, or of white snow brightening up every single piece of land, and trees, and houses covered with twinkling lights. As adults, we don’t go to gorgeous Christmas markets to drink Glühwein and eat warm roasted nuts to beat the cold, or gather the family around a table of good food in a cozy home to give each other best wishes and presents.

Living in Germany, I am one of the lucky Vietnamese who had the chance to experience most of those things last Christmas. It was almost perfect — but no snow! I have to say, it’s one of the best memories of my whole life. The experience was even more interesting because I could see and do the things that were so different compared to what we have back home.

In the past, Vietnam did not really celebrate Christmas, except the country’s Catholic minority population, and 25 December was just like any other day of the year. Nowadays, Christmas is still not a public holiday, however, people are excited when the time comes, and try to do more to make it special. Here is what Christmas is all about in my home, Hanoi.

The Weather

The closer it is to Christmas, the colder it gets here in Europe, but it’s definitely not cold in Vietnam by this time — all you need is a light jacket.

What People Wear

Forget about dark-colored clothes — it’s time for white, red, green, yellow or many other colors. I’m sure one of the best things to do is people-watch! In fact, I need to mention here that Santa suits are super popular. A Vietnamese Santa could be staff working in a big mall, a parking attendant at a restaurant, or you might also see two skinny Santas squeezed on to a motorbike with presents acting as a seasonal delivery service. I bet European kids would be confused seeing so many Santas if they found themselves in Hanoi!

Decorations

We do not have a Christmas tree in each house, but there are many on the streets and in stores — the malls have the biggest ones of all. Hang Ma, a street in the Old Quarter which sells all kinds of ever-changing holiday decorations, is packed with drive-by buyers on motorbikes and young people busy taking selfies or pictures for their Christmas photo albums.

From the beginning of December or even earlier, the whole of Hanoi has a festive vibe with fairy lights, fake snow, and electric Santas playing saxophones — the Vietnamese love Christmas, they really do. The traffic is still crazy, maybe even more so, but there is less honking and screaming from angry people because of slow drivers or blocked streets. People tend to slow down, relax and enjoy the atmosphere by watching the lights as well as listening Christmas songs — it’s Christmas magic!

What people do on Christmas Eve?

Instead of staying home and spending time with family, local Vietnamese seem to be keen on heading out to the downtown area to celebrate Christmas. Families have dinner out at a nice restaurant, while young people like to hang out with their friends and have a drink, or walk around the Old Quarter and watch some artists that they randomly pass playing street music. Some dating couples go to the cinema to watch movies. It is usually crazily crowded in this area this time — it’s absolutely not recommended for people who cannot stand being skin-to-skin with others. I used to spend time sightseeing a few days before, then stay home or visit my best friend on Christmas Eve — we make each other Christmas cards.

As much as I love the authentic atmosphere of Christmas in Bavaria, I do miss everything we do back home a lot.

Duong Nguyen is a Vietnamese student who is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Economics in Italy. She has been an expat for more than one year and is currently living in Munich to finish her internship. This is the second Christmas she spends away from home. Although there have been many challenges for her, she is really enjoying her one in a million experience and having a great time here in Europe.