I know that in April Christmas is completely out of everyone’s mind right now (lol 😂) but I want to know how you celebrate Christmas in your country/your family.
What traditions are common? When do you celebrate: on Christmas Eve or on the First Day of Christmas? Do you celebrate with family or is it also possible to celebrate with friends/alone? Thanks for sharing your stories. 🙂
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Not much.. we have dinner with my family and at 00:00 we open the presents, here in Chile mostly a family celebration and it is mostly for kids to enjoy
Christmas in Colombia celebrates the birth of Jesus, since the last week of November preparations begin in the main Colombian cities. In this sense, houses, government buildings and public spaces are beginning to be decorated. People also plan to organize meetings and parties with their loved ones.
The nativity scene, which has European origin, arrived in Colombia with the missionaries to visually strengthen the Christian cosmogony. In what is now Colombia, this tradition was developed in workshops in Santafé and other cities, where certain representations of popular daily life were incorporated into the biblical figures. Around the nativity scene the Novena de Aguinaldos is celebrated, which serves to unite families and share before the night of aguinaldos.
Officially, the celebrations begin on December 7, with the Day of the Candles. Also, prayers, masses and even processions are held, since Christmas has a strong Catholic meaning. This Christmas period runs until approximately January 6.
Christmas Eve. 24th December is when we have a dinner with the family together (everyone brings out food that they cooked at home) and then we start eating. On Christmas day (25) people start greeting and hugging each other to celebrate and then we finish our food lol (also kids start opening their gifts in that time)
Most of Latin America is Christmas Eve. Not all. Dominican myself it’s a huge thing. Huge feasts for family, drinking dancing , old ladies go to midnight mass. Ppl who play music can visit houses in the countryside and sing. Christmas morning is traditional Tres Golpes Dominican “3 hits” breakfast. Church for the rest of us , spend day visiting other family and friends. But even before Christmas Eve festivities begin. When I was little we had the 3 Wise men, NOT Santa Claus. Leave hay and water for their camels and open gifts on 3 Kings Day. January 6, Epiphany Day. Even now in NYC in Spanish Harlem they still do the 3 Kings Day parade.
The streets and houses are decorated. People go out a lot, light candles on December 7, and then start praying the “Novena” 9 days before the 24th, during these prayers its common for a lot of neighbours to gather in a house and share food, taking turns for which neighbour hosts each day.
The 24th and 31st are a huge deal and families often come together to hang out, the adults drink and party in the street while the little ones play.
It does depend on the family, and I do think that its starting to become less common now that people are having less kids nowadays.
When I lived in Spain it was a huge contrast. There’s basically no celebration other than having a dinner on the 24th and another in the 31st, maybe going to a bar, and having your kids open the presents on the 6th of January. But its all very low profile, its not nearly as big of a deal.
24 de diciembre fiesta
My family do both days. Always among the family. We play a lot of games among us, like bingo, secret friend (i dont know how to say that in english), cards game and stuff.
In Peru, a nativity scene of the baby Jesus is generally held and a Christmas tree is also put up. Peru is a Catholic country.
and panettone is eaten
I love the Christmas atmosphere and I enjoy putting up decorations. But here it’s summer during Christmas, so obviously we don’t have snow or everything that comes with it.
Usually, we start decorating in the first or second week of December. Christmas Eve is celebrated in a very calm family environment, and then at midnight, we open presents that Santa Claus brings (Here in Chile, we call him “Viejito Pascuero”. We’re the only ones who call him that in Latin America, which is often a source of jokes haha).
Another thing that’s also common here among groups of friends or coworkers is “Secret Santa” which we call “amigo secreto”, but its the same.
But all of this also depends on each family.
From the Texas/Chihuahua border with family in both sides.
On the 24th we would cook the whole morning. At 4 or 5 pm go to church. Around 8 or 9pm we would come back home to have supper. We would have a lot of different dishes. The main one would be turkey, mashed potatos, green bean casserole, mexican style stuffing. Tons of desserts like chocolate chip cake, empanadas, buñuelos, fruit salad, pecan pie and marshmallow salad.. Some would bring tamales and other foods, especially if we were more than one family celebrating that year. After supper everyone would open their gifts. We would have either coffee or hot chocolate and there would be a long chat. And the party could go on until 12 or 1 am.
Un güisky y dos pericazos
In Brazil, Catholic tradition everywhere (Christmas trees + dinner + gifts + mass + cities are decorated + fairy lights everywhere + christmas songs about jesus and holy mary or about “Love others as you love yourself”, these type of things, etc ).