Christmas Around the World
Tuesday 22 December 2009
One of the best things about becoming a blogger has been the friendships I have made along the way. Most of these friendships have been here on home soil, but I have also made wonderful friends overseas. At Christmas, especially, the world doesn’t seem like such a big place. For all our differences in climate and culture, at our heart we are all mothers who want the best for our kids, and are deeply grateful for the blessings in our lives. Here is quick round up of what Christmas is like for different mummy and mommy bloggers around the world. (Plus my answers last, for those interested in what Christmas is like in Australia!)
Meet Sarah Mae from Like A Warm Cup Of Coffee
- Which country do you live in? USA
- What is the current temperature? Really cold…and windy…and snowy…
- How do you prepare for Christmas? We anticipate Christ’s return – looking for Him in the sky (my babes are 10 months, 2, and 4), talking about Him – His birth, why He came to earth, and then we get excited about His returning one day. Oh, and cookies…and a Christmas tree…
- What will you eat on Christmas Day? Yummy cheesy potatoes and ham. We are still trying to come up with a great breakfast tradition – maybe donuts or a birthday cake.
- What do you hope for at Christmas? Fun and filled spirits…a Jesus awakening in our hearts. Lots of joy!
Meet Leonny from Our Everyday Things
- Which country do you live in? Singapore
- What is the current temperature? Between 27 degrees – 32 degrees C (The closest Singapore gets to “snow” is the foam in this pic!!)
- How do you prepare for Christmas? We share more Christmas Bible stories with the kids!
- What will you eat on Christmas Day? We’ll most likely spend time with friends, at a friend’s home, where each family brings a dish or two to share with everyone else (our families are all in Indonesia, so we spend Christmas with friends, who sort of become our ‘family’ here in Singapore)
- What do you hope for at Christmas? I hope to learn to be more thankful about everything, and to strive and be blessing to others!
Meet Jan Mary from Jan Mary: Welcome to my World
- Which country do you live in? Northern Ireland
- What is the current temperature? Day time – 6 degrees C, Night time – 2 degrees C. Only a little snow so far – and a few icy mornings. Any snow we get never lasts too long. (Pic is the first snow of the season)
- How do you prepare for Christmas? Blogging daily (yes – I am mad, but this is the 3rd year I have blogged daily about Christmas, and I have a love/hate relationship with my blog during this time!) I love to decorate our home. We try to focus on the Christian aspects of Christmas, but Santa still visits. I have a collection of Nativity sets, which I try to add to each year. I am having a Nativity Set Blogging Carnival on 21 December, and I hope you can join me. There will be prizes! I don’t bake much – my Mum is too good!!
- What will you eat on Christmas Day? Our main meal will be served at 3pm. Roast Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Gravy, Potatoes, Carrots, Brussell Sprouts, Cranberry Sauce and cocktail sausages. Dessert – Christmas Pudding (only my Mum and my husband will eat this) and fruit salad for the rest of us.
- What do you hope for at Christmas? Peace for all in Northern Ireland, and that all will truly know Jesus, the reason for this Season.
Meet Michelle from What’s Cooking Blog
- Which country do you live in? USA
- What is the current temperature? 60 degrees, Fahrenheit (cloudy with scattered showers, too)
- How do you prepare for Christmas? I am Jewish, so we spend most of our holiday energy on Hanukkah instead of Christmas. But, since my husband isn’t Jewish, we decorate the house with wintery decorations and sometimes even have a tree. Even though he calls it a Christmas tree, I sometimes call it a Hanukkah Bush! This year, we have a small one, since we will be away during the holiday.
- What do you eat for Hanukkah? We enjoy Potato Latkes, sometimes also called Potato Pancakes. They are made from finely shredded potato, onion, a teensy bit of flour and salt, and then fried in oil. If done right, they are super crispy and totally delicious! Other Jewish families also make homemade donut holes. Both of these foods are fried in oil, because oil is sacred during Hanukkah.
- What do you hope for at this time of year? During the holiday season, I always wish peace and happiness to everyone. With the economy and environment going down the tubes, it is a good time to remember that everyone can do something to help, even if it is just one tiny act of kindness. If everyone started to take little steps to improve our world, we would be on the road to recovery so much faster, and our children’s future would be so much brighter.
And here are my answers!
- Which country do you live in? Queensland, Australia
- What is the current temperature? hot, humid and about 30 degrees C
- How do you prepare for Christmas? We start preparing on the 1 December when we put up our gorgeous big tree, and then we count down the sleeps with Christmas craft activities, baking, nativity scenes, stories and lots of singing carols. We always go to a carols by candlelight service in the park too.
- What will you eat on Christmas Day? It’s way too hot for a roast, so we have salads, cold seafood, sometimes a bbq whole fish, fresh fruit and plenty of cold drinks.
- What do you hope for at Christmas? I hope for a restoring of people’s priorities, a peace in people’s hearts and for Christ to be central to Christmas. I also hope for a sleep in on Boxing Day. And maybe a digital SLR…?!
If anyone else would like to join in, please introduce yourself, share where you’re from and answer the same five questions as a comment below…
- Which country do you live in? USA
- What is the current temperature? 60 degrees, Fahrenheit (cloudy with scattered showers, too)
- How do you prepare for Christmas? I am Jewish, so we spend most of our holiday energy on Hanukkah instead of Christmas. But, since my husband isn’t Jewish, we decorate the house with wintery decorations and sometimes even have a tree. Even though he calls it a Christmas tree, I sometimes call it a Hanukkah Bush
This year, we have a small one, since we will be away during the holiday. - What will you eat on Christmas Day? Christmas isn’t a special day for us, food-wise, since we are Jewish. When I was a child, sometimes we would go out for Chinese food on Christmas, since that was the only type of restaurant open on that day! But for Hanukkah, we enjoy Potato Latkes, sometimes also called Potato Pancakes. They are made from finely shredded potato, onion, a teensy bit of flour and salt, and then fried in oil. If done right, they are super crispy and totally delicious! Other Jewish families also make homemade donut holes. Both of these foods are fried in oil, because oil is sacred during Hanukkah.
- What do you hope for at Christmas time? During the holiday season, I always wish peace and happiness to everyone. With the economy and environment going down the tubes, it is a good time to remember that everyone can do something to help, even if it is just one tiny act of kindness. If everyone started to take little steps to improve our world, we would be on the road to recovery so much faster, and our children’s future would be so much brighter.
1.Qld Australia
2. Hot outside about 30-35′ but inside it is about 24′, gotta love aircon.
3. I plan about 6 months out in my head of all that needs to happen, and on Dec 1 the fun begins. We do a craft everyday or christmas cooking, we look at the lights people put out and we put out ours too. We wrap presents and do most of the usual festive things people are saying. We visit santa oh so many more if you click on my link below you will see them all.
4. Roast Pork, Roast Chicken, Ham roast vegies, and then left overs with salad at dinner. We have pavlovas, puddings, cakes, rum balls, lollies, choc coated nuts, and everything else you would expect to see in a wintery christmas. For Breakfast this year I am going to make scrambled eggs but do it in 3 seperate bowls to make some red, some green and some whiteish ones. Im a fan of food dye.
5.I hope for snow and a lotto win every year but being realistic I will also hope for everyone who has written before me to get what they are asking for. I need for nothing myself. I also hope that all the people who are having trouble in their personal relationships can work it out. And I also hope that Squiggle mum can visit each of the above people over the next few christmases. That would be fun.
Rizoleey´s last blog ..Apparently we are now living inside a grade 1 classroom!
I would love a digital SLR too {have no idea what type – will be posting it as a question on my blog soon..}
Here are my answers:
1. Which country do you live in? Western Suburbs of Sydney, Australia
2. What is the current temperature? 32 degrees C {usually is a lot hotter}
3. How do you prepare for Christmas? This is my first Christmas with my boyfriend being just us. We put up the Christmas tree and got everyone presents together.
4. What will you eat on Christmas Day? No idea. As we will be having lunch with my boyfriend and his family this year. As we are alternating from this year {his then mine}.
5. What do you hope for at Christmas? A Christmas I can enjoy. Not one where I am constantly worried that my boyfriends sister is going to make me angry or annoyed. Like usual. Sigh. And I hope that my sister {11yrs} will cope okay without me and not be too upset.
Great post!
miss carly´s last blog ..Childcare – My Views
1. Queensland, Australia
2. Early evening, so cooling to about 28 degrees Celsius – love Australian summers!
3.We sing carols in the car all the time and read lots of versions of the Christmas story. We put up the tree on 1st December and have a countdown calendar that we move our figure into a new date each day, so they girls can see how many days to go. Our community has free theatre shows, carols in the park (with real camels even!), a festival of Christmas trees and so many other events – it can be a very busy time if we’re not careful…
4. We do a breakfast with one family and dinner with the other – breakfast is full on with all that you can think of, and then dinner will be a BBQ with salads and pavlova and pudding for dessert.
5. I like the digital SLR idea, but highly unlikely I think! Hoping that we can keep the real meaning of Christmas throughout the day…the older the girls get (3 & 5), the harder it is to keep the focus on Christ and not presents.
Thanks for inviting me to join in with this – I love this about blogging – how we can discover more about other countries and traditions.
SO glad we “met” online this year, and praying you and yours have a wonderful (not TOO hot) Christmas.
janmary, n ireland´s last blog ..21st day of December – a very cute wee Santa
1.Which country do you live in? Germany
2.What is the current temperature? Rain settled in today and the temp is up in the high 30′s. It’s been between 0 and 24 with lots of snow this week. The rain made the snow a muddy slushie mess.
3.How do you prepare for Christmas? With 2 little ones under 3, I’m working on a Birthday Cake for Jesus. We sing Christmas songs- Away in a Manger is a favorite, as is Silent Night and O, Holy Night. We have a Christmas tree, and a nativity scene for decorations. There are Christmas Markets all over Germany that are so beautiful to see.
4.What will you eat on Christmas Day? Ham or Turkey, haven’t decided which yet. Sweet potato casserole. Homemade bread. Green beans. And a Birthday cake for Jesus!!
5.What do you hope for at Christmas? Peace. Time to spend with family. Joy filled hearts. A welcoming heart. Tender smiles from little faces.
Sidnie´s last blog ..All I needed was a little calm and quiet…
# Which country do you live in? Canada
# What is the current temperature? -25 C
# How do you prepare for Christmas? We prepare all year long. I star gift shopping/making on in January and hope to be done by Dec 1. Rarely happens. We switch over home school in December to Christmas lessons and we decorate on the last weekend in November.
# What will you eat on Christmas Day? Pancakes, Waffles, Bacon, Eggs and fruit or breakfast. Turkey and trimmings for Supper. Plus all the snacks and appys!
# What do you hope for at Christmas? I hope to shine Christ’s light to my unsaved family and to have the Holy Spirit touch their heart and turn to Jesus.
Also a new lap top would be a bonus
Fifth Street Mama´s last blog ..Merry Christmas!
Which country do you live in? California, U.S.
What is the current temperature? Well it’s been waaarm but it just got cold and rainy.
How do you prepare for Christmas? By making fun munchy foods and listening to Christmas music while we decorate the house and the tree. We also have fun special shopping trips with family members to begin the gift giving.
What will you eat on Christmas Day? We don’t like being in the Kitchen all day so we do something fun, yummy, and easy!
What do you hope for at Christmas? I am hping for some great quality time with our family. My husband and I moved far away from our families about a year ago and holidays are now the onlt time we see then. I’m hoping for a great time having fun with them…oh and maybe a Digital camera
I just discovered your blog. This is fun =)
1. USA
2. 70 degree F
3. We start preparing on Dec. 1st by putting up the tree. Then we do lots of fun family crafts and outings throughout the month. We also do a Jesse tree at night to teach the kids about God’s plan and why Christ’s birth was important. And I wrap a Christmas book for every night up until Christmas and so every night before bed, the kids take turns picking out one book from under the tree, unwrapping it, and we read it as our bedtime story.
4. We’ll eat lots of turkey, sweet potatoes, dressing, and pies.
5. I hope for a fun and relaxing time as we spend time with extended family, and I hope that all kids will sleep well while on vacation =)
1) Country: I’m a Yank living in Sydney.
2) Temps: It’s hot again today and will be throughout the season.
3) This is a festive season for our family. It started on Thanksgiving, last Thurs in November with family gathering with other mates from Sydney. Then we readied for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of dedication. That done with menorah and candles and latkes and dreidels and family and friends. Then we put up the Christmas tree. It’s a beaut. Family will gather again on Christmas Eve and then Christmas morning. I’m almost weary just typing all this.
4) Eat? The food of the season keeps me going. Turkey and the fixings on Thanksgiving. Latkes and sour cream and applesauce on Hanukkah. Christmas, no prawns, but lots of great food with Chinese on Christmas Eve and a massive brisket and Texas potatoes and heaps more on Chrissy.
5) Hopes: Nothing about my own stocking. I’m content. I hope my kids enjoy their life and that Jesus gets his rightful place in the holiday.
1. Which country do you live in? USA – Mississippi
2. What is the current temperature? in the mid 50′s F, but a cold front is coming in so it should be nice and cold Christmas Day!
3. How do you prepare for Christmas? Usually the day after Thanksgiving we put the Christmas tree up and the rest of the decorations follow. I have been so busy this year with my tassel business I haven’t had time to finish unpacking all my decorations! Sigh…..there’s always next year!
4. What will you eat on Christmas Day? for breakfast our tradition is to make sausage balls…baking mix, sharp cheddar, and sausage, with a few more cheeses and spices thrown in to make it yummy. Dinner is usually baked ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans, rolls, and lots of yummy goodies!
5. What do you hope for at Christmas? To spend as much time with my mother as possible. She has cancer and every Christmas with her I count as a gift.
As a side note, I have a friend who lives in Tasmania. We just talked last night! We set up our Skype at the same time so now it won’t cost a thing to call her! I’ve known her for about 17 years since I spent two months in Tassie in 1991. I’d LOVE to go back. I think part of my heart is still in Oz!
Heathahlee´s last blog ..Where has the month gone?
Which country do you live in? Cleveland, Ohio, USA
What is the current temperature? Currently 23 F with snow but forcasting 42 F with Rain on Christmas
How do you prepare for Christmas?
Put up our tree, pull out my Santa Collection and other decorations for our (non-working) fireplace mantle, hang the stockings, do an advent calender, help the children prepare for the Christmas pageant at church, Go caroling with either church or Girl Scouts, Put out our nativity (baby Jesus joins the scene Christmas day) Read lots of different Christmas stories from the library, this year we saw the new A Christmas Carol movie (with Jim Carey) and are reading the original book by Charles Dickens. Also watch lots of Christmas TV specials (I love the year without a Santa Claus and the miser brothers and laugh hysterically at National Lampoons Christmas Vacation), Bake Christmas cookies with my girls.
What will you eat on Christmas Day?
Turkey, Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce, Vegetables (usually Green Beans). Christmas Cookies for dessert and hopefully some egg nog (without alcohol).
What do you hope for at Christmas?
A peaceful day at home with my family.
It’s a bit late, but…
* Which country do you live in? Melbourne Australia
* What is the current temperature? Approx 23C (you’re likely to need a jumper for Christmas day)
* How do you prepare for Christmas?
by putting up the tree & assorted decorations, make lists – lots of lists! Think about meaningful gifts for my family (what would they really appreciate), try to watch a christmas movie (cringe, i know..) and brace myself for all the food & good times (i know… i’m very lucky)
* What will you eat on Christmas Day?
generally a roast (hopefully with yorkshire puddings), cold ham, seafood, lots of salads & cooked veggies. i may also cave & be persuaded to dip into some lollies and red wine, but not together! this year we also had a swedish hot drink.
* What do you hope for at Christmas?
some quality time with the family and an understanding of how lucky we truely are.