From mince pies with Carols From King’s to Scrabble with Boxing Day brunch, we all have our own much-loved Christmas traditions. But there’s always room for new ones, too. Here are a few quirky Christmas traditions to borrow and steal from around the world.
1 Gingerbread pigs
Gingerbread houses are fun but a lot of work. In Prague, they bake gingerbread pigs for Christmas (as well as stars, bells and fish, apparently). Ginger pigs (or Marranitos) also feature on Mexican Christmas menus. When you consider that the Christmas story includes plenty of donkeys, oxen, sheep (and shepherds), we think it’s time pigs made an appearance to represent at the festive farmyard. Buy yourself a pig-shaped cookie cutter and hold a gingerbread pigs evening this season.
2 Visit the Sauna Elf
Families in Finland often sauna together on Christmas Eve in a tradition known as ‘joulusauna’. It’s a chance to relax and regroup before the madness of the big day. Many also leave treats for Saunatonttu, the Sauna Elf, to thank him for keeping the sauna warm and tidy all year. A nice twist on leaving a carrot out for Rudolph. Look for a mobile sauna near you this Christmas, and treat your ‘ealth as well as the elf.
3 A new outfit (to ward off a terrifying cat)
Farmworkers in Iceland would be rewarded for finishing their work in time for Christmas with new clothes from the farmer. But woe betide those who don’t get through their jobs - the Yule Cat (a giant, violent creature) will appear and eat them. What more excuse do you need to treat everyone you don’t want to get scoffed by a giant cat to a nice new Christmas jumper?
4 Winter webs
In Ukraine, legend has it that a poor woman who could not afford to decorate her Christmas tree woke one morning to find it covered in beautiful, glistening spider webs. Ukrainians honour the spider by hanging a pretend arachnid (and a few pretend webs) on their own trees. You could make your own ‘spider’ from wire and beads and hang it in a corner of your home. If you were to hold a private ‘spider and sparkling wine’ evening on decs up day, we also wouldn’t stop you.
5 Christmas cartoons
At 3pm on Christmas Eve, Swedes take to the sofa following their Christmas meal to watch the 1958 Donald Duck Christmas Special. The same episode is introduced live each Christmas Eve with a candle being lit and the TV host wishing all Swedes a merry Christmas before the cartoon is shown. We’re not saying you ‘should’ sack off the King’s speech to watch Donald Duck, but we’re not saying you ‘shouldn’t’ either… An afternoon of cartoons on the sofa is a lovely way to find your inner child at this time of year.
6 Find some Pagan peace
Mark the shortest day (21 December) with light, peace and positivity. Yule falls just before Christmas, which can feel like a frantic time, so taking just a few hours to celebrate quietly is good for the soul. You could make sun bread (find the recipe on our blog) and invite a couple of friends over for supper by candlelight, but if you want to do something a little different, you might like to borrow a little Latvian tradition. Find a decent sized log and drag it all over the house, metaphorically picking up any negative feelings from the year, and then take it outside and burn it. Standing, wrapped up warm in the dark, watching all the negative bits of the last few months going up in smoke is a very therapeutic way of wiping the slate clean and welcoming back the sun.
The pig gingerbread, above, are featured in our December issue’s My City pages, where we visit Prague. And if you’re looking for more festive inspiration, don’t miss ‘Keeping Up Traditions’ on page 40, where we meet the people working to preserve ancient customs at Christmas.
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