Christmas Eve Traditions
"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."
Clement Clarke Moore
I can’t quite believe Christmas Eve is here, it seems to have snuck up when I wasn’t paying attention! For many people around the world, Christmas Eve is the most important eve of the year, here’s how people celebrate it across the globe.
In Spain, families have a huge feast with their loved ones!
In Spain, Christmas Eve is called Nochebuena. As part of the celebration, many families have a huge meal together that typically centres around turkey, lamb, or seafood.
Catholics in Spain then might attend midnight mass, or Misa del Gallo, to celebrate the birth of Jesus with music consisting of guitars, hand drums, and tambourines.
In France, many families have their Christmas meal, called le Réveillon de Noël, on Christmas Eve.
Most families in France have a huge feast on Christmas Eve. The traditional dinner includes a meat such as duck or goose, as well as side dishes like foie gras and oysters. The meal ends with the Buche de Noël, a rolled sponge cake decorated to look like a Yule log.
Italy celebrates Christmas Eve with the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
A huge seafood and pasta dinner is tradition for Italians on Christmas Eve, and celebrates the vigil before the midnight birth of the baby Jesus. The tradition of serving seven different seafood dishes stems from the Roman Catholic practice of abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve.
Many Germans eat potato salad with sausage on Christmas Eve.
The time between St. Martin's Day on November 11 to Christmas Eve on December 24 was traditionally a time of fasting in Christianity, so German families ate something simple.
At night, the Christ Child, or Christkindl, brings toys rather than Santa.
Christmas Eve is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in China.
According to China Daily, sales volume on Christmas Eve is its highest for the whole year.
Christmas apples wrapped in cellophane are a popular holiday gift in China, which is said to be because the word "apple" sounds similar to "Christmas Eve" in Mandarin, who knew!
In the UK, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are more important than Christmas Eve.
In the UK, Christmas Eve doesn’t have the same importance as Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the day after Christmas day when traditionally people would open their Christmas “boxes”. However, as in many other countries, the Christian, especially the Roman Catholic population also often attend a church service or midnight mass.
On Christmas Eve, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast on the radio across the country (and globe) from King's College Cambridge. The broadcast consists of a reading of nine Bible passages interspersed between modern and ancient hymns.
Christmas Eve in Australia is in the peak of summer.
Whereas many picture Christmas as a cosy, snowy holiday, Australians experience Christmas in the middle of summer. Australians often have cold Christmas dinners, and on Christmas Eve, fish markets are packed with people hoping to stock up on seafood before the holiday. Apparently pavlova is also a must as a Christmas dessert.
In Mexico, children re-enact the story of Mary and Joseph door-to-door up until Christmas Eve.
Beginning on December 16, children in Mexico go door-to-door asking if there's a symbolic "room at the inn," and on Christmas Eve, they are invited in to celebrate. The tradition is called posadas, and it concludes in Christmas parties full of food, drinks, and piñatas.
In Denmark, Christmas Day is celebrated on December 24.
In Denmark, people celebrate Christmas Day on December 24. The day is packed with meal preparations and gift shopping. The Danish also countdown to Christmas using Advent wreaths. Wreaths feature four candles; one candle lit every one of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve in Sweden is also the main day Christmas is celebrated.
Christmas Eve is called Julafton, Jul (“Christmas”) + afton (“eve”) in Swedish. Traditional Christmas Eve dinner, called julbord, usually includes a smorgasbord of ham, pork, or fish, and a variety of desserts. Among the foods on your Swedish Christmas table you might also find some lussekatters, popular Swedish saffron buns.
In maison Figueroa, the heavy Christmas Eve Parties are a distant memory and we seem to have adopted the Italian tradition, later today I will be preparing two sides of salmon which I will poach in a fish kettle, with that I will be serving, prawns, crab, smoked trout, oysters and gravadlax as a main course with Sushi to start, and there maybe the odd glass of Chardonnay or Albariño to help wash it down!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
What’s on this week?
Head & Eyes – LeLUTKA EvoX AVALON 3.1
AO – BodyLanguage SLC BENTO AO Mila
Shape – DeeTaleZ Shape for Lelu EVOX Heads "Nora" - Tweaked!
Nails – . PUKI . My Deluxe Round Nails . Maitreya
Necklace & Earrings – EarthStones Mr. & Mrs. Gingerbread
Rings – (Yummy) Fairytale Rings [Lara]
Bodysuit, Jacket & Wings – Lunar - Bell Set
Hat – Salt & Pepper Santa Baby hat (ALL)
Boots – Eudora3D Cara Boots (Maitreya)
Pictures taken at the very, very useful Backdrop City, now with festive background rezzers!!
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