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Holiday Traditions from Around the Globe

By Marcie Wolbeck, Local Development Director with Cultural Care Au Pair December 17, 2014

In America, we have Santa Claus. He’s big and rosy-cheeked, all decked out in red and white, and easily recognized due to his famous facial hair. We leave him cookies and milk to munch on before he climbs back up the chimney to his reindeer. But our notion of Santa Claus is really the combined effort of many old traditions and folklore. There’s a little bit of the Dutch figure of Sinterklass, a dash of Norse mythology’s Odin, and British folklore’s Father Christmas.

Families around the world will be celebrating the holiday season in many different ways next week (some will involve Santa and others will not). This time of year is a great opportunity to teach our kids about different holiday traditions around the world (by the way, The Museum of Science and Industry has a must-see  annual exhibit that highlights various cultural holiday celebrations).

The folks at Cultural Care Au Pair know a thing or two when it comes to cultural exchange! We asked them to share the cultural traditions from the home countries of some of the Cultural Care au pairs living with families here in Chicago. In addition to providing child care, au pairs introduce children to the culture of their home countries through language, songs, games and more. And our little "global citizens" get a unique look at what the world is like outside of the United States.

Here are some examples of how other countries are celebrating Christmas around the world. You can incorporate some of these ideas into your celebrations this season!

  • Sweden: After Christmas Eve dinner, a friend or family member dresses up as tomte or Christmas gnome. The tomte, unlike Santa Claus is supposed to live under the floorboards of the house or barn and ride a straw goat. The make-believe tomte, wearing a white beard and dressed in red robes, distributes gifts from his sack. Many are given with funny rhyme that hints at the contents. Families can make their own "tomte." Instructions to make your own tomte: http://the-pickled-herring.blogspot.com/2010/12/scandinavian-christmas-day-2.html
  • Spain: Christmas Eve is known as Nochebuena or "the Good Night." It is a time for family members to gather together to rejoice and feast around the Nativity scenes that are present in nearly every home. A traditional Christmas treat is turron, a kind of almond candy.
 A recipe for turron: http://nourishedkitchen.com/turron-de-navidad/
  • Denmark: Christmas Eve dinner begins with rice pudding that holds a magic almond inside. Whoever finds the almond receives a prize. Recipe for rice pudding with almonds: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/danish-rice-pudding-with-almonds/
  • Mexico: Santa Claus is not predominant, but the bright red suit is represented in the traditional flower of the season. This flower is the poinsettia, which has a brilliant red star-shaped bloom. It is believed that a young boy walking to the church to see the nativity scene showing the birth of Jesus had realized on the way that he had no gift to offer the Christ child so he gathered up some plain green branches as he walked in he was laughed at but upon placing the branches near the manger they started to bloom a bright red poinsettia flower on each branch. Instructions to make your own poinsettia flowers: http://www.santas.net/mexicanchristmas.htm
  • Italy: On January 5, children all over Italy are visited by Befana the Witch, a gift-bearing old lady who arrives on a broomstick wearing a sooty black cloak, and comes into your home through the chimney. Befana puts gifts and candy in the stockings of good children, but leaves a lump of coal or a stick for the bad ones. Though she looks like a witch, Befana is a very polite houseguest. She always sweeps the floor before she leaves, to clear away all the problems of the past year.
  • Norway: During the holiday season, families in Norway will be busy making and eating seven different kinds of holiday biscuits. These traditional sweets include Smultringer (donut rings), Gingerbread, Sirupssnipper (syrup snaps), Berlinerkranser (berlin wreaths), Goro, Krumkaker (curved cake), and Fattigmann (poor man). With this age-old tradition, families come together to create new holiday memories as they bake old holiday favorites—and eat the results!

Marcie Wolbeck is a Local Development Director with Cultural Care Au Pair and lives in the West Town Neighborhood with her husband, three sons and wonderful Colombian Au Pair. Cultural Care Au Pair is the leading provider of intercultural childcare in the United States. Since 1989, Cultural Care Au Pair has placed more than 90,000 au pairs in welcoming American homes. A U.S. Department of State regulated program, Cultural Care Au Pair is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with their own extensive network of recruitment, screening and orientation offices worldwide and more than 600 local coordinators across the U.S. For more information, visit www.culturalcare.com or call 800-333-6056.