Ho, Ho, Ha? Curious Christmas traditions from around the world

Blog2 December 2024by Yasmeen Schmidt

This article was originally published in German. The English version is an automatic translation and may contain errors. The German original is authoritative.

KFC, spiders and brooms? In some countries, these things are part of Christmas. Curious customs and traditions make the festival so unique.

Christmas time has officially begun and everywhere you can feel this special magic of December. Advent calendars with little surprises shorten the waiting time for us, candles on the Advent wreath burn festively and the scent of biscuits hangs in the air. Christmas, the festival of love and traditions, is celebrated in many places all over the world – but not everywhere in the way we know it.

Join us on a journey around the world and discover five of the most exciting Christmas traditions!

Christmas at KFC?

In Japan, one might think that Father Christmas doesn't wear a red hat, but a chef's hat – with the KFC logo on it. What sounds surprising to many is a firmly established tradition in Japan: on Christmas Eve, families, couples and friends gather to enjoy fried chicken from Kentucky Fried Chicken together.

But how does that come about?

The origin of this quirky tradition lies in an advertising campaign from the 1970s. At that time, KFC advertised a "Christmas menu" and coined the slogan "Kentucky for Christmas".

For a country where Christmas has no deeply rooted religious or cultural origins, this idea quickly became a trend. Today, the KFC Christmas menu is so popular that many Japanese people book weeks in advance to enjoy their portion of chicken wings and potato salad on Christmas Eve.

Hide the broom!

Christmas is not only a time of love and contemplation – at least not in Norway. Here, on Christmas Eve, a tradition is maintained that is rooted deep in ancient folklore: people hide their brooms.

The custom stems from a time when people believed that witches and evil spirits were particularly active on Christmas night and used brooms to fly through the air. By hiding the brooms, the witches are deprived of their "flying ability" and the home remains safe.

Even though nowadays hardly anyone seriously believes in witches, the tradition is still maintained in many families – as a reminder of the mythical roots of Christmas time and as a humorous contribution to the festival.

Shall we roll together to church?

Whilst in many countries people traditionally walk or drive to church on Christmas Eve, in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, they roll – on roller skates.

On the morning of 24 December, the inhabitants of the city drive on roller skates to mass. The streets are closed off specially so that the roller skaters can travel safely. How cool is that?

The colourful sight of people in Christmas clothing rolling through the streets on their skates not only brings a smile to the faces of spectators, but also makes getting up early on Christmas morning a little more bearable.

I think I'm going mad!

Yes, there is not only Father Christmas or the Christmas goose! In Ukraine there are also Christmas spiders. In Ukraine, Christmas trees are traditionally decorated with cobwebs. This is supposed to bring good luck above all. But how do you come up with something like that?

The story goes back to a woman who could not afford ornaments to decorate her tree with. The next morning she woke up and her tree was covered with cobwebs, which glittered in the sunlight and looked beautiful.

Fat Christmas

Instead of spending a lot of money on Christmas presents, you can become super rich at Christmas in Spain. In Spain, the Christmas lottery "El Gordo", which translates to "the Fat One", is as much a part of the festival as biscuits and tinsel. Every year on 22 December, whole families sit in front of the television in suspense whilst children recite the winning numbers. No wonder this tradition is so popular – after all, prizes worth billions are distributed here! The "El Gordo" lottery is actually considered the largest lottery in the world – at least in terms of the total sum of prizes paid out.

No matter how crazy or different the Christmas customs may be, one thing is certain: the world celebrates in its own, often crazy way. Christmas only comes once a year, after all!

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