5 Wacky Christmas Traditions Plus 31 Days of Giveaways – Day 5

a man in a garment outside a restaurant
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One of the most amazing things about traveling is that you get to experience cultures other than your own, and different ways of doing things are especially obvious during the holidays.

Here’s a look at 5 of the wackiest Christmas traditions from around the globe, plus how to enter today’s giveaway!

Caracas, Venezuela

Just about everyone in the city roller skates to Mass on Christmas morning. Even before 8am, many roads are blocked off to vehicles in anticipation of the event. Some children tie a string to their big toe and let the other end dangle all the way down to the road below, so that it is within arm’s reach of those passing by. Roller skaters the next morning give a gentle tug on the string as they glide through the streets.

Japan

Thanks to a campaign started in 1974, KFC Christmas dinners are a big thing in Japan. In fact, reader Penguin tipped me off as to how huge by saying, “Families race to reserve dinner sets and roast chicken in advance. Christmas dinners are marketed as romantic occasions for lovers, and hotels compete to attract couples.” What great advertising, as it sounds like all of Japan has embraced KFC as “the” Christmas dinner provider!

Catalonia, Spain

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Screengrab photo from Wikipedia

Catalonia has to have some of the oddest Christmas traditions of anywhere in the world. A cute little hollow log is given stick legs, a red hat and a painted face. Starting in early December, children cover the log at night to keep it warm and “feed” it (imaginary food, I suppose). On Christmas Day, the special little log is placed in the fireplace and beat with sticks so that it will um. expel gifts. The name of the log? Caga Tia, pooping log.

There’s also the matter of the Caganer, a curious figure found in their nativity scenes that appears to be…doing the same thing as the log.

Ukraine

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The last decoration to go on a Christmas tree in the Ukraine is…a fake spiderweb. According to legend, a family in poverty had no money for Christmas tree decorations. After they were fast asleep, spiders in the home decorated the tree with beautifully intricate webs. The family awoke in the morning to find the sun’s rays rising over the webbed branches which turned to silver and gold, leaving the family wanting for nothing. Nowadays, the people of Ukraine make sure to add a fake spider web or two to bring good luck to the coming year.

Do you have a wacky Christmas tradition or have you heard of one? To enter today’s contest for a box of goodies, leave a comment on this post about your wacky Christmas tradition (or one you’ve heard about) If you can’t think of anything, any comment will work. The contest ends at 9pm PST tonight, and you can click here for full contest details.

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36 Comments

  1. No Wacky traditions here, but I think my son would like the idea of opening the gifts on Christmas Eve rather than waiting until Christmas Day!

  2. wierdest thing I know ifs that my neighbors run a non-sponsored marathon every year on Xmas morning! they just map out a 26.1 mile course and GO!

  3. I don’t know of any wacky traditions, but I really enjoyed reading about some in other cultures. I love the spider web tradition in Ukraine.

  4. When my husband was growing up they always had spaghetti for Christmas dinner. The difference between Christmas spaghetti and spaghetti the rest of the year was that they got white pasta whereas the rest of the year it was whole wheat.

  5. Christmas is wacky this year. We will be in Disney for Christmas so no opening presents Christmas morning. We plan on trying lots of food in Epcot and trying to deal with the crowds.

  6. ok weird but I like to go out on Christmas Eve and go out to dinner and watch all the mad rushes of people last minute shopping on christmas eve

  7. Not too wacky, but certainly not too traditional: spending Christmas in Abu Dhabi for many years meant mimosas on the beach before we opened our presents!

  8. Long ago my mom found some beautiful large shells on the Padre Island seashore. She has used them every year to bake individual seafood dinners for us on Christmas. Lovely to look at and stuffed with good food!

  9. Elf on the Shelf. The idea that there is an “elf” watching kids every move is creepy. Then add on to it the new trend of adults putting the Elf in scenarios and instagraming it for the world to see…wacky and weird. And scary too!

  10. When we moved to Los Angeles from North Carolina, my Mom was aghast at the price of Christmas trees. ($20, as I recall.) So, we drove east to the desert and she collected a huge tumbleweed, put on gloves and stripped the smaller thornier bits away, leaving a skeleton, which she spray painted gold and hung from the ceiling. Presents were collected underneath it.

  11. How about major network TV stations in the USA showing The Sound of Music for Christmas. It has nothing to do with the holiday. That’s weird to me 🙂

  12. Many years ago the power went out on a stormy Christmas, my mom passes out toy musical instruments and we all played and sang carols. Although we have power the tradition still stands.

  13. The opening of presents on Christmas Eve one still gets me as I was used to opening up presents on Christmas morning.

  14. The ongoing joke is to wrap up this ugly Elvis figurine and see who gets it as a gift. This doll has been passed around for 14 years now.

  15. My wife’s family opens presents on Christmas Eve, while growing up my family opened presents on Christmas Day. Wacky stuff!

  16. The weirdest tradition I know is the Christmas carp kept in a bathtub for days leading up to dinner. This is in Slovakia.

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