How Christmas is celebrated in the major English speaking countries of the world.
Oceania
How Christmas is celebrated in New Zealand
New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean just west of the International Date Line is the first major country of the world to celebrate Christmas Day.
The Sky Tower illuminated in Christmas colors during the month of December. Many of New Zealand’s Christmas traditions are similar to those of Australia in that they are a mix of United Kingdom and North American traditions conducted in summer. New Zealand celebrates Christmas with traditional Northern Hemisphere winter imagery, and the traditional Christmas tree is standard. The traditional symbols of holly and ivy are sometimes replaced by the Pōhutukawa tree. This blossoms in late December and is thus often called the “New Zealand Christmas tree”. Children in New Zealand are told of the surreptitious visit of Father Christmas to leave presents.
Traditional winter-styled hot roast food is served for Christmas dinner and Christmas Crackers are pulled before eating. Traditional Christmas desserts of Christmas Pudding, Trifle, Christmas Cake and Mince Pies are consumed, along with the traditional dessert of pavlova.
Traditional Christmas Pudding, can be doused in brandy and set a-light if desired. House decoration is common, usually featuring strings of lights on domestic exteriors. Store chain The Warehouse hosts a competition to find the best-decorated house of the year.
As with Australia, the watching of television is not a strong part of New Zealand Christmas traditions. Some Christmas-specific programs are usually shown, usually a mix of religious programs and the Christmas specials of regular television series (often UK and US series). No advertising is allowed on New Zealand television or radio on Christmas Day, a rule that also applies on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The Queen’s Christmas message is broadcast at around 7:00 pm on Christmas evening.
The Australian tradition of Carols by Candlelight is popular in New Zealand, especially in Auckland and Christchurch, where there is usually a large outdoor carol-singing gathering known as Christmas in the park.
Several Christmas themed parades are held in New Zealand. The most popular is Auckland’s Santa Parade down Queen Street. This features numerous floats and marching bands and attracts large crowds every year. It is held late November to accommodate holiday makers and is seen as the preamble to the later festivities.
Oceania
How Christmas is celebrated in Australia
Australia in the Pacific Ocean just west of New Zealand and the International Date Line is the second major country of the world to celebrate Christmas.
In Australia, as with all of the Southern Hemisphere, 25 December occurs during the height of the summer season. According to tradition, children are told Santa Claus visits houses on Christmas Eve placing presents for children under the Christmas tree or in stockings or sacks which are usually hung by a fireplace. Gifts are opened the next morning, 25 December. In recent decades many new apartments and homes have been built without traditional combustion fireplaces, however with some innovation the tradition persists. Snacks and beverages (including liquor) may be left out for Santa to consume during his visit.
Traditionally, extended families gather on 25 December for a Christmas lunch similar to a traditional United Kingdom Christmas meal (also with North American influences) that includes decorated hams, roast turkey, roast chicken, salads and roast vegetables, accompanied by Champagne, and followed by fruit mince pies, pavlova,trifle, and plum pudding with brandy butter. Christmas crackers are a feature of the meal. Candy canes are a popular confectionery in Australia in the Christmas period. More recently, as appropriate to the sometimes hot weather on the day, lighter meals featuring fish and seafood may be served, along with barbecue lunches. However, the typical roast remains popular.
The Australian traditions and decorations are quite similar to those of the United Kingdom and North America, and similar wintry iconography is commonplace. This means a red fur-coated Santa Claus riding a sleigh, carols such as Jingle Bells, and various snow-covered Christmas scenes on Christmas cards and decorations appear in the middle of summer. The traditional Christmas tree is central to Christmas decorations and strings of lights and tinsel are standard. Decorations appear in stores and on streets starting in November, and are commonplace by early December. The tradition of sending Christmas cards is widely practiced in Australia. The price of a Christmas postage stamp is lower than that for a standard letter; senders are required to mark the envelope “Christmas card only” when using the lower priced stamps. As novelties, some Australian songwriters and authors have occasionally depicted Santa in “Australian”-style clothing including an Akubra hat, with warm-weather clothing and thongs, and having his sleigh pulled by kangaroos, (for example Six White Boomers by Rolf Harris) but these depictions have not replaced mainstream iconography.
As Christmas falls in summer, the watching of television is not a strong part of Australian Christmas traditions, unlike in the United Kingdom, in which it is one of the most important days for television ratings. Television ratings in Australia are not taken during the summer and schedules are mostly filled with repeats of old programs or previously canceled shows. Some Australian-produced programs have a Christmas special, though often it will be shown early December and not on Christmas Day itself. Many television stations rerun old Christmas-themed films in the weeks leading up to and including Christmas Day, such as Miracle on 34th Street, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and various film versions of A Christmas Carol.
Giant Christmas bulb sculpture in Melbourne, Australia Many homeowners decorate the exterior of their houses. Displays range from the modest to elaborate, sometimes with hundreds of lights and decorations depicting seasonal motifs such as Christmas trees, Santa Claus, reindeer, or nativity scenes. Particular regions have a tradition for elaborate displays, and attract a great amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic during the Christmas season.
Carols by Candlelight is a tradition that started in Melbourne in 1938 and has since spread around Australia and the world. At the event people gather on Christmas Eve, usually outdoors, to sing carols by candlelight in a large-scale concert style event. The Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight which takes place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on Christmas Eve, is televised nationwide and it has become a tradition for many Australians to watch the performance. Carols in the Domain takes place in Sydney the Saturday before Christmas.
A popular tradition celebrated in Adelaide is the Adelaide Christmas Pageant. This parade is the largest of its kind in the world, attracting crowds of over 400,000 people. Begun in 1933, the pageant is staged in early November every year, usually on a Saturday morning, marking the start of the Christmas season. It comprises a procession of floats, bands, clowns, dancing groups, and walking performers, all culminating in the arrival of Santa Claus. At the terminus of the pageant Santa proceeds to the Magic Cave in the David Jones department store where he can be visited by children. Smaller scale pageants are also held in regional centers
Special events for international tourists away from their families are held on Bondi Beach in Sydney. These may involve a turkey barbecue and such humorous stunts as a fake Santa dressed in a Santa suit surfing in to appear to the crowd.
Most workplaces conduct a “Christmas Party” some time during December, but rarely on Christmas Eve itself. As many people take their holidays between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and many workplaces completely close for that period, these parties are effectively an end of year or break-up party and frequently feature little or no reference to Christmas itself. Often they will not even be named the “Christmas Party” but called the “end of year party” or a “break-up party”.
Two major sporting events traditionally commence on the day after Christmas Day in Australia: the Boxing Day Test cricket test match, and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
How Christmas is celebrated in the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Wales
also known as Great Britain
In the United Kingdom the traditions are quite similar to those of Australia, Ireland, the USA, New Zealand, and all other Commonwealth traditions as they stemmed from the UK. They are also similar to the other countries of Northern and Western Europe. The Christmas season starts at Advent, where holly wreaths are made with three purple, one pink and one white candle. However many shops sell Christmas decorations beforehand. It lasts until 6 January (Epiphany), as it is considered bad luck to have Christmas decorations up after this date. On Christmas Eve, presents are supposedly delivered in stockings and under the Christmas tree by Father Christmas, who previously had been something like The Ghost of Christmas Present in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but has now become mainly conflated with Santa Claus. The two names are now used interchangeably and equally known to British people, but Father Christmas tends to be used more often, and some distinctive features still remain. Many families tell their children traditional Christmas stories, about Father Christmas and his reindeer. One tradition is to put out a plate of carrots (for the reindeer) and mince pies and sherry for Father Christmas, to help him on his way. On Christmas Day, nearly the whole population has the day off to be with their family and friends, so they can gather round for a traditional Christmas meal, which is usually a turkey, traditionally with cranberries, parsnips, roast potatoes, quite like the Sunday roast, and traditionally followed by a Christmas Pudding. During the meal, Christmas crackers are often pulled containing toys, jokes and a paper hat. Another tradition is carol singing, where many carols are sung by children on people’s doorsteps, and by professional choirs. Other traditions include sending Christmas cards. On the whole, although Christmas has become commercialized, Christmas in the UK is still very traditional.
In public, most shops have decorations and lights, especially in town centers, and even in Indian and Chinese restaurants. Churches and Cathedrals across the country hold masses, with many people going to midnight mass or a service on Christmas morning. Even though church attendance has been falling over the decades some people who don’t go to church often think it is still important to go at Christmas, so Church attendance increases.
Most theaters have a tradition of putting on a Christmas pantomime for children. The pantomime stories are traditionally based on popular children’s stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and Aladdin, rather than being directly concerned with the Christmas story as such, although there is sometimes a link.
Christmas lights on Regent Street, London, UK Television is widely watched: for many television channels, Christmas Day is the most important day of the year in terms or ratings. Many Britons still watch the Queen’s annual Christmas message.
The Celebration of Boxing Day on the day after Christmas Day is a tradition practiced in the UK. It is a bank holiday, and if it happens to fall on a weekend then a special Bank Holiday Monday will occur. Also, depending on the day of the week, it is often a day when football matches are played in the professional leagues and many people go to watch their team play. Notably, for Catholics, it is one of the main Holy Days of Obligation.
How Christmas is celebrated in Scotland
Christmas in Scotland was traditionally observed very quietly, because the Church of Scotland – a Presbyterian Church – never placed any great emphasis on the Christmas festival, for various reasons. Frogman is traditionally the largest celebration in Scotland, because Christmas Day was a normal working day in Scotland until the 1960s and even into the 1970s in some areas. The gift-giving, public holidays and feasting associated with mid-winter were held between the 11th of December and January rather than between 24 December and 26 December. However, since the 1980s, and the fading of the Church’s influence as well as influences from the rest of the UK and countries abroad, Christmas and related festivities are now on a par with Frogman and “Ne’erday”. The capital city of Edinburgh has a traditional German market from late November until Christmas Eve.
North America
How Christmas is celebrated in the United States and Canada
Christmas is a widely celebrated as the biggest holiday of the year in the United States and Canada. Christmas traditions are essentially the same as the UK and most of Europe, except in Quebec and other French speaking areas, with its réveillon and the Père Noël (“Father Christmas” in French). The Celebration of Boxing Day on the day after Christmas Day is a tradition practiced in Canada, as it is in the Commonwealth.
Old Saint Nick, better known as Santa Claus is best known for living in the North Pole and entering people’s homes through their chimneys during the night before Christmas morning to leave gifts. This innocence is best known on children, which Santa has a good list of children and a naughty list of children. The children open their presents on Christmas morning. Children on the Naughty list get coal in their stockings , while good children get presents in their stockings, and underneath their Christmas trees. Stockings are hung above the chimney/mantle piece for Santa Claus to fill with presents. A Christmas tree is set up, usually decorated with ornaments and tinsel, with something like a star, or an angel at the top of the tree. Presents are left under the tree by Santa Claus.
Many Christmas-related tourist attractions, such as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and elaborate animated department store windows in New York City are heavily visited by non-Christian tourists from all over the world. Christmas is celebrated by almost everyone, no matter what religion the person has.
Christmas Day is public and federal holiday in both the United States and Canada. Christmas Day is the only day where almost all retailers, banks and government offices are closed.
