You might have noticed that church attendance on Christmas Eve has felt less busy lately than when you were a kid. The Pew Research Center found that fewer people think of Christmas as a religious holiday these days. More specifically, about 51% of Canadian adults attend a religious service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Canada is a very large country and people of many different cultural backgrounds live there. Because of this, there are lots of different Christmas traditions in Canada. Many of the traditions and celebrations come from French, English, Irish, Scottish, German, Norwegian, Ukrainian and native/first nation influences.
People in Canada send Christmas Cards to their friends and family.
Many Canadians open their gifts on Christmas Eve. Some only open their stocking on Christmas Eve. Others choose one gift to open, then save the rest until Christmas Day.
Canadians like to decorate their houses with Christmas Trees, lights and other decorations. There’s often Christmas stockings hung by the fireplace, ready for Santa!
The main Christmas meal is often roast turkey with vegetables and ‘all the trimmings’ like mashed potatoes and vegetables. Traditional favorite Christmas desserts include Christmas/plum puddings and mincemeat tarts. Christmas crackers are popular with many people in Canada as well. A rich fruit Christmas Cake is also normally eaten around Christmas time!
However, people from different backgrounds and cultures have their own favorite foods at Christmas.
Going skiing, skating and tobogganing are also popular if there’s snow at Christmas!
Canadian children also believe in Santa Claus. Canadians are especially proud to say that their country is the home of Santa Claus. (Although I’m sure the people in Finland would disagree!)
The Santa Claus Parade in Toronto is one of the oldest and largest Santa parades in the world! It started in 1913 when Santa was pulled through the streets of Toronto. Children along the route followed Santa and marched along with him. It’s been taking place for over 100 years and now is a huge event with over 25 animated floats and 2000 people taking part! It’s broadcast on TV around the world.
‘Sinck Tuck’ is a festival started by the Inuit that is celebrated in some provinces of Canada. This celebration consists of dancing and gift exchanging.
The Eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia is known all over the world for its fir and pine Christmas Trees, so most families in Canada have a fir or pine Christmas Tree. One Canadian tradition is to send the biggest, best fir tree (grown in Nova Scotia) to Boston, USA because of the assistance given during the disaster, known worldwide, as the Halifax Explosion. This tradition has carried on for many years. Bostonians always love and appreciate the Nova Scotian Christmas Tree. They place this tree in the city and then light it during a ceremony to begin the Christmas season.
Mummering is a tradition which mainly takes place in the province of Newfoundland, more commonly in small towns and villages rather than large towns and cities. It’s also sometimes called ‘Jannying’. People dress up in costumes and knock on someone’s door and say in a disguised voice, “Are there any Mummers in the night?” or “Any mummers ‘loud in?'”, meaning ‘are mummers allowed in the house?’ Then they sing and dance and have Christmas cake and a cup of something nice before moving on to the next house. In some places, if the host does not guess who the Mummers are, the host must join the Mummers in their merry-making. Going Mummering is a fun Christmas season activity for adults. Mummers usually come out between December 26th and January 6th (The 12 Days of Christmas). However, some come out only before Christmas Day. In some places Mummering is now banned because people used it as an excuse for begging. You can find out more about the history of Mummering in Newfoundland on the Live Rural Newfoundland and Labrador blog (goes to another site).
On the south shore of Nova Scotia, over Christmas, there’s the tradition of Belsnickeling where people dress up in funny Santa costumes and go from house to house until the home owners guess who you were. It was especially popular in West & East Green Harbour. The Belsnicklers often brought musical instruments and sang. They were served Christmas cake or cookies. This tradition was brought to Nova Scotia by the 1751 Germans immigrants who settled Lunenburg and South shore.
In northern Canada, some people plan a Taffy Pull. This is held in honour of Saint Catherine, the patron saint of single women. This party provides an opportunity for single women to meet eligible single men!
Labrador City in Newfoundland holds a Christmas Light-up Contest each year. People dress the outside of their houses up with lights and often have big ice sculptures in their front gardens! They have no trouble finding enough snow or ice, because Labrador City has about 12-14 Feet of snow every year!
Many Canadian families have cookie-baking parties. They bring a recipe for Christmas cookies, bake them and then exchange them with the members of their family. Gingerbread people and houses are favorites, along with cheese straws. At the end of the party, each family goes home with a variety of different cookies to enjoy over the Christmas season.
Many families of French descent have a huge feast/party on Christmas Eve called a ‘Réveillon’ that lasts well into the early hours of Christmas morning after taking part in Christmas Eve Mass. When people are at Midnight Mass, they hope that ‘Père Noel’ (Santa) will visit their house and leave gifts for children under the tree. The traditional Christmas meal for people in Quebec, is a stew called ‘ragoût aux pattes de cochons’ which is made from pigs feet! However, many people now have a ‘Tourtière’, a meat pie made from venison (or pork or beef).
A popular cake, especially in Quebec and for those of French decent is the Bûche de Noël – a chocolate log.
At the end of the Christmas season on Epiphany (Épiphanie in French), January 6th, people in the province of Quebec have a celebration called ‘La Fêtes des Rois’. They bake a cake and place a bean in the middle. Whoever is the lucky discoverer of the bean, gets to be the king or queen, according to tradition. This is similar to a tradition in Spain.
In Southwestern Nova Scotia, many families eat lobster, a shellfish caught off the shores of Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean, on Christmas Eve.
In the ‘Maritimes’ (the Eastern Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) at Christmas sweets called Barley Candy and Chicken Bones are very popular. They are made by local candy companies. Barley Candies are usually made on a stick (a bit like a lollipop) and are shaped like Santa, reindeer, snowmen, a Christmas tree and other symbols of Christmas. Chicken Bones are pink candy that tastes like cinnamon with a chocolate filling. You melt them in your mouth and once melted, the chocolate comes out!.
There is a large Ukrainian community in Canada (the third largest in the world following Ukraine and Russia). Canadian Ukrainian families will have the traditional 12 meal dishes for Christmas.
According Statistics for Canadians most recent data, consumers spend an average of $967.13 on the holidays.
One of the most important ways of celebrating Christmas in Italy is the Nativity crib scene. Using a Nativity scene to help tell the Christmas story was made very popular by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 (Assisi is in mid-Italy). The previous year he had visited Bethlehem and saw where it was thought that Jesus was born. A lot of Italian families have a Nativity scene in their homes.
The city of Naples in Italy is world famous for its Nativity scenes. These are known as ‘Presepe Napoletano’ (meaning Neapolitan Nativity/cribs scenes). The first Nativity scene in Naples is thought to go back to 1025 and was in the Church of S. Maria del presepe (Saint Mary of the Nativity), this was even before St. Francis of Assisi had made Nativity scenes very popular!
Having Nativity scenes in your own home became popular in the 16th century and it’s still popular today (before that only churches and monasteries had scenes). Nativity scenes are traditionally put out on the 8th December. But the figure of the baby Jesus isn’t put into the crib/manger until the evening/night of December 24th!
Sometimes the Nativity scene is displayed in the shape of pyramid which can be meters tall! It’s made of several tiers of shelves and is decorated with colored paper, gold covered pinecones and small candles. A small star is often hung inside the top of the pyramid/triangle. The shelves above the manger scene might also contain fruit, candy and presents.
One special thing about Neapolitan Nativity scenes, is that they always have extra ‘every day’ people and objects (such as houses, waterfalls, food, animals and even figures of famous people and politicians!). Naples is also the home to the largest Nativity scene in the world, which has over 600 objects on it!
In Naples there is a still a street of nativity scene makers called the ‘Via San Gregorio Armeno’. In the street you can buy wonderful hand made Nativity scene decorations and figures – and of course whole scenes!
Christmas Tress are also now popular in Italy, but only really since after World War II. In 1982, Pope John Paul II, who was Polish, started the tradition of having a Christmas Tree displayed next to the Nativity Crib on St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. The crib scene at the Vatican has seventeen life size statues, nine of them date back to 1842. The tree at the Vatican is donated from a different Italian region or country in Europe every year.
It’s now traditional that Italians decorate their Christmas trees on 8th December (the feast of the Immaculate Conception). The tree then stays up until the Epiphany on 6th January.
One old Italian custom is that children go out Carol singing and playing songs on shepherds pipes, wearing shepherds sandals and hats.
On Christmas Eve, it’s common that no meat (and also sometimes no dairy) is eaten. Often a light seafood meal is eaten and then people go to the Midnight Mass service. The types of fish and how they are served vary between different regions in Italy.
During the Evening of Christmas Eve, the 1983 comedy film ‘Trading Places’ is always shown on Italian TV!
When people return from Mass, if it’s cold, you might have a slice of Italian Christmas Cake called ‘Panettone’ which is like a dry fruity sponge cake and a cup of hot chocolate! Here’s a rece for panettone. You can find out more about Christmas in Italy and Italian Christmas Recipes on this site (goes to another site).
For many Italian-American families a big Christmas Eve meal of different fish dishes is now a very popular tradition! It’s known as The Feast of the Seven Fishes (‘Festa dei sette pesci’ in Italian). The feast seems to have its root in southern Italy and was bought over to the USA by Italian immigrants in the 1800s. It now seems more popular in American than it is in Italy!
Common types of fish eaten in the feast include Baccala (salted Cod), Clams, Calamari, Sardines and Eel.
There are different theories as to why there are seven fish dishes eaten. Some think that seven represents the seven days of creation in the Bible, other say it represents the seven holy sacraments of the Catholic Church. But some families have more than seven dishes! You might have nine (to represent the Christian trinity times three), 13 (to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples) or 11 (for the 11 disciples without Jesus or Judas!)!
The Christmas celebrations start eight days before Christmas with special ‘Novenas’ or a series of prayers and church services.
Some families have a ‘Ceppo’ or Yule Log which is burnt through the Christmas season.
Epiphany is also important in Italy. On Epiphany night, children believe that an old lady called ‘Befana’ brings presents for them. The story about Befana bringing presents is very similar to the story of Babushka. Children put stockings up by the fireplace for Befana to fill. In parts of northern Italy, the Three Kings might bring you presents at Epiphany, rather than Befana. On Christmas day ‘Babbo Natale’ (Santa Claus, but it translates as Father Christmas) also brings presents!
In Italian Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Buon Natale’, in Sicilian it’s ‘Bon Natali’, in Piedmontese it’s ‘Bon Natal’ and in Ladin (spoken in some parts of the northern Italian region of South Tyrol) it’s ‘Bon/Bun Nadèl’. Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages.
