✨️Holidays Traditions✨️
There is something that unites us all when the month of December begins: the Christmas spirit. The year is coming to an end and emotions are running high, full of typical customs and celebrations, in addition to the famous “year-end balance” in which we evaluate how we have felt and what goals we have achieved. This is how the great and beautiful family of T3 share their end of the year traditions for everyone!
United States 🇺🇲
Christmas in Pajamas
Katrina - @katgirlsings
During a live a year or so back, Aidan mentioned when he thinks of Christmas, he thinks of pajamas. On Christmas Eve, that is exactly what my family and me wear for dinner. Now, why during Christmas dinner? For over a decade we had this long standing tradition where we have one of our closest friends of the family come over for dinner. But one year, it almost didn’t happen because my friends mom suffered a massive shoulder injury and could not make it unless she came in her pajamas. So my family and me decided if my friends mom has to wear pajamas than WE’RE wearing pajamas. Such a simple change brought so much joy, it became another family tradition.
Holidays
YuuVa'a - @yuuvaa_dedios
In the United States, most Americans during this time of year celebrate an annual holiday called Christmas! You may ask, “What is Christmas?” Well, Christmas is a time when families get together and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on the 25th day of December. Normally, people decorate their home with Christmas lights from inside and out, and wreaths on their doors, a tree with ornaments and garlands, giving their home a nice welcoming feeling. Many people love to do caroling (singing Christmas Songs) during the holiday season. Many families will have a big feast on Christmas Eve and have a good time celebrating until they go to sleep and wake up on Christmas morning.
Kids and their relatives will open their presents that are under the Christmas tree. Who is Santa Claus? Santa Claus is a man who brings presents every Christmas and wears a red and white suit. He also has a big beard! Santa’s eight reindeer pull his sleigh through the sky. That is how Santa can bring gifts to everyone. Santa Claus is known by many names, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, and Saint Nicholas. The eight reindeer have their own names: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen! You might have heard of a popular reindeer with a red nose, named Rudolph. Later Rudolph was added on to guide the sleigh because of his red nose that could glow through the fog!
Now, Christmas is not just celebrated in the United States but it's celebrated in so many countries. The majority of this holiday is celebrated by Christians but it is also celebrated by non-Christians! That just shows how wonderful the magic of Christmas is. After Christmas is celebrated, we celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year's. The purpose of celebrating it is to welcome the new year we will be in! Happy Holidays!
México 🇲🇽
Mexican Traditions
Ari - @alidelvalle5
New Year's in Mexico we are usually with our family at a Christmas dinner and, just like some families, they usually break piñatas blindfolded as that makes it more complicated. But the only thing we like is to spend this day with the family.
Rebecca - @rebe_olivarez
In Mexico, in addition to the Christmas tree and decorations, families usually place a Nativity Scene in their homes, which represents the scene of the arrival of the baby Jesus. In it you can see the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, as well as the Three Wise Men and some shepherds and farm animals.
The “Nacimiento” is a scale representation of the birth of Christ in the manger and is one of the most beloved Christmas traditions in Mexico. You'll find one in every Mexican home, office, or school. From simple recreations to huge and elaborate Christmas scenes that will include mountains, lakes, animals, wells, houses and even small towns.
Christmas Posadas
Coral - @coral_official
One of the traditions that we do here in Mexico or least in "Mi pueblo", are the Posadas, which are about getting together as much as the family and close neighbors to make a small party which everyone puts their part either food: tamales, pozole, tacos, atole, etc.
We all get together to sing Christmas carols (plus the children) to break a piñata, it's one of the customs that I love and look forward to the most.
Camila - @camila._castorena
In these Christmas holidays, in my country and with my family we make a Christmas posada. Posadas are a traditional celebration that takes place 9 days before Christmas, that is, from December 16 to 24. Each of the nine days represents a value such as humility, strength, detachment, charity, trust, justice, purity, joy and generosity.
Also, our family has always been taken by the hand of art, for which we made a play about these Christmas holidays and our tradition.
Jessi - @jesss_olc
In Mexico, there's a tradition that is celebrated the nine days before Christmas and is called Posadas -festivities that are intended to prepare people for Christmas and commemorates the journey that Joseph and Mary made to Bethlehem seeking for shelter.
Also the handmade piñatas -filled with sweets and fruits- are essential to celebrate the holidays and the 'posadas' throughout the country. Along with traditional food, drinks, sweets and songs.
Dani - @daniixts
If there is something I like about Mexico, we know its traditions and December/Christmas is no exception. We start from December 12 celebrating our beloved Virgin of Guadalupe until January 6 celebrating Three Kings Day, but on December 23 It's our Christmas Eve, it's something really beautiful, the child of God is lulled to sleep and you ask for a posada, then we have typical dishes for dinner (chilies frios, bacalao, chipotle with cheese, ayocotes and ponche) and finally the piñata that the original tradition is that it represents the seven deadly sins and when you broke it you let it go.
El Salvador 🇸🇻
Christmas in El Salvador
Sonia - @e_aidansarmyyy
There is the posada that is from December 1 to 24, children, young people and adults get together to "ask for a posada" and celebrate that someone opened the doors for them and gave them lodging. with typical foods such as tamales, coffee with bread, bread with chicken, corn atol etc, breaking the piñatas are some of the most representative elements of the inns then when we arrive on December 24 in the morning or afternoon we visit our family and friends , At night we have a family dinner, in this tradition it is very common to make tamales, breads with chicken and the most modern turkey or chicken. Generally the children (although it is a custom that is decreasing) burn gunpowder, small rockets, lights, then they distribute gifts after midnight, when 12:00 am arrives we hug each other and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Costa Rica 🇨🇷
How we celebrate Christmas in Costa Rica For the Ticos?
Allisa - @aidy.stark
Christmas starts from the beginning of November, we love this time! In the month of December the weather is perfect, temperatures drop to 18 degrees and the wind blows, it's sunny, the weather is really beautiful, with the wind you start to smell cypress and coffee, the houses start to be decorated with lights and decorated trees. Family dinners are held where roast chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables are eaten, tamales are eaten, and the delicious eggnog, Christmas cookies are also made and together with our families we decorate them and share family time. It's the best time of the year.
The Festival of Light
Julie - @julieavilesg
The Festival of Light is a popular festival that has taken place in the city of San José, Costa Rica since 1996, officially marking the beginning of Christmas for Josefinos. It includes parades with floats, masquerades, live music and fireworks. Because it takes place in December, the Festival of Light is associated with the end-of-year festivities in the capital. The steady rise in quality, beauty and national radiance have proven that this has already become an inseparable and essential activity of the Christmas holidays. It has also been confirmed by the multiple and laudatory comments with which citizens and all the social communication media and some international newscasts.
Brasil 🇧🇷
Holidays with the family
Júlia - @mirandajuliabonfim
Here in Brazil in my family it is tradition to gather EVERYONE in the family on the 24th to celebrate christmas we hope to reach midnight so we can eat christmas seia and make secret santa and the rest of the night is full of conversations and fun.
Portuguese new year tradition
Gio - @aidansarmybrasil_
Eat 12 raisins at midnight: when the clock strikes12, the new year begins and, at that time, the portuguese eat 12 raisins and make 12 wishes for the new year that is starting.
Making a lot of noise at midnight: banging lids on pots and pans, are some of the options to make noise and create chaos. This moment is understood as a purification, pushing away all that are bad energies.
Argentina 🇦🇷
New year and love
Abril - @10.86pll
In Argentina one of the best known traditions is that of the twelve grapes under the table.
According to a new tradition, which has a good load of superstition, getting under the table to receive the year and eating the twelve grapes is part of a ritual with which the person seeks to find a partner for the following year.
It's said that the 12 grapes symbolize the months of the year and the 12 chimes of the clock that occur at the end of the day.
Chile 🇨🇱
Burning stick figures
Francesca - @fran_aidansarmycl
Burning stick figures is called a popular custom in some cities in northern Chile that consists of burning a stick figure made mainly of paper and old clothes in a ceremony that takes place at midnight on the change of year and is part of the New Year's Eve celebrations year. This festivity is of Ecuadorian origin, known as Año viejo, which was introduced by the Spanish at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century in the city of Guayaquil. This custom was adopted in several Latin American countries including Chile.
In Chile it is carried out mainly in Arica, Iquique, Tocopilla, María Elena, Calama, Antofagasta, Copiapó, Huasco, La Serena, Coquimbo and Penco. It is a purification rite that represents burning the bad things of the past year to receive the new year with hope. It is said that it should be lit a little before twelve, since if it is done after, it goes out or collapses before midnight, it is a sign of bad luck for the coming year.
Spain 🇪🇦
Spain and its traditions
Alanis - @whosalanis__
Besamá: this traditionis typical from the city of Valencia, Spain. In this tradition, we dress up in our folkloric clothes and we go to kiss the hand of the virgin of our city, the Madre de los Desamparados. We spend the day with friends and family.
Russia 🇷🇺
Russia, my homeland
Veronica - @veronicaesev
Russia. My homeland. Russia is a big country with many nations, which means that we have many traditions and holidays. In this article, I will tell you about the holidays that we celebrate in December.
December... Last month of the year, in which we have some big holidays.
Every year on December 4th , a special holiday dedicated to the upcoming New Year is celebrated – the Day of ordering gifts and writing letters to Father Frost (it’s a name of our Santa Claus). It is on this day that post offices around the world begin to work, providing services for sending letters to the winter wizard. In Russia only, the magician receives about 500 thousand handwritten letters and the same number of e-mails.
Volunteer Day, that we have on December 5th, is accompanied by mass events, flash mobs, contests in support of creative people who want to develop and benefit humanity. Charity concerts and festive evenings are always organized. On this day, everyone strives to do a good deed, help a neighbor, perform a heroic act, which volunteers do throughout their lives.
Well, now a little news that will probably be a discovery for you:
We don’t celebrate Christmas in December. Why? Many people here are Orthodox Christians, which is why this branch of traditions has taken root in our country the most. That's why we celebrate Christmas in January, after the New Year, while most people in the world celebrate Christmas in December.
The New Year is more important for us than Christmas. After all, the New Year is considered the main holiday for us.
We celebrate the New Year from December 31st to January 1st . Usually, the whole family prepares a New Year's table with a variety of dishes, but it is Olivier that becomes the crown dish of the table. During the New Year period, the main traditions that are very important for us all are dressing up the Christmas tree, decorating the house, watching New Year's movies with the whole family, as well as Lighting a garland on the Christmas tree with the words “Christmas tree, lights up!”. At 12:00 am during the New Year, under the chiming of the chimes, we make our most cherished wishes, hoping for their fulfillment, and then we go to watch the fireworks, which almost every family buys to celebrate the New Year.
This is only a small part of the Russian traditions of celebrating the New Year, but I hope that you are interested in them as well as other holidays that we celebrate in December. I was very happy to share our holidays with you, and I hope you liked my article about them. Wish you a good day!
Did you like these traditions?
Now, I invite you to interact on the following map, where you can see the different photos that the T3 family has wanted to share with you.
Do you perform any of these traditions? Which ones were missing? Share your end-of-year traditions with us, we are reading you!
