The Tradition of Santa Claus

Everyone, everywhere celebrates Christmas. Santa Claus is the number one fan and symbol of this holiday. However, since Christmas is celebrated differently throughout the world it only makes sense that Santa is also seen differently throughout the world. Let’s take a look at some of the different countries and how they celebrate Christmas.

Our first stop is France. Here Christmas is known as “Noel” and the children call Santa “Pere Noel.” The French have a Christmas tree that is decorated with real candles and bright red ribbons. They also decorate the outside of their house, especially if they have evergreen trees. They put lights on these trees and they leave them on for the entire night.

Our next stop is the Eastern European country of Hungary. Here Santa Claus is called “Mikulas” which means “Winter Grandfather.” On December 5 children clean their rooms and take baths in expectation of Mikulas’ arrival on December 6. For children who are good Mikulas leaves candy and toys in their clean shoes. For naughty children Mikulas leaves a golden birch. This means that these children should get a spanking. On Christmas Eve baby Jesus and His angels bring presents and the Christmas tree. In order to give baby Jesus and His angels time to set everything up families either go to the movies or to a relative’s house on Christmas Eve.

Our next stop is in Germany where they truly love to decorate for the holidays. Germans really like to put up electric candles and cover their homes with all kinds of lights and colors. The one special decoration that the Germans are known for is the Adventskranz. This is a leaf wreath that has four candles in it. Germans also like to place a manger scene inside of their home. The Germans do enjoy two times of gift receiving though. The first is on December 6 when St. Nicholas brings children small gifts. Then on Christmas Eve Father Christmas brings gifts to everyone.