Celebrating Christmas Worldwide

Christmas is a wonderful time of year for me. It is a time of celebration and giving. I celebrate Christmas as the day of observing the birth of Jesus Christ. This is the true meaning of Christmas. However, it is also a time for me to be with my family. Although my family is really two families because of divorce, I feel love and warmth no matter where am I with any part of my family. Our traditions may have changed, but that only gives space for more traditions to begin.
One of the things that my family does is that on Christmas morning is that everyone sits down somewhere in the living room. Then, one person goes up to the tree and passed out gifts one by one. When someone gets a gift, they can open it then. This keeps things a lot more organized since my family is big.
I think its is also interesting to see what other people around the world do to celebrate Christmas. According to www.the-north-pole.com, in Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born, the Church of the Nativity celebrates with flags, decorations, and have a parade on Christmas Eve where horsemen and mounted police lead a procession where a solitary horseman sitting astride on a coal-black steed carries a cross.
The horsemen is then followed by churchmen and government officials and they make their way solemnly into the church. There they place an ancient effigy of the Holy Child inside. Down deep winding stairs is a grotto where a silver star makes the site of Jesus’s birth. A star is also place on a pole in the village square and Christian homes paint crosses over the door and display homemade manger scenes.
Santa Claus is also found in several celebrations around the world. Worldofchristmas.net states that in France he is know as Pere Noel, and children leave shoes by fireplace for him to fill with gifts. Santa Claus also just doesn’t live in the North Pole. In the Netherlands, where he is known as Sinterklaas or Sinterklass, he and his helper Black Peter live in Spain. In Brazil, Papai Noel, or Father Noel, lives in Greenland. In Mexico as well as Spain, children receive gifts from the Three Wise Men on January 6th. According to the website Santa’s Net, the Christian children in China know him as Dun Che Lao Ren, or Christmas Old Man, and they hang muslin stockings for him to fill.
Christmas is a holiday celebrated in many different countries in many different ways. I hope that it’s true meaning is never totally lost with all the hustle and bustle of buying gifts and spending money, because it isn’t about that. So, I hope that everyone has a merry Christmas this year, and every year to come.