Christmas Customs from the Americas

festive holly boughs

Canada * Brazil * Chile * Costa Rica * Cuba * Ecuador * Guatemala * Jamaica * Mexico * Nicaragua * Peru * Puerto Rico * Venezuela




Canadian Christmas / Noël Traditions

While Canada and the United States share many customs due to their geographical and historical closeness, I wouldn't want to cut short the rich cultural diversity here in Canada. Two main traditions exist: English-Canadian and French-Canadian. Each has retained large parts of its founding cultures, while adjusting and evolving to fit the Canadian experience.

Anglophones (the English-speaking population)
blend of English and American tradition
Santa Claus is the one to bring the presents Christmas Eve. The children may sometimes open a special present that night, saving Christmas morning for those that Santa brought.
The house is usually decorated with a Christmas tree (usually Balsam fir), wreaths, holly (grown in the West), and sometimes imported mistletoe, garnished with plastic berries.
In Newfoundland mummers go round the neighborhood.
Francophones (French-speaking)
Québec and Acadia
Le Père Noël brings presents for Christmas morning; while on Christmas Eve there are presents from parents.
Québec and Acadian sugar pie and Reveillon
Decorations: Mostly the same as in English Canada. However, creches and manger scenes are a little more popular because most Francophones are Catholic.
Miscellaneous: In Québec the end of Christmas is celebrated on January 6, called La fête du Roi (The Feast of the King). For this a cake is baked with a bean inside of it. The person who gets the bean is the king (or queen) for a day.
Allophones (other-speaking)
Ukrainian, Italian, Scottish, Irish, German, etc peoples adapt the traditions of their home countries to their new life in Canada.



Brazilian Natal Traditions

Pape Noel comes in through the window since fireplaces are rare here. Children set out their shoes for him before going to bed. The next morning, they fix breakfast, get their presents from their shoes and look for more gifts hidden around the house.

On Christmas Eve the cena (supper) is set out before the family goes to Midnight Mass so that the Holy Family can partake if they wish while everyone is out. A popular menu would include turkey, fish and champagne.

Outdoor altars are created, Christmas trees are decorated with candles

To celebrate the season midnight masses are held in church courtyards. Dances, picnics, and fireworks are popular, especially enjoyed by the poor.

Brazilian legend tells that animals gain the power of speech on Christmas night, performing a play of sorts. The rooster says "Christo nasceu" (Christ is born), the bull asks "Onde?" (Where?) and a chorus of sheep answers: "Em Belem de Juda" (In Bethlehem of Judea).




Chilean Navidad Traditions

Chile's gift-bringer is called Viejo Pascuero, or Old Man Christmas. He strongly resembles Santa Claus and likewise comes drawn by reindeer. However, as chimneys are less than roomy in this warm climate, he contents himself with climbing in a window.

The Christmas Eve meal often includes Azuela de ave, a chicken soup filled with potatoes, onions and corn on the cob; and Pan de Pasqua, a Christmas bread filled with candied fruit.

As in all Latin America, the manger scene is the center of festivities; and following the midnight Mass of the Rooster, the Christmas Eve meal




Costa Rican Navidad Traditions

Santa: Children used to leave their shoes out for the Christ Child to fill, but Santa Claus is relieving Him of this task now.

The supper after Midnight Mass will consist of tamales and other local dishes.

Bright, tropical flowers highlight decorations for Christmas. Special trips are made to gather the wild orchids that bloom in the jungle areas. The manger scene is called a Portal and is decorated with these brilliant flowers and colorful fresh fruit. Wreaths of cypress leaves and red coffee berries are very popular.




Cuban Navidad Traditions

The ban on celebrating Christmas was only lifted here in 1998. See The spirit of Christmas across the globe from CNN for details.

The traditional New Year's Eve/festive meal in Cuba was brought out for Christmas: roast pork, rice, black beans, cassava (a potato-like root) and green salad.




Ecuadorean Navidad Traditions

The owner of the ranch distributes gifts to all his employees and their families.

The huge meal will consist of roast lamb, baked potatoes and brown sugar bread. There is always too much to eat, so that the processions that wend their way into the mountains at the end of the day are as heavily laden with leftovers as they were with offerings in the morning.

Christmas Day is a day of colorful procession as the Indians who live and work in the highlands and mountains dress in their finest and ride their brightly arrayed llamas down to the ranches where their employers live. They bring gifts of fruit and produce, which they lay before the image of the Christ Child in the Pesebre, or manger scene, which is set up in the ranch house. Children also bring their gifts and make pretty speeches to the Holy Infant, asking blessings for their family and their animals. Then there is a fiesta with much singing and dancing outdoors.




Guatemalan Navidad Traditions

Gifts are left under the tree on Christmas morning by the Christ Child for the children. Parents and adults do not exchange gifts until New Year's Day.

Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve follows the Posada and is in turn followed by a full supper.

The Christmas tree has joined the nacimiento as a popular ornament because of the large German population in Guatemala.

For nine days before Christmas, Posada processions pass through the streets. The beat of drums and the crackle of fireworks provide lively accompaniment as the figures of Mary and Joseph are carried to a friend's house, where a carol is sung asking for lodging for the Holy Family. After ritual questions and answers, the doors are opened and Mary and Joseph are taken to the nacimiento, or manger scene, where they will remain until the next night, when they once again go out seeking shelter. Everyone who accompanies the figures on their quest makes a great party with punch and hot tamales and dancing once the goal is accomplished. On Christmas Eve, the figure of the Christ Child is added to the nacimiento at the last of the nine hopuses to receive the Holy Family. This is the signal for the biggest party of all, and the home selected had better be a large one, since everyone who was involved over the last nine days will show up on this night.




Jamaican Christmas Traditions

Jamaican Christmas festivities reached their height in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with feasts and processions featuring strolling singers and performers. In this century, the celebration came under more regulation so that performers had to be licensed. This has added to a general decline, although all the customs can still be found in various pasts of the island. The women were called set-girls because they worked together in a set of a specific number. They danced to the accompaniment of gourd rattles, fifes, triangles, and tambourines. The men were called actor boys or koo-koo boys. They wore masks and elaborate headdress and would sometimes perform plays or skits. The name koo-koo boys derived from a song in one of the plays which begged for food. "Koo-koo" was the sound used to imitate the rumbling of an empty stomach. The most colorful figure in these bright festivities was the John Canoe dancer. He wore a mask, a wig, and a military jacket. On his head was a pasteboard houseboat with puppets of sailors, soldiers, or plantation workers. Often this was of great size, and the most skilled dancer had to be chosen to wear it. The name John Canoe is obscure. It may be a corruption of the French gens inconnu, which means "unknown people," or it may come from cornu, "horned," since early dancers wore animal masks. The origins of all these festivities are lost in antiquity, but they seem to derive equally from African and European customs.




Mexican La Navidad Traditions

Papa Noel

Festive foods include bunuelos (fritters) that are made only on Christmas day to be sold in the small village of Celaya in the town square.

The main Christmas celebration is a drama called a Las Posadas (Inns) is a a re-enactment of the nine-day journey of Jose and Maria from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and their search for a place to stay once there. The processions begin nine days before Christmas, using real houses as the setting; Piñata a large deocrated clay jar or papier mache container filled with goodies is broken open by blindfolded children with a stick. (See p137)




Nicaraguan Navidad Traditions

Like many Latin American countries, Nicaragua retains many of the customs of old Spain.

On January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, it is the three wise men who brings gifts for the children.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas people stroll the streets where there are many things to buy: candles, Nativity pictures, toys and foods. Children carry fragrant bouquets to the alter of the Virgin and sing carols. On Christmas Eve, church bells beckon the people to Midnight Mass. Often the Holiday season concludes with a brilliant display of fireworks.




Peruvian Navidad Traditions

On Christmas Eve, the meal after Midnight Mass features tamales.

Many Peruvian manger scenes will feature the quaintly beautiful figures carved of wood by the Quechua Indians.

Christmas Day festivities in Lima are highlighted by a bullfight and a procession with the statue of the Virgin Mary.




Puerto Rican Navidad Traditions

Gifts arrive Christmas morning, but also on the Epiphany. On January 5 in the evening, children leave water, grass and grain under their beds for the camels of the Wise Men and the next day find presents in their place. Santa is also popular with the children.

The manger scenes are peopled with santos, hand-carved figures that represent some oldest works of art. The tree is also popular.

Early in the Christmas season, carolers begin going from house to house and from farm to farm. They wear homemade costumes of what the Magi might have worn and sing bright Spanish carols called aquinaldos and villancicos. They are rewarded with food and drink, and many from each house will join them, so that eventually there are great crowds going singing from place to place. Nine days before Christmas, the Mass of the Carols begins. This takes place each morning at 5:30 a.m. It is filled with music and usually the caroling continues on the way to work or home.




Venezuelan Navidad Traditions

After Mass everyone enjoys tostados and coffee.

Venezuelans attend a daily early morning church service between December 16th and 24th called Misa de Aguinaldo (Early Morning Mass.) In Caracas, the capital city, it is customary to roller-skate to this service and many neighborhoods close the streets to cars until 8 a.m. Before bedtime children tie one end of a piece of string to their big toe and hang the other out the window. The next morning, rollerskaters give a tug to any string they see hanging.





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