Christmas traditions

I was not originally planning to do this post, but then I got the idea after I shared on juicebar some traditions that we do in my country instead of Halloween, so I realised that sharing Christmas traditions would be cool also.

I am used to seeing a lot of USA Christmas traditions because of a lot of Hollywood movies that I've watched since I was a kid and some TV shows (I even thought that Thanksgiving and Christmas were the same thing because they looked so similar to our Christmas' dinner here lol). I think that the rest of the world might know these traditions too because they export a lot of their movies, but in my country we don't produce good movies, though we export some telenovelas (and Christmas is in summer so it's completely different not only to the USA, but to Europe and Asia too).

This list has a lot of Christmas traditions that people usually do in my country, but I do not necessarily do all these things.

Here's the list:

• Christmas decorations start early, the shops start the decorations and selling Christmas stuff (trees, Christmas lights, Santa Clauses etc) usually in October. In the houses people also put their Christmas decorations early too.
• We decorate a lot of stuff, not only do people decorates their houses but the government decorate parks with Christmas trees, fake snowmen, Santa Claus and puts Christmas lights on real trees; the shopping malls have a big Christmas tree and a Santa Claus for kids to take pictures with (I know that this isn't the case only here).
• Everyone uses plastic Christmas trees (because we don't have pine trees there and literally every tree is an evergreen tree LOL).
• Everything about Christmas is related to Northern Hemisphere countries where it snows, so we have plastic trees with fake snow, fake toy snowmen, toy reindeers, Santa Clauses wearing full winter gear (that is probably too hot even for winters there, poor Santa lol), Christmas lights pretending to be snow and lots of fake snow.
• We make a lot of food, and food cooked in the oven even though the oven turning on the oven (or even the stove) will make your kitchen akin to a sauna (but with windows) and you'll be sweating a lot while cooking the food, but that's the tradition (I never get why people go to real saunas anyway lol).
• Some of the traditional Christmas dishes here (not all of them): Chester (it's a really big chicken full of hormones or people say that it's big because of hormones, and it's a branded chicken, but there's ton of cheaper imitations), Turkey, Tender (a Christmas ham, round and decorated with cloves), Cod salad, Salpicão, Beef loin, Pork shank (all meats are roasted in the oven, Christmas farofa (a farofa but with more meat), Maionese (a salad made with potatoes, carrots, and mayo), Christmas rice (a rice dish usually with corn, peas, olives, carrots and raisins but raisins are controversial since a lot of people hate them).
• Some of the desserts include: Ice cream, Panettone (either filled with fruits or chocolate), Rabanada (a type of French toast), Milk pudding, Manjar (it may be similar to blancmange, it's coconut-flavored and decorated with dried plums), Pavê (usually chocolate flavored, and a usual dad joke with it's same because it's similar to another word in Portuguese).
• Christmas dinner is served at 12 am on Christmas Eve and people exchange gifts and commemorate Christmas on Christmas Eve usually. On Christmas Day we ate Christmas lunch or the leftovers of the Christmas dinner (the dinner at 12 am isn't a rule btw, but a lot of people like to eat at midnight).
• Secret Santa are common everywhere, from your family to friends to schools to workplaces.
• Schools usually have a year-end party and in workplaces they have either parties or outings to restaurants paid for the company (to celebrate both Christmas and New Year's).
• Since houses here don't have chimneys it's normal to tell the children that Santa has a magic powder to shrink himself and them pass the front door lock, or that he can open the front door and enter normally lol
• Telenovelas that are broadcasting during December usually have a special episode on Christmas Eve and New Year's.
• We wear our best clothing on Christmas, usually new clothing and take pictures with the family and next to the Christmas tree.
• A lot of people are left to buy groceries for Christmas dinner and Christmas presents at the last minute so the supermarkets, shops and malls are packed with people in the 24th and in the last weekend before Christmas.
• Some companies give Christmas baskets to their employees (but it's not mandatory).
• In January a lot of people go to clothing stores to return gifts that didn't fit, and change to another one.
• "Caixinha de Natal" is everywhere: in bakeries, shops, the mail carriers and garbage collectors have them, a caixinha de Natal is a small box decorated as a gift or an envelope that people put their money on, usually change, to be shared between the employees or mail carriers or garbage collectors (but it isn't mandatory to give money).
• People complain about the hot weather a lot (not me though lol).
• A lot of people set off fireworks on Christmas Eve.

Now, a personal list of Christmas traditions that I started and I usually do every year:

• I decorate the house where I can, decorate the Christmas tree (and glue it to the table so the cats won't knock it down), decorate my Neocities, and change my desktop wallpaper and cellphone theme to a Christmas one.
• I listen to a lot of vintage Christmas songs, as early as November.
• I watch new movies and rewatch old favourite ones on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
• I read Christmas books and watch Christmas short movies/specials/TV show episodes.
• I do my Christmas shopping early and decorate the presents with pretty ribbons and wrapping paper or decorated paper bags or pretty boxes.
• I take Christmas pictures with my cats.
• I deep clean the whole house in early December.
• I make Christmas-related pages or blog posts on my Neocities (starting this year).
• I just relax on Christmas day on don't do any housework.
• I always try to make new recipes for Christmas dinner.
• I colour Christmas-themed colouring books (this is new, I started this year).

Merry Christmas! 🎄