The world's 13 weirdest Christmas traditions
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Loading... - Noelle Clarke
- 14 Dec 2021
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1. Japan: All I want for Christmas is… KFC
Forget the Christmas turkey. For many Japanese, traditional Christmas dinner is Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Due to a combination of tiny Japanese ovens and a clever marketing campaign convincing locals that fried chicken is a traditional American Yuletide feast, reservations have to be made to eat at a KFC on Christmas Day.
During the run-up to Christmas, Colonel Sanders statues outside KFC’s Japanese outlets wear Santa gear. The chicken is served in special holiday packaging.
Demand is such that an online service has been created: order your Xmas Family Bucket in advance and have it delivered.
2. Norway: Hide your broom
Norwegians believe that Christmas Eve coincides with the arrival of evil spirits and witches. It is only logical then, that Norwegian householders hide all their brooms before they go to sleep.
After all, nothing spoils Christmas quicker than finding your broom in broken pieces at the foot of a tree, trashed by some joy-riding witch.
3. Caracas: Get your skates on
In the week leading up to Christmas, Venezuelans attend a daily church service called Misa de Aguinaldo (Early Morning Mass).
In the capital, Caracas, it is customary to travel to the church service on roller skates.
Indeed, so widespread is the practice, many roads in the capital are closed until 8am to provide Christmas worshippers with a safe passage.
4. Austria: Facing your Christmas demons
In Austria, St Nicholas has an evil counterpart called Krampus. He is the bad cop to St Nick’s good cop, a demon-like creature with one task: to punish bad children before Christmas.
Men dressed in devil costumes roam the streets, carrying chains and a basket for abducting especially bad children and hauling them to hell.
It's certainly one way to keep the kids off the streets.
5. Catalonia: Pooping their way through Christmas
Welcome to the bizarre Catalan tradition of caga tió or 'defecating log'.
Locals in Catalonia create a character out of a log, drawing a face on it and giving it a hat. Then they spend a fortnight 'feeding' it fruit, nuts and sweets.
On Christmas Eve, the entire family beats the log with sticks and sings a traditional song that translates to 'if you don't crap well, i'll beat you with a stick' until the log excretes all its treats. It's hard to comprehend why this tradition hasn't caught on elsewhere.
They also decorate their nativity scenes with small, pooping, ceramic caganers (figurines). Usually well-known characters, often drawn from that year's news, the figurines always have their pants around their ankles. Read More…
