As a cub leader, we’re always looking for ideas for fun nights that help the kids develop in some way. Throwing around ideas this term, we thought of doing a Christmas night where kids’ families come along and share their culture/traditions.
Santa, Sinteklaus or St Nick, Zwarte Piet, boomers – different Christmas traditions
The idea is for a parent/grandparent to talk for 10 or so minutes about the Xmas traditions of their home country/region, showing any costumes or props, then answering questions.
It’s a nice way to celebrate Christmas without just being about gifts or decorations and it’s a fun way to teach them about different cultures and countries (must remember to have a world globe handy!)
* Collage made form images from capl.washjeff.edu, free digital vintage stamps and private sources
What a great idea, Akela 🙂 Learning about other cultures can be so interesting and gives us a chance to find new ideas to use, too. I hope your Christmas night goes really well at cubs.
If you need some more info, I found this on French Christmas and Pere Noel for a school assignment…
Thanks for the info Emily – hope your assignment went well!
I remember my Girl Scout group holding a similar night when I was a youngster. It’s a great idea and great way for children to learn about the Christmas traditions of other cultures.
My opa (Dutch for grandfather) taught me about Dutch Christmas traditions when I was a child and I found it fascinating. According to some legends Santa Claus actually lives in Spain! The Dutch also celebrate Sinterklass or Santa Claus on the 5th of December and most families have a party to mark the occasion. So even though we live in New Zealand every 5th of December we have a special get together and share Dutch biscuits, chocolates and sweets as is tradition in Holland.
I love learning about other traditions for Christmas, and also that children are being taught about other cultures and traditions.
And what kid wouldn’t want to celebrate on the 5th and 25th of December??
You must have had great leaders to come up with the same idea as us, lol!
Strangely enough, the main guest we had was Dutch and shared similar stories and the Dutch biscuits with us! It was fun and a great learning tool so we hope to do it again.
My family is pretty traditional when it comes to celebrating Christmas. 🙂 I cannot really say much for group or social activities. But, I tend to spend it celebrating with my family. We usually like to go out to eat for Christmas Eve. Usually somewhere nice, often with breakfast food all day. Later in the evening, we will go to the movies together and then we would come home, open one present and set up stuff for Santa of course. And then go to bed. 😀 I have such little siblings that somewhere between 3-5am they start popping up and waking everyone in the house up, haha.
I love that you have a tradition for spending Christmas Eve together like that. Although to be hoenst I have no idea if our movie cinemas are open Christmas Eve night 🙂
I am so grateful that my kids have never been super early risers on Christmas Day – last year was about 6.30 I think and thta’s the earliest Christmas morning they’ve given me (exclduing as newborns when a 2am feed wasn’t related ot Christmas excitement!) I have to admit that I am often awake earlier WAITING for the kids to come running in full of excitement 🙂
Great idea. Christmas is celebrated universally and every nation has a greeting in its own language. Maybe Children can teach each other how to say Happy Christmas in their own languages.
Yes, learning another’s language is a good start to recognising differences are ok and interesting.
Tradition is a big thing with my family and we try to spend the entire holiday together. Now with the addition of in laws, it would be nice to sit down together and learn some of their traditions. I have a son in law who’s grandmother is from Greece, it would be nice to learn about her culture and traditions. You never think to ask such things when you rarely know or see someone. It’s a great way of breaking the ice, everyone likes to talk about home.
Extended family can open us up to other traditions, some of which we can incorproate into our own, too.
I had a Greek boyfriend once and I loved their tradition of HEAPS of seafood for Christmas dinner 🙂 Yum, yum yum 🙂
Emily Pracha shares an interesting comparison of Christmas traditions between Czech and USA celebrations.