{"id":540,"date":"2015-12-11T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.sg\/stories\/strange-christmas-celebrations\/"},"modified":"2022-07-11T17:22:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T17:22:03","slug":"strange-christmas-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.sg\/stories\/activities\/strange-christmas-celebrations\/","title":{"rendered":"(Bizarre) Christmas Celebrations Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Tis the season to be jolly, to give and to celebrate. Thanks to those ubiquitous carols, when one thinks of Christmas, the images of Santa Claus, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and snow inevitably come to mind. But not everyone celebrates Christmas the way it is portrayed in the movies.<\/p>\n

In fact, there are some interesting variations on the way people celebrate the event in different cultures and countries around the world. Here are 8 unique\u00a0Christmas celebrations around the world:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Decorating The Banana Tree In India<\/b><\/h2>\n

In India, Christians might celebrate Christmas by going to church and exchanging gifts, much like the rest of the world, but their Christmas decor is quite different. Instead of the usual Christmas trees that we are used to seeing in homes and shopping centres, Indians actually decorate banana trees and mango trees instead. Yes, with lights and ornaments and everything!<\/p>\n

2. Christmas KFC In Japan<\/b><\/h2>\n

Forget turkey. For the Japanese, the bird of choice when it comes to celebrating Christmas is chicken. And not just any type of chicken, it has to be KFC! Thanks to a savvy marketing campaign some four decades ago, KFC became synonymous with Christmas in Japan, and has been part of the country\u2019s Christmas traditions ever since.<\/p>\n

\"kfc-christmas-japan\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CC 2.0 by\u00a0Robert Sanzalone<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

3. A Time For Remembrance In Finland<\/b><\/h2>\n

In Finland, Christmas is a season of celebration and a time to honour the deceased. Families usually visit the graves of their ancestors and relatives on Christmas Eve to light candles and even those who don\u2019t have the graves of their relatives nearby, visit cemeteries to light candles in honour of deceased family members that are buried elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"cemetary-candles\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Skating To Mass In Venezuela<\/b><\/h2>\n

In the capital city of Caracas, church-goers tie one end of a length of string to their big toe and leave the other end hanging outside their bedroom window before they go to bed on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, as people roller skate to early morning mass \u2013 another Venezuelan Christmas tradition \u2013 they tug on the strings they see hanging out the windows to wake up those who have overslept.<\/p>\n

\"skating\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5. A Time To Share (And Scare!) In Austria<\/b><\/h2>\n

Christmas isn\u2019t only about joy and good cheer over in Austria. December is also a month when young men walk around dressed up as the Krampus \u2013 a scary looking, devil-demon type of creature, complete with horns, cowbells and rods \u2013 to scare children and even the adults, too.<\/p>\n