Christmas Traditions You Probably Should Know About

And we thought the threat of receiving lumps of coal was a terrifying prospect?

• All across Europe there are members of a shady cast of characters who are far removed from our own “jolly old elf.”  They make Santa’s threat of skipping your house on Christmas Eve sound desirable.

• Since the 15th century in Holland, each December 6 Sinter Klaus arrives by ship into the port of Amsterdam accompanied by his servant, Black Peter (Zwarte Piet in Dutch). Children who have been irretrievably bad are popped into a bag by Peter and carried off to Spain.

• Other disturbing types include Hans Trapp in Germany who threatens children with sticks; Buzebergt, also from Germany, who smears starch on anyone who crosses her path; and  Cert in Czechoslovakia who wears all black and carries a whip and chains.

• Most concerning to me is Frau Freen, also known as Bertcha, who in order to ensure that holiday household chores were done, cast bad luck spells on lazy females.

There are Many Unpalatable Christmas Foods Thats Origins Can Be Traced Back to England

• Everyone’s favorite running baked Christmas joke, the fruitcake, dates back to England’s Middle Ages (not the one Aunt Bertcha gave you in 1983.)

• Mincemeat pie was a favorite holiday specialty in Medieval Times. Suet, dried meats and fruits were the primary ingredients. I was very relieved to learn that meat is not used in the modern day version.

• Plum pudding, an icon of the Victorian era, was prepared in bags and resembled cannon balls. These days the pudding can be purchased in cans at gourmet food stores. These taste more like the can than anything ever described by Charles Dickens. Originally intended as a way to preserve meat, there are no plums in plum pudding. “Plum” was probably inserted into the name to distract anyone from thinking about preserved meats.

• Gingerbread is under-appreciated for the most part by Americanized palates. The first gingerbread man is credited as being produced by the court of Queen Elizabeth I.  The queen often bestowed important visitors with charming gingerbread likenesses of themselves. The way many monarchs were into chopping off each other’s heads during this time period, I believe this fits.

Favorite Christmas Flower

• Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, the American ambassador to Mexico from 1825 – 1829, brought Mexican “Flower of the Holy Night” back to his home in South Carolina. The amateur botanist propagated the plant in Greenville, SC, hothouses. A few years later the festive red plant was given the name, “poinsettia.” That an important South Carolina figure on a boondoggle had sense enough to bring home a plant, and not an Argentinian woman as proof of his whereabouts, is especially notable.

Christmas Superstitions

• For the most part, children born on Christmas Eve or Day are considered to be very lucky. In Poland, he or she may turn out to be a werewolf. Humm, I wonder what they think of Twilight in Poland? Maybe babies born on Easter get to be vampires?

• In Greece you are to burn your old shoes during the Christmas season to prevent misfortunes in the coming year.

• Anyone who dies at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve in Ireland, goes straight to heaven without having to wait in purgatory.

• A girl from Devonshire, England, who knocks on the door of the hen house on Christmas Eve, will know she is getting married within the year if a rooster crows.

• Early Christmas morning, trolls roam the Swedish countryside. Stay Indoors!

On a final note, the above are all mostly superstitions and old legends. I beg you not to go around this week stating them as fact unless you want to scare the heck out of your loved ones. For instance, I seriously don’t think Swedish people should stay indoors. And absolutely no one should burn a perfectly decent pair of shoes.

Do you have anything to add? How about your own interesting Christmas lore?

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed!