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In Turkey,  we celebrate Christmas. It’s just that it’s not on the 25th December, but on the 31st . Actually, we just celebrate new year so it has no religious meaning for us.
But here is the interesting thing: Did you know that Santa Claus lived in Turkey? :) The idea of Christmas for the Turkish is not a throughly alien one: Santa Claus (Father Christmas) was born in Turkey and is called Noel Baba in Turkish. A historic temple where his home was still exists today and is open for visits.

December the 6 th become associated with the feast of St Nicholas and in later years, a bishop declared December the 25 th as the birth of Jesus. Over time, the two celebrations began to fuse together and that was the first connection between Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas and Christmas day traditions.

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Christmas in Pinerolo, Italy
In Italy Christmas is on the 25 th of December when the night before was born the Savior. For children Father Christmas lays many presents under a Christmas tree. The streets and the houses are full of lights. At lunch of Christmas day families eat together a lot of food and sweets. In Pinerolo it makes a lovely cake, the "panettone".

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In Austria, we have a lot of Advent traditions that prepare us for Christmas. I’m going to describe just two of them. The first one is “Anklöpfeln” or “Klöpflsingen”. Groups of people go around dressed as shepherds (the Alpine shepherd look), knock at people’s doors and if anyone opens the door they sing a song or two, announcing the birth of Jesus and inviting the people to come and honour him. The songs are traditional too.

The second one is blessing the house on the Smoke Nights. The Smoke Nights are on December 21 (the longest night of the year), Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and the night before Epiphany (Jan. 5). It’s bad luck to keep your laundry hanging on those nights, an old superstition says. In order to drive evil spirits away and bring good luck into the house, the family living in a house will go to every room in the house with incense (smoke) and say prayers together.

Austrian children get their presents on Christmas Eve, and it’s Baby Jesus (the Christkind) who brings them. Every family may celebrate differently, but there usually is a special Christmas dinner – in our area it’s often soup with pasta and sausages – and then the family will go to the Christmas tree (which is also brought by the Christkind) and open their presents.

In many families, people sing “Silent Night”. Did you know “Silent Night” is an Austrian song and is 200 years old this year? It was written and first performed in 1818 in Oberndorf, province of Salzburg. Singers from the Zillertal (where our school is situated) were instrumental in bringing it out into the world. Midnight Mass rounds off Christmas Eve, though some people – especially those with young children – may attend Children’s Mass in the afternoon instead. Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day (Dec. 26) are usually family days. People stay at home or visit family, so Christmas is very much a family matter.

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On December 31st we eat 12 grapes at midnight to have a happy and lucky New Year. We eat one grape with each bell strike.

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In Poland we start celebrating Christmas on 24th December. On Christmas Eve we've got special evening dinner (usually when first star apears in the sky at about 5 or 6 p.m)with the whole family.
It consists of 12 traditional dishes (but on that day they do not include meat).  This number is a symbol of richness, twelve Apostles and a representation of the twelve months of the year.  We eat beetroop or fish soup, fried carp,  cabbage with peas,kutia made of groats, poppy seed cake, pierogi dish and so on. Nowadays, we still have traditional dinner but sometimes we prepare less dishes than before :-) One more interesting fact is that on that day we share a wafer with each other and good wishes are expressed. After dinner children look for their presents under the Christmas tree and it is believed that baby Jesus brings them. We also sing carols and spend time with our families during the Christmas period (up to 26th Decmeber)

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We are celebrating Christmas on 25th of December. Same as polish people, on 24th we are having Cristmas Eve dinner with the family. You will find 12 meals on the table and the meals must be vegetarian, made without meat, milk or eggs. After he dinner we have magic tradition to try to know future. Festive spells are inseparable from most of Lithuania's calendar festivities. However, most of them are performed during Christmas, especially on Christmas Eve. Most popular spell is pulling the straw from under a tablecloth. Before covering the Christmas Eve table, a white table cloth should be used. Under it you need to spread a moth of hay or other herbs with stalks. After the dinner every family member pulls a straw. It is necessary to do this with the right hand. The pulled out straw will show the future life of the person - what a straw is, the future life will be alike. A long straw means a happy and long life, a short one - a poor life and quick death. Small means a hard, poor life, thick and leafy - rich, sallow. The green straw is a good sign. This spell can be done by all family members no matter what age they are. It fits to kids too.

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Perhaps the most beautiful, loved and anticipated celebration is Christmas celebrated by all Christians on December 25th.

From a religious point of view, Christmas means the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, sent to Earth to help people become better, more faithful, more tolerant and responsible, more tolerant and patient.

Pig slaughter

The habit of sacrificing the pig of Ignat on December 20th is still practiced through our Romanian villages, where households grow pigs in their own yards, because at the winter holidays they have fresh meat from which to prepare their traditional Romanian dishes: toba , racitura, tochitura, sausages.

After the meat has been sorted and sorted, the host prepares outside, close to the sacrifice place, a large meal for all the people who helped to cut the pig. The traditional dish, called the "pig of the pig", is obtained by frying, in a large bowl of fat, pieces of meat cut from all sides of the sacrificed pig: pieces of musk, liver, bacon, coast, jaw.

The Birth of God is proclaimed

Before Christmas, the priest walked with the house-to-house icon to proclaim the Nativity. This is an extremely old practice, in fact, a visit the priest makes to his believers. The priest carries with him an icon that depicts the scene of the Savior's birth, and in each house sing the holiday tropar, giving the icon to the believers to be kissed.

Christmas tree decorating

The tradition of decorating the fir tree and fir tree house is a relatively new custom, taken over in the mid-nineteenth century from the Germanic countries. With its triangular shape, the tree symbolizes the Holy Trinity, and the ornaments adorned with the tree signify wealth and knowledge, as does the sacred tree in the Garden of Eden.

Nowadays, Christmas tree decoration has become one of the most beloved ones, both in rural and urban areas, with the expectation of Christmas Santa's Eve.

Children know that Santa Claus brings more gifts to those who have been very good. This is still a very serious argument today and it is a strong motivation for children who are striving to become more kind, more diligent and more obedient to receive more gifts next year.

carols

On the eve of Christmas there was a habit of going with the carol. Colindies are traditional songs made up of good and good wishes for all who listen to them. On Christmas Day, the colinds come back, that's why children sing "Steaua". Through this carol, they announce the coming of the infant Jesus Christ into the world.

There are areas in the country where the tradition of Christmas is still preserved with holiness and is transmitted unaltered from generation to generation. People in villages have specific habits from which they do not deviate, on the threshold of holidays, we hear of the traditions and superstitions that many of us have never heard.

Loans and luck

In some places, on Christmas Eve, households gather all of the things they have borrowed from the village. In other places, on Christmas Eve there is nothing to borrow because borrowers do this just to be lucky to the thieves next year.

Tradition also says that those who give things out of the house drive away the luck of the home. In some villages, in the water bowl, where the family is being washed, nuts are put in order for people to be healthy over the year.

Still in the villages, it is still customary for the Christmas carols to go from the gate to the gate to announce the coming of Jesus Christ to the world. It is said that the masked youth accompanying these bands have the gift of banishing evil spirits and that those who do not receive them will have a poor year with bad luck.
Another important tradition is the Christmas table. On December 25, Christmas is over, which lasts for about six weeks. On this day, people can indulge in traditional Christmas dishes: drumsticks, lebars, sarmale, caltaboys, colas, cakes, pita, cakes, salads, sausages or roast.

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The Christmas celebration begins practically on December 24th, Christmas Eve, a day when children receive nuts, coils, wine and money as a reward for their wishes and their carols. In the family, he stays in until Christmas morning. In Oltenia, on the eve, women will give birds and animals from their food by throwing it to the east so that it will not do any damage in the coming year. There are spells around the fire and nothing borrowed because it brings bad luck. On Christmas day, everyone goes to the church. In some villages, there is still the habit of going to church at midnight between Christmas and Eve. For Christmas, it is still customary for the fins to carry our basket baskets with gifts, wine and cakes.