Traditions

Christmas Around the World

By: Mark Johnson

All around the world there are many different holidays, but Christmas is celebrated in 160 countries. That doesn't mean that everyone decorates the Christmas tree, bakes cookies for Santa or opens presents in the morning. Each country has its own take on Christmas.

Here are some of the more interesting Christmas traditions:

Sweden: Gävle Goat

  • At the center of Gävle’s Castle Square, a 13-meter-tall Yule Goat is built every year. And almost every year the goat is burned down.

Austria: Krampus

  • St. Nicholas has an evil sidekick named Krampus. Krampus spends his Christmas kidnapping the naughtiest children and carrying them away in his sack.

Japan: Kentucky Fried Christmas Dinner

  • KFC provides a delicious meal every year for all of Japan. This is strangely the most popular Christmas tradition in Japan.

Iceland: The Yule Lads

  • 13 different lads visit children around the country. They bring gifts for the nice and rotting potatoes for the naughty.


Christmas Inside the Ramily

By: Isabel Ely

At Badin we show our Christmas spirit inside and out of the school. Christmas door decorating gets pretty intense, and this year we are competing for a chipotle lunch. Many homerooms join in on Secret Santa to get in on the gift giving part of Christmas fun. After exams are done we all flood out of Badin for Christmas break. We get two weeks off for time with family, eating cookies and delicious food and unwrapping gifts.

Almost all of us picture Christmas as full of traditions, but we don’t all participate in the same ones. In fact Badin’s least celebrated tradition is caroling with 96.7% of us voting no to contributing to this world wide activity. On the other hand 63.4% of us set out Christmas cookies for our boy, Santa. Do you watch The Christmas Story? Almost half of Badin does, splitting it 47% no to 52% yes.

If you’re interested in how people at Badin celebrate Christmas then look at the charts below.