Today I begrudgingly wandered around the overheated department stores of Tokyo looking for stuff to buy my family and friends, and stumbled upon some rather original gifts. So, if you’re at a loss for Christmas present ideas, look no further.

Tokyu Hands is always a good place for frivolously blowing money on meaningless novelty tat like fluffy dog-turds and Mexican wrestler masks, as I learned the stupid way a few months ago, after drunkenly stumbling in there, post-pub, and buying a Japanese version of the classic game, “Pop-Up Pirate,” with the pirate inexplicably wearing black leather bondage gear.

The mind-boggling array of moderately amusing plastic trash in Tokyu Hands makes it the last resort for the totally desperate shopper, who really can’t think of a present to buy that difficult relative. I went there first, to save time. Inside, I spotted some characteristically odd seasonal gifts, like this startlingly realistic roast-turkey-hat. (more…)

Christmas Day, not a public holiday, is celebrated mainly in the southern and eastern parts of Nigeria. Nigerians have special traditions they employ to celebrate Christmas. Almost everyone goes to church on Christmas Day.

Weeks before the day, people buy lots of hens, turkeys, goats and cows. Children hover around the beasts, taunting, and mostly gawking at them. There are feverish preparations for travel, holiday, and exchange of gifts, caroling and all manner of celebration.

On Christmas Eve, traditional meals are prepared. In Yoruba, such meals usually include Iyan, (pounded yam) eba or amala, served with peppery stewed vegetables.

People find themselves eating this same meal three to four times on that day, as they are offered it at every house they visit; and according to Yorùbá customs, it was considered rude to decline to eat when offered food. (more…)

In the United Kingdom the traditions are quite similar to those of Australia, North America and New Zealand, and all other commonwealth traditions as they stemmed from Britain.

Christmas is very special to many Britons, as it is a mainly religious festival, that everyone can enjoy. The Christmas season starts at Advent, where holly wreaths are made with three pink, one pink and one purple candle, however many shops sell christmas decorations beforehand, and lasts until 6 January, as it is considered bad luck to have Christmas decorations up after this date.

On Christmas Eve, presents are delivered in stockings and under the Christmas tree by Father Christmas, who previously had been something like The Ghost of Christmas Present in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but has now become mainly conflated with Santa Claus.

The two names are now used interchangeably and equally known to British people, but Father Christmas tends to be used more often, and some distinctive features still remain. Many families tell their children traditional christmas stories, about Father Christmas and his reindeer. (more…)

Christmas in Ireland is the largest celebration of the year and lasts from 24 December to 6 January, although many may view 8 December as being the start of the season as it is the traditional Christmas shopping day in Ireland due to all schools being closed.

It plays an extremely important role in both religious and secular aspects of Irish life.

Although religious devotion in Ireland today is considerably less than it used to be, there are huge attendances at religious services for Christmas Day, the most popular service by far being Midnight Mass.

Most families get their deceased relatives prayed for at these Masses as it is a time of remembering the dead in Ireland. It is traditional to decorate graves at Christmas with a wreath made of holly and ivy. (more…)

Although Southern Basque Country is part of Spain and Northen Basque Country is part of France, the Basque people have their own traditions at Christmas.

The Three Wise Men are popular in the South and Père Noël in the North, but there is also another character which is well known in both sides of the Pirineess, called Olentzero.

Olentzero was a pagan coal worker who went to adore Jesus to Bethleem. Nowadays, it is said that he brings presents to all good people at Christmas Eve. (more…)

Christmas in France is celebrated mainly in a religious manner, though some secular ways of celebrating the holiday also exist.

Children put their shoes by the fireplace so Père Noël (Father Christmas) can give them gifts. Many French families also decorate their homes with Nativity Scenes depicting the birth of Jesus.

Many families attend midnight mass. Some people put additional Santons (little saints) in their nativity scenes, which are bought at special Christmas fairs before the holidays (more…)

In Spain, people sing and dance in the streets after midnight mass. Most homes and churches display a Nativity scene. Children put their shoes in the window on January 5 in hopes that the three wise men deliver them presents

Source: Wikipedia

Sinterklaasavond (St. Nicholas evening) remains more important in the Netherlands than Christmas, although in recent years, the Dutch have started to celebrate Christmas Eve with Santa as well.

This sparks minor controversy each year over when it is “appropriate” to start celebrating Christmas, with shopkeepers preferring to start the lucrative Christmas season immediately after Sinterklaasavond (sometimes putting up decorations even earlier) while others argue that the “foreign” and “commercial” Christmas impinges too much on the traditional Sinterklaas celebrations.

Considering the ancestry of Santa Claus, it has truly been said that Sinterklaas is in competition with himself here.

The present-giver in children’s folklore in The Netherlands and Belgium is a Santa-ish character called Sinterklaas or Sint Nicolaas. Like Father Christmas in Germany, Sinterklaas is often accompanied by a black helper named Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) who punishes disobedient children. (more…)

Modern traditions combine with holdovers from their Roman forebears in the celebrations of Natale, the Italian Christmas.

The pagan feast of Saturnalia coincides with the Christian advent, and the holiday season there spans from these weeks through Epiphany.

Food, religious observances, nativity displays, and gift-giving are prominent.

On Christmas Eve, Italians celebrate “La Vigilia”, or the Feast of the seven fishes. In some regions, presents are brought on Epiphany by La Befana, and in others by Baby Jesus on Christmas day or eve. (more…)

Joulupukki is the Finnish name for Santa Claus. The name Joulupukki literally means Yule Goat or Christmas Goat.

This name is likely to come from an old Finnish tradition, where people dressed in goat hides called nuuttipukkis used to circulate in homes after Christmas eating leftover food.

Today Joulupukki looks and behaves mostly like his American version, but there are differences. Joulupukki’s workshop is situated, not in the North Pole or Greenland, but in Korvatunturi, Lapland, Finland. He does not sneak in through the chimney during the night, but knocks on the front door during Christmas eve.

When he comes in, his first words usually are: “Onkos täällä kilttejä lapsia?” (Are there (any) good children here?) (more…)