Christmas in the USA

Christ­mas in the US is kind of a big deal, con­si­de­ring 75% of the po­pu­la­ti­on is Chris­ti­an. Lots of pe­op­le go to church on Christ­mas Eve or Christ­mas Day, and then spend the day with their fa­mi­lies. Choirs go around town and sing ca­rols and pe­op­le vo­lun­teer to rai­se mo­ney for or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons such as the Sal­va­ti­on Army. Some of the tra­di­ti­ons that we have are si­mi­lar to tho­se here in Fin­land. The­re are San­tas in lo­cal malls and child­ren send their Christ­mas lists to him in the North Pole. We also bake coo­kies and ot­her ho­li­day tre­ats, and it’s com­mon for pe­op­le to make and de­co­ra­te gin­gerb­re­ad hou­ses. A lot of fa­mi­lies also go to cut down a Christ­mas tree, but most pe­op­le just have a plas­tic tree sin­ce it’s cle­a­ner and ea­sier to set up. Ty­pi­cal Ame­ri­can way.

Though I ha­ven’t seen a Fin­nish Christ­mas yet, I think the­re are some things that we do in the US that don’t exist in Fin­land. In the be­gin­ning of De­cem­ber, we set up our stoc­kings and on the night of De­cem­ber 6, Saint Ni­cho­las co­mes and le­a­ves can­dy and small gifts for the child­ren. So­me­ti­mes com­pa­nies set up a bre­ak­fast with San­ta, whe­re wor­kers bring their child­ren to, well, eat bre­ak­fast with San­ta and Mrs. Claus. Next year at the com­pa­ny my dad works for, my aunt and unc­le will be Mr. and Mrs. Claus and my cou­sin and I will be el­ves. Anot­her thing that’s dif­fe­rent is that San­ta do­esn’t come to pe­op­le’s hou­ses when they’re awa­ke, only when eve­ryo­ne’s as­leep. I don’t know which is cree­pier. On the night of the 24th, kids le­a­ve milk and coo­kies out for San­ta to eat af­ter he drops off the pre­sents, and so­me­ti­mes kids le­a­ve car­rots for his rein­deer. Anot­her big dif­fe­ren­ce is that the San­ta known in the US li­ves in the North Pole rat­her than in Rova­nie­mi, Fin­land.

I’m loo­king for­ward to ex­pe­rien­cing this ho­li­day in a new cul­tu­re and I hope I can bring some of the Fin­nish tra­di­ti­ons back home with me, as well as sha­re some of mine with my fa­mi­ly here.

Kal­lis­ta McDa­niel