Christmas Around the World

We have been visiting different countries to see how they celebrate Christmas.  We went to Mexico and this is what we learned.

1. "The Mexican people celebrate 'Las Posadas'. It is when two people dress up as Mary and Joseph and they try to find a place to have Jesus.  There is someone dressed up as a devil, and when Joseph and Mary knock, the devil says 'don't let them in'." - E
 2.  We read 'The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola. Mrs. L
3.  "We have a Christmas tree decorated with poinsettias." -J
4.  "We read the story of the "Legend of the Poinsettia". Je
5.  "The Legend of the Poinsettia" is a legend that comes from Mexico."- A

Here is our Mexican Christmas tree.  It has poinsettias on it.

In Mexico we also learned about Our Lady of Guadalupe.
1. "She is beautiful."--I
2. " She appeared to Juan Diego."--L
3.  "She gave Juan Diego a sign of herself."--C
4.  "On Juan Diego's tilma there appeared a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe."--Am
5.  "Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared as an Aztec Indian."  -An
6/  "Mary told Juan Diego to go to the priest and ask him to build a church."--M
7.  "Mary also had Juan Diego put roses in his tilma."--Ce
We made roses and put them around Mary to honor her.

We went to Germany.  We learned about German traditions.
1.  "We learned that they lay their shoes out on December 6th." -C
2.  "St. Nicholas puts treats in their shoes."-Am
3.  "We decorated the German tree with shoes." -K

4.  "We learned that the Germans go door to door singing Christmas carols." --J
Here is our tree from Germany, decorated with shoes!

We visited Canada. When we got to Canada, we fell in love with the caribou.  We found out they were reindeer.

1.  "We learned that reindeer are called caribou in Canada.  They live in Canada."--E
2.  "Canada is cold and near the North Pole.  We think Santa gets his reindeer from Canada." Ce
 3.  "The caribou shed their antlers in the fall and grow them back in the spring."--T
Here is our Canadian tree.  We put caribou on the tree.  We also found a great website where we  watched Santa feed his reindeer at 11:00am!  http://reindeercam.com/

We are going to learn about more Christmas traditions.  Do you have any favorite Christmas traditions?  If so could you write to us and let us know what they are?