Christmas Around the World

Tonight our family went to our little man's big event at his school called Christmas Around the World. Each classroom is a different country you visit to learn more about their Christmas traditions.

We absolutely love doing this as a family every year.

Here are some pictures from our evening traveling the world.

Mexico was the first country we visited.

Feliz Navidad!

In Mexico their main Christmas celebration is called La Posada, which is a religious procession that reenacts the search for shelter by Joseph and Mary before the birth of Jesus. During the procession, the celebrants go from house to house carrying the images of Mary and Joseph looking for shelter.

Holland was next on our passport.

Vrolijke Kerstmis!

These are the decorated wooden shoes that children in Holland set out for Sinterklaas. They also believe that if they leave some hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklaas's horse, they will be left some sweets.

Next we visited England and Zachary got his picture taken near Big Ben.

Happy Christmas!

One of England's customs is mumming. In the Middle Ages, people called mummers put on masks and acted out Christmas plays. These plays are still performed in towns and villages.

England is where we found AJ (center) singing Christmas carols with his friends.

We were so excited to visit Italy and learned so much about their traditions.

Buon Natale!

Feliz Natal!

We stopped in Brazil for some yummy cookies.

Frohliche Weihnachten!

Germany was next.

In Germany the traditional visitor is the Christkindl who is the Christ Child's messenger. She is a beautiful fair-haired girl with a shining crown of candles who visits each house with a basket of presents.

Happy Hanukkah!

We stopped in Israel to play the dreidel game with Ms. Sanderson 

(Zachary's teacher from last year). Conner won.

We took a break in the Smoky Mountains area to decorate cookies.

Our last stop was in Australia.

Zachary sat for a bit on the beach in Australia. While it is winter when most celebrate Christmas, it is actually during the summer for Australians.

We also visited China, France, Sweden, and the North Pole.

Christmas Around the World was really fun for us this year 

and we are already looking forward to next year.

What are some of your family traditions during Christmas?