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As everyone knows, Christmas is mainly celebrated on the 24th and 25th of December. However, many people begin preparing for Christmas on the first of December. Some families start decorating the Christmas tree, hanging colorful lights on their houses, watching Christmas movies together, and gift-giving. Others might also start building gingerbread houses, listening to Christmas music, hanging up stockings, baking cookies, and ice skating.
The main course of celebrating Christmas—decorating the Christmas tree—has developed greatly over the years. Christmas trees used to be decorated with lit candles, glass kugels, and sparkly tinsel. Later in the mid-1850s, people began to use homemade ornaments and popcorn garland as Christmas tree decorations. However, decorating is more creative nowadays. In 2024, people will use ornament garlands, different size ornaments, flowers, stars, mesh garland, bows, bells, etc. to renovate their Christmas trees. . Most households decorate their tree based on their Christmas theme for the year, such as Stitch, The Grinch, Whoville, and Scrooge,
Another Christmas tradition, though not as popular as before in 2024, is “elf on the shelf.” Many parents participate in this tradition to make the holiday magical for their children. However, it also can be a relief for parents because the point of the elf is to make sure the children are behaving. The elf comes with a book telling the children that the elf comes every December from the first to the 25th. They’re told the elf is there to watch and make sure they’re behaving because every night the elf goes back to the North Pole to report their behavior to Santa. Then at the end of the book, it tells the children to name their elf. However, it’s the parents who are moving the elf and coming up with the creative hiding activities.
However, different cultures have many different Christmas traditions. For Hispanics, a Christmas tradition is the Roca de Reyes. It’s a sweet bread that has little plastic babies inside. During December, the whole family meets up to eat this bread and whoever gets the plastic baby that family has to make the tamales for Christmas. Another tradition is making pozole to eat on Christmas eve and Christmas day. In Japan it’s a common tradition for people to eat fried chicken for Christmas eve. Lastly, a popular tradition in China is engraving apples and exchanging them as a symbol of peace and knowledge.