Barca from Slovakia

How do you say?
Christmas - Vianoce
Merry Christmas - Vesele Vianoce

What traditional songs do you sing?
Silent night, holy night - ticha noc svata noc favourite

What do you usually eat?
Potato salad; sprouts soup, fish, turkey, cakes...

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
We invite relatives, eat, open presents, have a great time...

Yuliya from Ukraine

How do you say?
Christmas -Rizdvo.
Merry Christmas- Shaslyvogo Rizdva.

What traditional songs do you sing?
On Christmas we sing a lot of short songs without names and they're called "Kolyadki"

What do you usually eat?
I like that crab salad that I made. But we also have a lot of different kinds of dishes. I like cakes:)

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
We celebrate Christmas, but on the 7th of January and it's not as big as here. I'd say that we celebrate New Year as you do Christmas here. On Christmas my family gets together and eats dinner and gives each other small presents. And then after dinner kids are taking special food (rise with raisins) and go to their neighbors give them that rise to taste and sing a song about God. After listening a song those people can give u a candy or money.

Fedor from Serbia

How do you say?
Christmas - Bo?i?
Merry Christmas! - Sre?an Bo?i?! (It means "Happy Christmas!")

What traditional songs do you sing?
I don't know...we don't sing any songs for Christmas. Little children do sometimes, and I used to know some, but I forgot them.

What do you usually eat?
Usually some kind of meat, I think.

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
We buy and set up a Christmas tree in our house, put a lot of colorful things and lights on it. The family is there together, and everyone who has a present for someone puts the present under the tree. We sit around the tree and open all the presents, one-by-one, and each time we laugh and congratulate the person who opened a present.

Mousa from Jordan

What is the name of your holiday?
Our holiday's name is Eid and it's the same in English, it's the Muslims holiday and I'm a Muslim.

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
In Eid we go visit our relatives and friends, we gather with our relatives and eat lunch together. Eid is actually 4 days not 1 day but we gather in the first day, but still we visit in the rest of days.There is no games to play, or a specific food to eat just cook something from our food !!

Seung Ki from Korea

How do you say?
Christmas- sung tan jul ??? : Birthday of Saint
Merry Christmas- jul gu oon sung tan

What traditional songs do you sing?
Noel
Jingle Bell
Must have Love in them

What do you usually eat?
In Korea no specific foods are eaten on Christmas.

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
Christmas in Korea is a non religious holiday; however Christians in Korea take it as a religious holiday. Christmas is not celebrated same as it is in America. It is more of a day of meeting of friends than gathering of family, and it is rather a day of rest than birth of Jesus. Thus no games are played.

Korea has unique tradition of having cake for Christmas. I believe that we got the idea from birthday cake. Christmas cakes are usually just plane cream cake. Sometimes, ice cream cakes, which are covered not with icings but with ice creams of different sorts, are eaten too.

Simon from Germany

How do you say?
Christmas - Weihnachten
Merry Christmas - Frohe Weihnachten

What traditional songs do you sing?
O Tannenbaum - O pine tree

What do you usually eat?
Everybody think there might be something special to eat on the Christmas day, but in my family we don't have something specific every year. We always talk about that what we want to like for dinner. If we get to a decision my mother always cooks something good. So I don't have any recipe.

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
On the specific Christmas day, which is the 24 th in December and not the 25 th like you have in America! We always go on this day to church in the evening, where you always see other families and you are going to wish them a Merry Christmas. After that we go home and sing a few Christmas songs until we can get into our living room, where our Christmas tree stands. Everybody wants to open their presents which are separated placed on our couch for every family member. Then we start opening the presents in order. On this day we don't wear anything special only something formal. The next day the 25 th we always go to the parents of my mother and father. First we have lunch at my grandparent's house from my father's side. Later we go to my grandparents from my mother's side and we have dinner. We celebrate Christmas within the two days with the whole family. After these two days we often go around and admire the other trees from friends. This is the way how we celebrate Christmas in my family back in Germany.

Macedonia

Sofija who is currently living with her host family in Tennessee sent this wonderful description of her Christmas traditions in Macedonia. We decided to publish the whole essay instead of adjusting it to fit the format of the others.

How do you say?
Christmas - Bozik
Merry Christmas - Sreken Bozik

How do you celebrate? What is unique in your country?
Orthodox Christmas is all about tradition, family and friends, and good will. Macedonia, as a country of orthodox religion, has Christmas - Bozik on January 7, according to the Julian calendar. Sreken Bozik is the greeting that we use for Merry Christmas.

1. Kolede Fires - actually celebrations in Macedonia start in the evening on 5th of January. Large fires are set in every neighborhood, around which people dance, sing and drink warm rakija (Macedonian homemade brandy). It is believed that these fires chase the evil spirits from the Earth.

2. Kolede Singers - in the morning the very next day, 6th January, small children are going from home to home in their neighborhood, knocking at the doors and singing Kolede songs. The home-owners give the children candies, sweets, fruit and coins.

3. Badnik - with the ritual of the kolede singers begins the celebration of Badnik, the day that announces the Birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas. The same morning (on 6th of January) in every place in Macedonia people gather in front of the temples of the Macedonian Orthodox Church to sing traditional songs and dance folk dances. These people carry oak tree branches. The oak tree represents good health, wealth, happiness and love.

4. The Badnik Godfathers - each year every town appoints its own Badnik Godfather (usually a public person). The old Badnik Godfather comes in front of the Church in a pajton (a horse-drawn carriage) and gives the Badnik Cup to the newly elected Badnik Godfather. Afterwards, the people, along with the priests continue the Badnik celebrations.

5. The family dinner on Badnik - Badnik is the only holiday when you can find rich and poor gathered on one place. In the evening on Badnik, the closest family is gathering together for the Badnik dinner. We used to get together at my grandfather's house, and sit on the floor with all the mouth watering food in front of us. We would light candles and enjoy the soothing atmosphere filled with laughter and jokes.

6. The food for Badnik evening - fish, products of Macedonian zimnitsa; homemade conserved vegetables stored for the winter, including turshya and ayvar- ayvar is popular appetizer or side dish made of roasted paprika, ripe tomatoes, and even string beans can be combined into ayvar .Fruit and wine are also served for Badnik dinner.

7. Hidden Coin Bread - the main event at this dinner is the cutting of the Christmas bread in pieces for each member of the family, one for the home and one for Jesus Christ. Inside the Christmas Bread there is a coin. It is a belief that that whoever finds the coin in his/her piece of the bread will have happiness and health throughout the whole year. The coin is put in a glass of wine and the lucky person should drink from the wine. (I have gotten the coin a couple of times before. Lucky me!)

8. Christmas day - the next morning is Christmas, family holiday when everyone is paying visits to their closest relatives or friends. (We always get stuffed on all these lunches, dinners, feasts! It's like the hosts compete among each other to determine who will prepare the most delicious foods and who will bake in larger amounts.)

So what is our Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.