The average Christmas is usually thought of with presents, stockings , santa , food and family, but what exactly is the average Christmas? Christmas is celebrated worldwide, with many different traditions. Students here provide examples from experience of their foreign Christmas experiences overseas, for example Shaabazz Mcintyre (‘13) who lived in Japan.

“Christmas was only different because of family, we did not have that feel of home and love even though we had a good Christmas. It was not different in tradition though we still did the same things we always did. We put up a tree and decorated the house , so did the neighbors who lived on base with us.”

However this Christmas experience differs a little from students that did not live on a military base such as Killian Hull (‘13) who lived in the Netherlands and had the full foreign effect, and traditions other than leaving cookies out on Christmas Eve.

“My family and I put shoes around the fireplace and put oranges in the shoes, I am not sure why this is done but it is a tradition in the Netherlands. We decorated the house with wreaths and lights. Christmas was always more of a family event rather than opening presents.”

In some countries, Christmas is celebrated on a day other than the 25th of December.  Although Christmas on the 25th is considered normal in the United States, it is not considered normal in other countries.

“December 6 is the Dutch Christmas. This is when we would open the majority of our presents, we did not open nearly as many on Christmas day.”  said Killian Hull (‘13)

“The German Christmas is celebrated in January because this is when the three wise men arrived for baby Jesus, my family celebrated Christmas on December 25 though. Not much was different we still decorated the house. We lived on base but my mom is German so we would drive off base to go to my grandma’s house and we would open presents there” said James (‘13).

Although Christmas traditions may vary overseas such as placing oranges in shoes, students still enjoyed opening presents and spending quality time with family.