Holiday Traditions Around the TA-DA! worldy team
Martinique, France, Germany, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, China, Belgium, USA, Spain, England…these are just some of the countries the TA-DA! team represents - and when it comes to the winter holidays - we like to stir things up a bit!
Forget ‘norms’ in this camp! When we talk about our holiday traditions, we’re discussing ‘Christmukkah’, Asian Santas who speak Mandarin, beach escapes, carrots in boots, and more.
Take a look for yourself at some of the ‘wacky’ ways this diverse startup team celebrates the holidays.
Wishing you health, happiness - and a very merry winter break!
The TA-DA! Family
The winter holiday in Martinique
by Lucas Aurore, Intern at TA-DA! Language Productions
Photo courtesy of La Cusine de Fanie
I go to Martinique (a small island in the Caribbean) for the holidays to see my family.
On New Year’s Eve, my entire family comes by, plus a couple of friends from around the neighborhood where my grandparents live.
Grandma makes an amazing feast full of amazing food from the islands, but mostly different types of pâté (not the kind you find in France and other countries, in Martinique it is dough filled with meat, vegetables or fish).
Sometimes she makes us sea urchin, though only rarely because it is very difficult to find.
We eat small snacks until past midnight and go to bed completely stuffed.
Photo courtesy of Jumbo Car in Martinique.
The next day, even though we are all still full from the night before, my grandmother has this tradition of making garlic lobster with so many spices I can’t even start to list them and it tastes absolutely amazing.
These are our New Year’s traditions. What are they like in your country?
The winter holiday for a French-American family
Photo courtesy of Sugar, Spun Run blog
by Elsa Whyte, Intern at TA-DA! Language Productions
In my French-American family, we celebrate Christmas over the winter holiday.
Neither side of my family is particularly religious, but we use the holiday to get together and celebrate the end of the year as a family.
Because we live in California, we typically spend Christmas with the American side of my family.
We enjoy typical American holiday foods like ham, roast beef, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, and the best part: pecan pie.
Photo courtesy of Life, Love and Sugar blog
When we celebrate with the French side of my family, we add more typical French dishes to the mix! Those dishes include foie gras, or yule log for dessert (“bûche de Noël”).
A French tradition for Christmas is to open just one present on Christmas eve, so we only get to open presents early if the French family is celebrating with us!
The winter holiday for a German family
by Amy Römer, Intern at TA-DA! Language Productions
My favorite German tradition is celebrated on December 6th which is called Nikolaustag.
Someone is in town! The German tradition of ‘Nikolaustag’.
Children (and even some adults) polish their boots and put one of them outside their front door on the evening of December 5th.
Nikolaus (St. Nicholas) comes at night and when the kids get up in the morning, their shoe is filled with little treats. Traditionally, those were fruits and nuts; nowadays, it is a chocolate Nikolaus and a small gift.
Here is a picture what our Nikolaus brought last year (from left to right for my husband, my then 4 year old daughter and the baby).
Now you might think… hey… that’s Santa Claus, but who comes on December 25th for German kids?
Here is where it is getting a bit tricky, because first, Germans celebrate Christmas on December 24th and according to where you live; there are different gift-bringers.
There is Weihnachtsmann (father Christmas), who comes with a big bag of presents and knocks on people’s doors late afternoon or in some regions it is the Christkind (an angel-like figure). To make things even more complicated, there is a dark counterpart called by many different names such as Knecht Ruprecht (Germany), Krampus (Austria), Schmutzli (Switzerland); he punishes kids who have been bad.
The winter holiday for a German-American family
by Lara Ostertag, Intern at TA-DA! Language Productions
The Family Spirit During Christmas
Christmas time is my favorite time of the year!
It’s filled with love, family, friends, and the faint hint of Christmas tree, warm cinnamon tea, and freshly baked cookies in the air.
In my family, we start decorating the house a couple of days before December 1st. This includes putting up decorations, our Christmas reef, and most importantly, our Christmas calendar! My mom sewed 24 small red bags, back when I was six years old, and my two younger brothers and I had decorated these bags with felt designs. Since then, we always get our self-made calendar out for Christmas, and my parents fill each bag with a small gift each day. Usually these include small chocolate ornaments, small puzzles, or tiny toys. It’s always fun when my brothers and I would gather together once a day, taking turns opening todays calendar, to see what’s inside the bags adorning our staircase.
My family and I also celebrate advent. What this means is that we have a Christmas reef, and the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, we light one more candle. This is a great time for us to get together, invite some family friends over, and sit together by the Christmas reef and enjoy each other’s companies. After lighting each candle we’d sing a lot of Christmas songs, and only once we had sung a couple of songs, were we allowed to dig into the batch of home-baked cookies! My favorite ones are probably Vanillekipferl. These are vanilla tasting cookies in the shape of a kifili, or as I describe them in the shape of a moon.
Another event, I always look forward to is St. Nikolaus Day on December 6th. Nikolaus (who looks similar to, but is different from Santa Claus) is the Greek Christian bishop Nicholas of Myra. According to tradition, he used to leave small gifts in children’s shoes in the night between December 5th and 6th. What this would mean for us was that we would scrub our boots clean on December 5th, put one boot up in front of our room and hope that the next morning it would be filled with chocolates, oranges, and maybe even a small gift. (Luckily, we never got a switch as some bad kids allegedly get).
While we were still living in Germany, we’d frequently visit Christkindl Markets, and go to outdoor ice skating rinks. My brothers and I would eat sweet crepes, warm our hands on hot chocolate, while my parents sip some Gluehwein (mulled wine, which is spiced warm wine). That’s when I truly felt the Christmas spirit in the air!
Shortly before Christmas Eve (to have as little needles over the house as possible), we would get out our Christmas tree and decorate it with all sorts of ornaments. As my family loves arts and crafts, we have a lot of straw stars and angles made of painted noodles, as well as real beeswax candles! Last but not least, we get our three-story Christmas carousel and our porcelain Christmas crib out.
And then finally, Christmas Eve, the day we so longingly awaited, arrives. We usually go to church in the evening, and once we come home my brothers and I would wait together in one of our rooms, while my parents were allegedly helping the Christ child arrange the presents under the tree. Once we heard the rattle, which I had built in kindergarten, ring, we would sprint down the stairs while my parents sing the carol “Ihr Kinderlein kommet” (“Oh, come, little children”). Then we’d sing one or two other songs and finally were able to unwrap our gifts!
Once we were done unwrapping, we’d gather together and have a wonderful Christmas meal (usually duck, with red cabbage, and some other delicacies). That night we’d usually stay up for a while, before we have to head to bed, and the next morning is probably the earliest we ever get up, to start playing with our gifts.
On December 25th, we’d either head to extended family and celebrate with them, or we’d have another nice meal as a family and enjoy each other’s company! Overall, it’s a wonderful holiday, filled with love, appreciation, and a lot of fun baking cookies, singing, and spending a lot of time with family.
I wish everyone an equally exciting end of the year, and hope you get to enjoy it with friends and family!
The winter holiday for an Ethiopian-American family
by Ardo Ali, Intern at TA-DA! Language Productions
My Christmas holiday tradition is quite different from most other families. Instead of staying in the cold and snowy New York winter my mother and I chase warmer and sunnier days.
We leave the sparkling Christmas lights and tree behind and head down to Mexico.
Christmas day is also my mother’s birthday so she has always seen a sunny escape as her Christmas present to herself.
We always go with our family friends from Texas. They are some of the most down to earth and incredibly funny people I have ever met.
They always keep us on our toes with fun new attractions to visit. We also partake in normal holiday events modified for the tropical setting.
We have dinner all together dressed in fun holiday attire on Christmas Eve and exchange presents with one another.
We normally stay where we are until New Years and will watch fireworks and countdown altogether.
The winter holiday for an African (Nigeria & Sierra Leone)-American family
by Kem Awosanya, Intern at TA-DA! Language Productions
Our tradition has basically stayed consistent:
1. Picture is of my sister and my cousin cooking red sauce and jollof rice.
It's a tomato-based sauce, that can then be used to make rice by boiling it in plain rice for an hour or so. I think the most similar food I've found to it, is Spanish rice.
2. That was our main Christmas tree that year, I think we usually have somewhere between 1-4, depending on how festive we feel.
3. So in African culture there's a big emphasis on community, family, and friendships, so we often hold a big party at our house, and invite any friends/family over.
Generally my family will make most of the food, then people will bring over appetizers and dessert.
We often make green rice (essentially African fried rice), ribs, moi moi (a bean pudding thats filled with whatever you'd like), ham, grilled fish, puff puff (deep fried pastry), and egg salad. In addition, on the island there was probably jollof rice and red sauce, and whatever desserts people brought.
The winter holiday for a Britishman who recently moved to Spain!
by Andrew Watson, TA-DA! Art Director
Spanish Christmas is celebrated on the 5th of January, thats when the presents are given to children, delivered by 'los tres reyes magos', the three kings.
Christmas, 'Navidad' in Spanish, is also celebrated on the 25th of December but only one present is given if any and its much more low key than in the UK.
For the festive period people say 'Felices fiestas' to cover all religions.
We have mainly fake christmas trees made up of lights but the more important thing is the Belén, which is the nativity scene. Every house will have one rather than a tree. We obviously have both.
On christmas day we usually head up the mountain and have a picnic in the sun...and sometimes snow!
Christmastime for a Belgian-American family
by Michelle Glorieux, Founder and CEO of TA-DA! Language Productions
My husband and I have lived about half of our near 20 years together in Belgium - and the other half in the United States.
Some traditions are the same, others…well, not so much.
Things got particularly complicated recently when we moved our little tike (who does not forget a thing) from one country to the next. Do we tell him Santa comes - or Saint Nicholas? And do we put out boots with carrots - or stockings and cookies and milk? These are some of the deep thoughts we are pondering at the moment.
See these various traditions in the following slideshows!
The Winter Holiday for an Asian Family Living in the U.S.
by Cathy Li, P.R. & Development Director of TA-DA! Language Productions
Christmas is not traditionally celebrated in China, but many Chinese families celebrate it just for fun – it’s a good excuse to get festive and playful!
On Christmas eve, friends sometimes give nicely wrapped apples to each other.
Christmas eve is translated as 平安夜(píng ān yè) in Chinese. Apple in Chinese is pronounced as “píng guǒ,” so the two words are homophonous in the first character. Gifting apples means you wish your friends peace and safety.
For my family, Christmas is usually just a normal and relaxing day spent together. The highlight of the day is our kids opening up their presents, the main reason we celebrate. Some years we travel, other times, we go to holiday parties with friends.
These photos are from a holiday party we just attended this weekend, complete with an Asian Santa who spoke Mandarin!
Christmastime for a well-traveled American family
by Kip Jones, Composer & Musician for TA-DA!
Our family has a lovely set of holiday traditions! Trees are decorated. Tom & Jerries are often made. All-family sleepovers usually take place, as do winter walks and sledding. The baking-inclined wake up early on Christmas morning to make croissants from scratch. My father and I often play violin duets which develop into family singalongs that can get quite theatrical. We've even had a "highest note" contest, which the ladies have always won, but now that there are 3 little ones with even tinier vocal cords, there may be a new champion this year! Gifts are exchanged. Throughout, we're conscious of what it means not only to be a family, but what it means to welcome Jesus into our world, and our birth into his life. For us it is a celebration of family and love, both terrestrial and divine.
Also, it's Soren's first Christmas!!!!
Christmukkah for a (Northern) American family, now dwelling in the South
by Liz Psaltis, Marketing Director for TA-DA!
It’s “Christmukkah” at our house—we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, and the two December holidays overlap on the calendar this year. A light-up reindeer keeps watch in the front yard, and our tree is up. We currently live in North Carolina, the second biggest Christmas tree producing state in the US, after Oregon; however, I do miss living in Manhattan, where trees are sold on the sidewalk and my daily commute and errands included walking through a fragrant pine “shop” every few blocks.
We’ve made the eight nights of the Jewish holiday’s gifts themed this year; our Harry Potter-obsessed daughter will be treated to a Hogwarts-related present each night, after we light the menorah. My husband will be preparing delicious latkes, potato pancakes that are served with either sour cream or apple sauce (though I like to alternate in terms of the condiments). And we’ll be traveling to see family and friends north of us, hoping for delightful snow.
Wishing you all a happy new year!
The winter holiday for an American-Korean-Japanese family
by Jesse Lewis, Music & Sound Director for TA-DA!
We're such food people on Christmas - in the morning we have a brunch of aebleskivers, bacon, yogurt, fruit, and coffee; and in the evening a feast of Grandma's roast - but at the end of it's just a big excuse to cherish the friends, family and unconditional love in our lives.
