Sponsored by Wattson and My Discovery Destination!

The mission of My Discovery Destination! and the Discovery Family program is to STRENGTHEN FAMILIES and BUILD CHARACTER through providing opportunities for families to enjoy FREE family experiences so they can build strong bonds and CREATE and CAPTURE memories.

Basic Adventure

GOAL:

Learn about the different ways people celebrate Christmas Around the World.

The ADVENTURE:

Spend time together as a family exploring the different ways that families celebrate Christmas in other parts of the world.

Kids celebrate Christmas in different ways in different parts of the world. By exploring how different cultures celebrate this ever popular tradition you can gain interesting insights about Christmas traditions and celebrations. During this month long holiday season Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Traditional Christmas decorations can be admired and festive celebrations can be joined in most countries, including in many of countries where Christianity is not even the religion of the majority of the people. Some decorations tend to be universal, including Christmas trees, tiny sparkling lights, and Santa, although he has different names in different countries.

Christmas is generally celebrated on Christmas Day, the 25th of December. However, some countries have slightly different Christmas traditions and as such festive season celebrations take place over a longer period of time, from the beginning of December to the beginning of January. Here are some fun suggestions for working as a family to learn about different cultures and how they celebrate Christmas:

  Let each family member choose a country to learn about and then share with the rest of the family

  Take an advent calendar and put a different country behind each door. Then, each day of December use the Advent calendar to learn about a different country.

  Try Christmas foods from other cultures. You'll enjoy choosing them, cooking them, and eating them!

  Plan cultural celebrations/parties throughout the month that are a celebration from a different country.

  Work together as a family to develop a matching game to help learn about different cultures. Have each family member help list a tradition on one card and the country it comes from on another card. Then as a family play the matching game and match the tradition with the country

  Play Christmas traditions charades. Have one member of the family act out a tradition and have the rest of the family guess what the tradition is, and then tell which country it comes from.

Here are a couple of sites to use to find out how Christmas is celebrated in other countries:
Christmas Cultures

Kids World Travel Guide

Christmas Around the World Videos

Photo Location

Take a picture of your family enjoying a Christmas tradition from another country and post it to your social media sites with the hashtag #ChristmasAroundtheWorld