Spain is one of the most religious countries in the world, so Christmas takes on a religious twist in the country. Christmas officially begins on December 8.

Food is particularly abundant on Christmas Eve where families gather around for “noche buena”. The Christmas Eve feast is preceded by the Christmas mass and is usually punctuated by turron, which is an almond candy.

The Spanish have the Jota, a special dance for the season. It is said that the words and music to the Jota has been handed down for centruies.

Decorations are elaborate and varied. They have manger scenes that have the complete cast of characters in their homes, churches and public places.

Gifts are given on January 6, the feast of the epiphany as Spanish children views the Three Kings as the gift givers. Kids leave their shoes on windowsills. The shoes are filled with food for the Magi’s horses, including carrots, barley and straw.

On December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, little boys light bonfires around town. One boy then acts as a mayor who orders the “townspeople” to do certain tasks such as cleaning windows or sweeping streets. Disobedience merits a fine that helps pay for the celebration.

Spain it seems has more than it share of weird Christmas traditions. One is the caga tio or the pooping log. People in Catalonia, Spain, put up these carved logs every year on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The hollowed out log has a painted face and two legs. The caga tio is to be “fed” every day for the next two weeks with candies, nuts and fruits. On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, children beats the caga tio with sticks until it “poops” out the treats.

A similarly weird tradition is the Caganer, which is a statue that is usually added to Nativity scenes or city scenes of Bethlehem. Usually you have the Three Wise Men, the Baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Joseph, along with shepherds. But in Spain, Italy and Portugal, they also have the Caganer. The weird thing is that the Caganer is caught in the act defecating.

MerryStockings.com have several designs that are perfect for your friends in Spain. Check out our Nativity Baby Christmas Stocking Kit and The Procession Christmas Stocking Kit. Or you could delight them with brass Christmas stocking holders like the Church Brass Holder and the Candlelight Angel Brass Holder

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Many Christmas trees are adorned by a star. It is said to symbolize the light of the brightest star that was seen on the night that Christ the child was born. The Star of Bethlehem as it is sometimes called is an enduring symbol of Christmas.

A lot of experts and astrologers have used the appearance of this star to determine exactly when the Christ was born. We all know that December 25 is just a symbolic date, and a lot of people agree that this is because of various reasons: the Jewish Hanukkah, the pagan feast of the Saturnalia and the edict of Emperor Constantine to celebrate Christmas on the day.

The Christmas star has also been associated with light and hope. It represents the promises given to a people about a savior. A promise that was fulfilled on Christmas day.

It is also seen as a guide, as the Star of Bethlehem famously guided the Three Wise Men to the manger where the Christ was born.

At MerryStockings.com, we use the star design on our products to help you remember the spirit of the season. It is during Christmas time that we find ourselves filled with hope. It is a time to be light-hearted and happy. Moods are light, and so are the atmosphere around us.

Take this star inspired personalized holiday card that features sparkling stars to accentuate your own photographs. A perfect way to update friends and let them feel a lighthearted moment!

Or how about this Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas Stocking Kit that features stars, gingerbread men, candies and other Christmas-y symbols?

And last but not least, our Star Brass Christmas Stocking Holder that adds the right touch of elegance and class to your Christmas stockings.

Dazzle your friends and warm their hearts with our star inspired products!

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Christmas is observed by more or less 350 million Christians in Africa. Like Americans, Africans sign Christmas carols, gather for a nice family dinner of various roasted meats, exchange gifts and visit their family and friends.

Christmas Carols

Christmas carols play an important part in African Christmases. One would wake up on Christmas day to the sound of carolers singing the best love Christmas songs. These carolers often lead the way to the church where a Christmas service is held.

Christmas Decorations

Christmas in Africa happens during the summer months there, but they still have their pine branches and fir trees.

Similarly, children also hang up holiday stockings hoping that Father Christmas would fill these with presents. Stores are even decorated with fake snow.

Christmas Service

Christmas is marked by a service wherein Africans make the love offering. A love offering is a simple gift that they give the baby Jesus. Each one who attends the Christmas service lays down a gift at the altar near the communion table.

Christmas in Africa is mostly a religious affair. While gift giving is one of the traditions they practice, it is not the most important. In fact, most people give clothes as gift. These clothes are what they expect the recipient to wear during the Christmas service.

It is only after the Christmas service that most Christian families gather for a dinner that includes goats, barbecues, plum pudding, mince pies, and turkey, among other staples.

Merry Christmas in Different African Languages

Depending on where you are, there is a different phrase for you to remember when you want to greet the locals a Merry Christmas. In Ghana for example, it is “Afishapa”. In South Africa, you say “Geseënde Kersfees”.

In Zimbabwe, it’s close with “Merry Kisimusi”, while in Egypt, you tell them “Colo sana wintom tiebeen”!

Check out the complete list of how to say Merry Christmas in local African languages:

Ethiopia - Melkam Yelidet Beaal
Lesthoto - Matswalo a Morena a Mabotse
Nigeria - E ku odun, e hu iye’ dun
South Africa - Sinifisela Ukhisimusi Omuhle
Swaziland - Sinifisela Khisimusi Lomuhle
Tanzania and Kenya - Kuwa na Krismasi njema

Curiously however, Kwanzaa, which is celebrated in the United States to commemorate African heritage, is not celebrated in Africa. It is an American celebration.

Send personalized Christmas stockings and other personalized Christmas ornaments to friends and family in Africa to tell them that they are remembered. Browse MerryStockings.com’s various offerings and make the right choice!

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As of today, Christmas is 115 days away.

How do you get your kids excited for Christmas? It is very easy. As Christmas time gets closer and closer, MerryStockings.com recommends these fun activities.

1. Create your own countdown at home. It could be as easy as giving them 115 sheets of paper and having them design and decorate each with numbers from 1 to 115. As each day begins, they are to take out the top sheet of paper. For added fun, allow them to write or draw something Christmas-y on the back of each sheet and display it in your living room.

2. Have them come up with their own gift list. You children may want to give gifts to their friends and family, or they might want to get something for themselves. Set up a points system wherein they could do chores for Christmas points. They could then redeem these points for their gifts list.

3. Involve them with your Christmas decorations. There are a lot of ways for you to have your kids help you with Christmas decorations. For one, you could buy Christmas stocking kits that they could create for themselves and hang over the fire place. When it is time to decorate the Christmas tree, you could enlist their help putting up the ornaments. Or you could go traditional and have them help in stringing popcorn as a tree garland.

4. Help them make their own Christmas cards. You can provide sample cards, materials and help them with wording the cards.

As you can see, a good way to get your kids excited for Christmas is to teach them some crafts that they could really enjoy. Plus it has the added benefit of being able to spend time with you. Generally, you should be able to supervise them and help them cut things or come up with ideas. You should also tell them about Christmas and how you spent these growing up. Or you could ask them how they want Christmas to be.

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Christmas in Vienna starts on December 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas. On this day, St. Nicholas goes out and rewards children with toys, candies, fruits and nuts. At the same time, Krampus, a devil goes around with Santa Claus and punish the bad children.

While Krampus is a creature that is found in many other European countries such as Croatia and Hungary, it is only in Austria where people dress up as Krampus and roam the streets on December 5. To read more about other weird and unusual Christmas traditions observed around the world, click here.

Christmas trees play a significant role in Austrian Christmases. Typically set up on Christmas eve, these trees are not lit until the coming of the Christ Child who gives gifts to the children. Here we see a fundamental difference in Austrian Christmases. Whereas other countries perpetuate the belief that it is Santa Claus that brings gifts, Austrian youngsters believe that it is Christkind or the Christ Child who brings the gifts to them. The Christkind is also credited with decorating the Christmas tree.

Most people stay at home to spend Christmas eve with their families, and the ligthing of the Christmas tree is one important highlight. They also sing “Silent Night, Holy Night” among other Christmas carols.

How about a Christmas in Austria trivia? Did you know that the Christmas song “Silent Night” was first heard in an Austrian village named Oberndorf. It is said that in 1818, the parish priest of Oberndorf realized that the organ was not working, so he consulted an organist named Franz Bauer the newly written Silent Night. Bauer was able to come up with a melody for it using the guitar as an accompaniment.

Baked carp is the traditional staple for Christmas feasts.

Christmas in Austria is also marked by the opening of the Christmas markets. It is said that the Christmas market in Vienna traces its roots back to the year 1298. These Christmas markets are found in every town, often very near to the churches. It is considered to be one of the longest standing Christmas traditions in Austria.

Make the Christmas trees of your Austrian friends much better with MerryStockings.com’s best selections of personalized Christmas ornaments.

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Gifts are one of the most exciting things about Christmas. Admit it, unwrapping a gift still brings a warm smile to your lips. There is something about a gift that makes you feel happy and touched to be remembered. But giving gifts actually has its up sides as well. Who could resist seeing a child tear open a gift and see his or her eyes light up at the sight of a brand new Barbie doll or the new Transformers toy?

Still, shopping for gifts can be a hassle. On top of the foot traffic, the crowds, the search for a parking space, you also have the dilemma of whether the gift you give your friends and family are the perfect gifts.

MerryStockings.com takes care of that. Here are our unique gift suggestions that just about everyone would love.

1. Wearables. A cool gift for anyone is a personalized shirt that features his favorite cartoon character, a funny quote, his or her personal cause, or just a shirt that tells the recipient you love him or her. You could also use a photograph as a design for the shirt. The good news is that there are a lot of online services such as Zazzle that could produce these shirts for you at minimal costs. They even gift wrap and deliver! But why limit yourself to a shirt, you can personalize caps, shoes, bags, jogging pants, sweatshirts, and just about anything!

2. Water Ripper. A great Christmas gift that your recipient can play with all year round. The Water Ripper is a ball that bounces on water. This ensures that not only do you give them a great gift, something that you are sure they don’t have yet, but also one that could bring them closer to their family and friends. You can get this fun ball here: http://www.ripperball.com/

3. The gift of experience. There are a lot of activities that your loved ones can certainly enjoy. You could give them gift certificates to a hot air balloon ride (http://www.ushotairballoon.com/) or a bungee jumping escapade. If you are not sure if they go for extreme activities, you can give free season passes to sports games, take them to a trip to the museum, visit the zoo or a theme park with them.

4. Personalized Christmas stuff. Get them into the spirit of the season with their own personalized ornaments, Christmas stockings, and other stuff. Giving your friends and family their own personalized Christmas ornaments would surely be appreciated as they decorate their trees with nostalgic pictures of themselves or their family. You could help them start a Christmas tradition in style by giving them personalized Christmas stockings that bear their names.

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Hyvää Joulua!

That is how you say Merry Christmas in Finland.

Christmas in Finland is celebrated by cleaning the house to get ready for the occasion, which lasts for three days, starting on Christmas Eve to Boxing Day (Dec. 26).

The fir tree is often used as a Christmas tree and this is decorated with different ornaments on Christmas Eve. Fruits such as apples, paper flag, cotton, tinsel and candies are often used as ornaments.

A clean house is nothing if the people living in it are dirty, so the Finnish go to the steam baths to clean their bodies and get into clean clothes before Christmas dinner.

A tradition that is unique to Finnish Christmases is the feeding of the birds. People take out a sheaf of grain and tie it to a pole, adding some nuts and seeds. This pole is then set up in the garden for the birds to eat. Some families will not have their Christmas meals until the birds have finished eating.

But most families start eating as soon as the first star appear in the sky. Christmas meals in Finland often include codfish, suckling pigs, roasted ham, vegetables, potatoes and cream sauce.

Santa Claus

Finland is said to be where Santa Claus live. The Finnish legends hold that Santa Claus lives in Korvantunturi or Lapland which is in the northern part of Finland. Around the globe, Finland’s northern area is very famous for Christmas Land, a theme park near Santa Claus’ supposed address.

This is why children in Finland do not have use for Christmas stocking, because Santa Claus, together with his elves, brings their gifts in person.

MerryStockings.com has a great selection of personalized holiday cards that you could send to impress your friends in Finland. Just choose from the wide selections, send us your photos and we’d take care of the printing for you!

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Christmas is the time when kids rule. This is the season where we pamper them with gifts and spend time with them. In fact, a lot of people say that Christmas is the time when they remember how fun it was to be children, as many try to remember how their Christmases went as they were growing up. Indeed, for some families, Christmas is made even more special because of the kids in their house.

So how do you make this Christmas a little more special for your children? MerryStockings.com suggests these fun ways!

1. Teach them Christmas carols. Christmas carols are a good way to get into the spirit. Teaching your kids your beloved Christmas songs ensures that they would happily sing along as you turn on the radio or pop in your favorite Christmas CDs.

2. Develop their creativity with some activities. There are a lot of Christmas themed activities that you could do with your children. For one, there are coloring pages that you could download from the Internet. These Web sites offer free printables that you could print out and color with your kids.

You can then use the colored prints to decorate your house by displaying them on your refrigerator, walls or even table tops.

3. Let them help in the preparations. One great way to get children in the festive Christmas mood is to involve them in your preparations. Wrapping up some presents for friends? You can teach them to create gift tags, or cut scotch tape for you. Baking Christmas brownies? You can ask them to help you stir the batter or help you clean up. They could also help you decorate your home for Christmas.

4. Teach them some crafts. MerryStockings.com has some really nice Christmas stocking kits that you could do with your kids. Each of these kits include all the materials you are going to need and very simple instructions.

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Gledelig Jul!

That’s Merry Christmas in Norway. If you find that hard to pronounce, you can use the shortened version, God Jul. The Christmas season in Norway starts on December 13 during the feast of St. Lucia. This ceremony is marked by each family’s youngest daughter donning a white robe, carrying a candle and wearing an evergreen crown. These little girls wake their parents up and serve them coffee and lussekatter (Lucia buns).

Norwegian children prepare bowls of porridge for the Nisse, an elf or a gnome that is said to have goat like features. It is said that the Nisse will play tricks on children who neglect the porridge. Norway also has their own version of Santa Claus, whom they call the Julenisse or Christmas Nisse. The Julenisse gives kids their gifts himself.

Norwegians often gather in the living room for a telling of Carpenter Andersen, which was written by Alf Proysen. Carpenter Andersen is the most popular Christmas story in the country and have been adapted many times into TV movies.

Christmas Decorations

Norwegian homes at Christmas time often put up a pine or spruce tree in their living rooms to serve as a Christmas tree. Children adorn these tress with paper baskets fashioned out of shiny paper in different colors. These baskets are then filled with nuts or candies. Another popular Christmas decoration is the paper chain and Christmas lights.

Food and Festivities

What is Christmas without the abundance of food? Families in Norway often gather on Christmas eve or Christmas day to share a feast. This almost always includes a rib of lamb that has been salted and dried. This rib is sometimes served with sausages, turnip, potatoes and mustard. Of course, rice porridge is also prepared for the children’s offering to the Nisse.

And then there is the sand kager, which is a favorite Norwegian holiday cookie.

MerryStockings.com allows you to send special and personalized holiday cards and holiday ornaments to your friends in Norway. Send them something special and close to their hearts this Christmas like a holiday greeting card with your picture on it!

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If you are looking for a good bonding activity for you and your children, why not teach them crafts? Not only would this be a good way for you to spend some quality time with your kids, but there are other benefits as well.

1. Develop their creativity. Creating something from different materials is a good way to each your kids creativity. They will learn how to color, how to sew, how to do things differently. With crafts, you are limited only by your imagination, but thankfully, it will also help you to develop their own natural creativity.

2. Teaching them to be patient. Kids today have the convenience of just buying anything they want. Instead of buying, you can teach them to create. It’s going to be much more difficult but it will teach them to be patient. They will need to keep trying until they learn something, and they will have that wondrous feeling when they finally finish a craft.

3. Develop their concentration. Crafts can help your kids concentrate. Their focus is on finish the craft you have.

4. Fun. Crafts are fun. Kids love to work with their hands, which is why sandboxes, beaches and Legos are so popular. They love to take their crayons and create things.

5. Teach them to follow step-by-step instructions. In order to learn crafts, kids are given simple step-by-step instructions. By following them closely, they are assured of finishing their own little projects.

6. Develop your relationship and communication with them. When you teach your kids some crafts, they will learn to defer to you when there is something they do not know or they cannot do. Develop this into a habit and soon he or she will be more open to you about problems and experiences in his or her life.

MerryStockings.com gives you an opportunity to teach arts and crafts to your kids with our Christmas stocking kits. These kits are very easy to do and very beautiful. It is perfect even for very young kids!

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