Growing up experiencing American Christmas traditions from a young age, they may seem totally normal. When really thinking about it, though, are they really? Hanging oversized socks from the mantle, bringing pine trees indoors and decorating them, leaving out cookies and milk for an overweight man who shimmies down the chimney to leave presents underneath said indoor tree — it all sounds pretty bizarre.
Unusual and unique as it may seem, the United States is far from the only place with interesting traditions for celebrating Christmas. Some cultures are really excited about generously spicing and roasting a whole pig on Christmas, or lighting tiny candles — and only tiny ones.
Here is a list of wild holiday habits that almost make hanging enormous, unwearable socks stuffed with candy look normal.
Kentucky-fried Christmas for dinner — Japan
At the mention of Christmas, a lot of people dream of things like snowy pine-coated vistas and the tingle of peppermint. Meanwhile, Japan thinks of the Colonel.
KFC has somehow managed to associate itself with Christmas in the mind of Tokyo. The iconic Southern gentleman does look slightly like Santa, and he seems about the right age. The song, “My Old Kentucky Home,” has become a Christmas song in Japan. It is actually not unlike an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” where everyone shares a 30-piece feast and Nashville hot tenders for Christmas dinner.
Skating to church — Caracas, Venezuela
In Venezuela, Christmas enthusiasts fill the streets and roller skate to church. Pretty unusual, maybe, but stranger than this is the purported reason: children tie a string on their toe and leave it out the window so passing skaters can pull it.
Potential logistical problems aside, this seems like a stellar idea, and regardless, skating to church en masse beats walking.
Krampus, the sadistic devil — Austria
Maybe the best way to explain this is the most direct one: Krampus, the shadow of St. Nicholas, is a copiously hairy devil man who whacks naughty children with sticks and hauls them off in a basket.
Leave it to 12th-century Austria-Germany to weave the creepiest Christmas tradition on the list — and Americans thought a lump of coal was bad. One evening out of December is Krampusnacht, during which guys dress up as vaguely Christmas-y devils and parade through the streets. There is some alcohol involved.
The sneaky little Yule Lads — Iceland
The Yule Lads are 13 tricky old men who appear to specialize in theft and vandalism. They are like small, mischievous Santas who spend the winter season harassing Icelandic families instead of making children happy. What they do is not really that bad though — virtually all of the Yule Lads want to inconvenience Icelanders in some way, from licking the crust off someone’s frying pan to slamming doors in the middle of the night. One guy sneaks into families’ rafters to steal their smoked sausages. At least that one has good taste.
Hiding the broom in the closet — Norway
What would any sensible person do in the event that evil witches were about? Norwegians decided, after due consideration, to hide the brooms.
The only thing worse than a mean witch is a mean witch with a broom — and then they start zooming around the house. This is apparently the basis for Norway’s old holiday tradition, in which someone collects all household brooms and stashes them somewhere out of sight.
Norwegians have also been known to hide a single almond in a large rice pudding when winter rolls around.
By Drew Mortier