God Bless America

In the States, Christmas is a very important event for most people where you are together with all of your family. The traditions and ways in which you celebrate it varies a lot however due to the different cultures, that are mixed in the country. 

For example the Moravians make a thing called a putz, which is a miniature landscape placed under the Christmas tree, on Hawaii Christmas is celebrated outdoors  a bit like in Australia with fireworks and in Alaska a star is taken for house to house followed by Herod´s Men. 

The tradition on Hawaii of letting off fireworks derives from the early settlers from Europa, who at that time wanted to send their Christmas greetings to family and friends far away - and this was done with fireworks. 

A very famous Christmas tradition in the States is the carol singing - in the days around Christmas carol singers go from house to house singing carols.

One of the mixed traditions is Las Posadas, which comes from the Mexican people in the country. Las Posadas is a tradition where people remake remake Joseph and Maria´s search for a place to stay. This means that the families go and visit their neighbor´s houses to see their Nativity crib, and it is also common especially in New Mexico to light up the streets and houseroofs to guide Jesus. 

The traditional Christmas dinner consists of turkey,duck or ham in the oven served with some kind of sauce usually a cranberry sauce and for dessert the classical Christmas Pudding. This is the dinner for the majority of Americans, and those who eat this and celebrate Christmas in this way usually also give eachother gifts for Christmas. 

Usually Christmas begins with the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, where families go to church after having had a delicious dinner at home. This is often a very beautiful sight because of the darkness and snow which the season brings - especially if people have put lights up outside like most Mexicans do.

The next morning people wake up to gifts underneath the Christmas tree, which ny now is a very normal Christmas decoration, eventhough it is traditionally German. Other decorations are mistletoes, strings of candy canes and a lot of lights in the traditional Christmas colours all over the house.

Eventhough Santa Claus is traditionally German like the Christmas tree, the Americans have made him famous though, and it is actually the Americans who named him this in the 1890´s. It was the novelist Washington Irving who made Santa Claus famous by mentioning him in a novel of his. 

In the States Santa Claus has two different homes - the first one is in Wilmington, New York, which is a village for him and his reindeers, and the second one is in Torrington, Connecticut, which is the place from where Santa Claus gives out presents.