Adopt These Christmas Traditions From Around the Globe

There’s no reason you can’t add a few new Christmas traditions to your family’s normal way of doing things.

You may see this festive Christmas character showing up at the movie theaters this holiday season. Horned, fanged and a little bit reminiscent of Satan, Krampus is kind of the antithesis of Santa — he comes to visit the naughty children of Germany, Austria and other nearby European countries to punish them for their misbehavior the year prior. Your family will probably not appreciate you introducing everyone at the kids’ table to this holiday tale.

If you’re in Ukraine and see spider web decorations on the Christmas tree, don’t assume the owner accidentally mixed up Halloween and holiday decorations. A Ukrainian folktale says an impoverished family woke up on Christmas morning to find their undecorated Christmas tree was decorated in spider webs, which, when the sun touched them, turned into silver and gold. Families now incorporate spider webs into their decorations.

Families in Caracas, Venezuela, attend religious services and mass around the holidays like many families in the States, with one slight difference. The week before December, many roads in Caracas are closed before 8 a.m. to make way for mass attendees on roller skates, an early morning tradition that almost the entire city partakes in.

Tired of seeing turkey at the Christmas dinner table? The Japanese turned an American classic soul food into the ultimate Christmas entrée. So what can you find adorning their dinner tables? None other than fried chicken, much of it straight from KFC.