Christmas Around the World: France
Joyeux Noel! Day 5 of our Christmas travels from home took us to…
France!
My girls and I have a future trip planned to France. We’re going to visit the beaches of Normandy, return to the storybook villages of Alsace, check out Monet’s garden, castle hop, and stand in awe of the Eiffel Tower. It’s a trip we talk about all the time!
Needless to say, we were all very interested to see how the French celebrate Christmas! I took 3 years of French in high school, so I was excited to show the kids some of the French traditions.
The French are not a very religious bunch, so they do have a lot of pagan Christmas traditions. However, they do often decorate with Nativity cribs. A lot of times they have add other characters to their Nativity scenes, such as a butcher, baker, or police officer.
If you ever visit Europe during the holidays, you will find a plethora of Christmas markets. The largest Christmas market in France is located in Strasbourg. People travel from all over to shop the markets! They’re a magical part of a European Christmas.
Here are some interesting facts we learned about Christmas in France!
Fun Facts
- Santa Clause is called Pere Noel, or Father Christmas. Pere Noel is very stylish and in stead of wearing a furry red hat, he wears a fur-lined red cloak with a hood!
- French children leave their shoes by the fireplace after Christmas Eve mass. They do this instead of hanging stockings. Pere Noel fills their shoes with goodies!
- The French eat their Christmas meal, called Reveillon after they return from midnight mass on Christmas Eve. They eat roast turkey or goose with chestnuts, foie gras, lobster, oysters, and cheeses for dinner. A sponge cake in the shape of a log is normally eaten for dessert, called Buche de Noel.
- The Buche de Noel cake represents a Yule log. The French like to burn a cherry wood log on Christmas Eve. To make the wood smell good while burning, they sprinkle it with wine. It is customary to leave the Yule log and candles burning all night on Christmas Eve in case Mary and baby Jesus pass by!
- In some parts of France, they eat 13 desserts to celebrate. These desserts are made of fruit and nuts.
What We Did
The following videos are fun and interesting!
Of course, Why Christmas!
We found a salt dough recipe in one of our library books, so we decided to do as the book suggested and make our own homemade crèche!
The girls enjoy doing research on their own and creating a poster. We will hold onto these for years to come and look back on them to remember how each country celebrates!
Finally, we made a Buche de Noel cake. It is not the prettiest but it tasted nice! I was a little pressed for time, so don’t judge my ‘log’.
Learning about Christmas in France was fun! We’re halfway through our 10 day unit study. We have some fun countries planned for next week, so stay tuned!