12 Weirdest Christmas Decorations

Like the song says, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s also one of the busiest times of the year for moving as people rush to get into their new home and get the decorations up before the big guy shuffles down the chimney.

But it’s not all tinsel and fairy lights, some households and countries have their own weird and wonderful decorative traditions.

Xmas Odyssey

It was the Greeks who put the ‘X’ in Xmas (the Greek word for Christ is Χριστός) and in many parts of this famously nautical nation, they decorate boats or karavaki, rather than Christmas trees.

Spiderwebs

Forget candy canes, in Ukraine trees are adorned with glittering spiderwebs. Folklore tells of a family, too poor to decorate their tree, waking on Christmas morning to find it glistening in beautiful webs. Not one for Arachnophobes who, will probably be too busy worrying where the spiders have gone!

Poodolph The Red Faced…

In Spain’s Catalonia region, traditional nativity scenes are adorned with an extra figurine, El Caganer (The Pooper), a man squatting and… Well, doing something you certainly wouldn’t adorn with tinsel.

Yule Log

This is no ordinary festive branch. Another Catalonian refinement, Tió de Nadal is a simple log, with a smiling face, wrapped in a red blanket, that when beaten with a stick, defecates sweets. Because nothing says ‘Christmas’ like a sweetie pooping plank.

Bit of a Pickle

Germany has given the world so many Christmas traditions, but one that hasn’t gone global is the Christmas pickle. Hung on the Christmas tree, the first child to find the pickle gets to open the first present.

So Sweet

In Norway children weave little paper baskets called Julekurver, which they hang on their tree to be magically filled with sweets.

The GOAT

Sweden and Norway both decorate their homes with goats. Stemming from a pagan ritual whereby a goat was sacrificed to the gods to mark the winter solstice, after killjoy Christians banned the bloodlust, people began weaving goats out of straw and placing them in their homes instead.

Kiss-le-toe

Mistletoe was so revered by pagans that it could only be cut by druids. It was a symbol of peace and those meeting beneath were forbidden from fighting. Today peace and love is celebrated when two people meet underneath it, they must exchange a kiss (but only if both parties are consenting, ho-ho-no means no).

Remembrance Day

Portuguese families set an empty space at the dining table on Christmas Day to remember relatives that have passed.

Noche de Rábanos

On December 23^rd the Mexican town of Oaxaca celebrate Noche de Rábanos (Night of the Radishes) by carving festive animals, decorations and entire nativity scenes using radishes.

She Sells Tree Shells

Residents in countries that celebrate Christmas during their summer months, such as Australia and Barbados, often decorate and hang seashells on their tree.

A Shoe!

German children leave a boot or shoot outside their door. If they’ve been good, they wake to find their shoe full of sweets, if they’ve been naughty, they’ll find nowt but a stick.