10 of The World’s Weirdest Christmas Traditions
Check out 10 of the weirdest Christmas traditions from around the world. Christmas is a time of joy and celebration, and many countries have weird traditions. Care to know what those bizarre traditions are? Well, some in some countries, families leave out beer for Santa, instead of the regular milk & cookies, while other states are visited by Santa’s demonic evil twin, who’s named Krampus. Find out what he does, and many more interesting yet odd Christmas Traditions right here.
1. Krampus, Santa’s Evil Austrian Twin
As scary and bizarre as it may seem, this tradition is actually real and you can experiment it first hand if you plan on spending December 5th in Austria. Krampus is a demon creature who is Santa’s evil twin.
What does this demon do you ask? His role is to beat and punish children who have misbehaved throughout the year. In honor of this demonic beast, on December 5th, men disguise themselves in horrific demon-like costumes and masks, and roam around the city streets hitting people with sticks…
See a glimpse of the festivities for Krampus in the video below:
2. Rollerblading to Church On Christmas Day – Caracas, Venezuela
Do you get enough exercise throughout the year? Well if you don’t Christmas morning is the perfect time to go out for a stroll on your rollerblades. And while you’re at it, take the whole family with you. That’s how they do things in Venezuela. People get to the morning church services on rollerblades, as a tradition, and the roads are even specially cleaned up for the occasion.
3. Hide Brooms Away From Witches – Norway
In Norway, Christmas Eve is associated with the arrival of witches and evil spirits. So… What do we do when it comes to witches? Hide all the brooms! Every Christmas eve, before going to sleep, the members of a household hide all of the brooms and go to sleep hoping that the witches don’t find them.
4. Caga Tià – The Pooping Log
The people of Catalonia also have a very weird tradition that starts two weeks before Christmas. On December 8th, every family takes out a hollow log, they put it on eight wooden legs, they cover him with a blanket to make sure he doesn’t catch a cold, and they feed him daily till December 25th. On Christmas Day, the log is put in the fireplace and beaten with sticks until he poops out small candies, fruits, and nuts… Dig in boys and girls!
5. The Good Luck Spider Hidden in The Christmas Tree – Ukraine
An old Ukrainian tale says that a long time ago, a widow was so poor, that she could not afford to buy any Christmas ornaments for her tree. She was extremely sad that she could not give her kids the joy of a beautiful Christmas tree and she went to sleep crying. When she woke up, she found her tree magically ornamented by a spider web. The little spider had made Christmas happier for the whole family.
Based on that tale, in Ukraine it is considered a tradition to hide a spider ornament in the tree, and who ever finds it, will have good luck all year long.
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