How is Christmas celebrated in different parts of the world?

In England; (I'm the official spokesperson) Wake up and open presents. Have a hearty breakfast consisting of various chocolate bars from your selection box. Start cooking or helping with the prep. Go and collect any local relatives. Start drinking as soon as you feel most of the hard prep and cooking is done. Watch TV (whilst drinking of course!) Highlights include Dr Who special, the Queens speech, Bond reruns from the 60's/70's etc. Have tea. By now the arguments between drunken relatives should be well under way, so that's the tea-time entertainment sorted. After tea, gently fall asleep on the couch whilst watching TV. If you're young, slip out while the old people aren't looking and head to an Irish  social club, you gotta love the Irish, they open on Christmas day. Get drunk. Stagger home. The end.

In Ireland, here's how Christmas is celebrated by the average family. Pre-Xmas The run up to Christmas seems to start earlier each year. This year, decorations, advertisements and special offers could be seen in late October, before Halloween. Traditionally, people would decorate their homes in the second week of December, although this generation's families tend to start earlier. Most houses are moderately decorated with a christmas tree inside, some ornaments and candles on the windowsills and maybe some lights outside. Although in every housing estate, there's always one who simply cannot help themselves Christmas Spirit Most people can recognize a feeling of happiness and generosity in the air during December. People are excited, there's a lot more well wishing than usual and it definitely cheers people up. Work Holidays Most companies finish up on the most convenient day before the 25h December, so usually around the 21st December. Most holidays are for two weeks, so people don't start back until the second week in January. It is in no way a sacred holiday though, a lot of people work on Christmas Eve and some work on Christmas day. Presents Presents (not gifts) from relatives are usually placed under the tree as they come. Presents from Santa are kept hidden. Most families unwrap presents on Christmas morning, the 25th December, although some families unwrap them on Christmas eve. Presents are becoming more and more lavish as the years go by. It is not uncommon for kids to get Apple products, holidays or cars these days. Religion Ireland has strong Catholic roots and a lot of families go to mass on Christmas morning, regardless of whether they practice the religion or not. It's just tradition. Over the East of Ireland, near the capital, we now have a pretty diverse range of cultures, so I'm sure there are various religious traditions which take place around Christmas. Food The traditional turkey and ham is still by far the most common meal eaten on Christmas Day. Soup for starters is pretty common too and mince pies, pudding or christmas cake for dessert. Some families order christmas dinner from restaurants. Christmas Day The day itself is pretty much a drag. Kids wake up between 6am and 8am depending on the parents, run downstairs and open their presents. Parents sit around taking photos and thinking how most of the presents they bought will be forgotten about before the day is over. Kids run outside to play on their bikes and show off their presents, while the parents start preparing the food. Relatives might call over around 1pm and some would start drinking. Wine, Guinness and cider are probably the most popular drinks at Christmas. Food is usually eaten around 2pm. Most people eat far too much, yet still manage to find room for dessert. Kids will head back outside soon after while the oldies go for a quick nap on the couch. The Aftermath Decorations usually stay up until the first week in January, after New Year's eve. Most people drink quite a bit over the two week Christmas holiday, although when you give an Irish man two weeks off work, that's to be expected.

In Germany, we celebrate Christmas eve. On sunset, the family enters the room with the Christmas tree; we sing a couple of carols and then open the presents. After that, we have dinner; for some it has to be goose, for others some other kind of luxurious dish, but for some families it's deliberately simple (like wieners and potato salad. Lots of sweets under the Christmas tree, along with the presents. Many go to Church before, or at midnight. The actual Christmas day, and Boxing day are both more kind of an afterthought. We visit close relatives (Grandparents etc) and enjoy the present. Lunch on these days is typically lush.

outlines the British approach to Xmas and it disappoints me to say the Australian experience does not vary much at all.  We have all the British/European traditions firmly ensconced - you've got your Christmas tree, usually a pine.  You've got your Santa Claus nonsense, your Reindeers, your north pole/snow and on the big day you have generally got a big hot stodgy Christmas lunch followed by a hot stodgy Christmas pudding.  All of this in the middle of an Australian summer.   That said, here a few pictures around my yard last Xmas... There has been a slow development of an Australian character to Christmas traditions - seafood and BBQ's are more and more common replacements for the traditional British Christmas lunch.  I even know a few people who go out for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum_cha on Christmas day!    Far and away my favourite part of an Australian Christmas is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day_Test and that comes the day after :o)

In Singapore: Shopping, eating with family, taking leave from work to bring your family on a trip to see some real snow, eating some more with friends... Pretty much no different from any other time of the year, except for the pretty street decor on the main shopping belt, Orchard Road.

In Norway (and Denmark) we celebrate christmas on the 24th. This may seem odd, but the bible does not cite a spesific date on which baby Jesus was born. Christmas or "jul" as we call it, is also said to be named after the nordic "jol", which was what the vikings called the day when earth started going towards summer. Every family has it own traditions but in Norway it's very common to eat rice porridge, around 1 p.m. With cinnamon, sugar and butter on top! It has also become an old tradition to watch an eastern european film version of cinderella. Most Norwegians are not christian, but christmas eve is a special day for many. Therefore it's common to og to church! Church is also a nice place to meet people you know, and wish them merry christmas! After church (which usually lasts for an hour), we go home and eat christmas dinner. This is usually pork or salted lamb. For dessert we have rice pudding! With a traditional norwegian aquawit on the side. After dinner we open our presents (but first a round around the christmas tree, which of course is awkard but something one has to go through before the presents!). On christmas day we eat good food and enjoy our presents! On the second day aswell, but it's also a tradition to go out on town for the younger Norwegians! Merry christmas / god jul!

In Perth, Australia. I am a cynical bastard so will start by saying it's celebrated because a myth has been perpetrated on humanity that's lovely morality has led us to spend a fortune on crap, food and booze for no good reason. The nicer answer is that this year I will fly home to Perth, hop on a ferry and spend Xmas on the beautiful Rottnest Island with my family. We will rise early, go to the beach for breakfast and a swim (it will be 26c/79f there, that's mild for Xmas day) return to one of our bungalows and exchange crappy presents, start drinking though we already had champagne at breakfast so keep drinking, get lunch organised, talk crap, argue,say we love each other, talk some more crap, pig out on lunch and booze, go to the beach for a swim (Note: never swim after drinking alcohol), return for more food and booze, have a light dinner, drink a bit, say we should do this every year, go to the pub for a few, stagger home and fall into bed plastered. Oh the joy of family piss ups. Mental note, be careful not to hurt my 2 year old nephew while pissed and being an idiot. (I secretly love Xmas with the family btw, but don't tell them) Generic hot chicks on the beach photo in Perth at Xmas. PS. this Xmas a Perth family did this to their house causing thousands to flock to their street which in turn caused the display to be pulled down after 5 days. PS if you hate Gangnam style don't press play.

Hello, My name is Meirav and I'm actually a Jewish Israeli girl that not really celebrate Christmas, but for the past 3 years I've been living in Beijing,China, and although China also don't really celebrate Christmas at their house hold they celebrate this holiday everywhere in the streets! Actuallly it's kind of a beautiful holiday that I learn to really love and appreciate.. So I've been decided to celebrate like the Chinese people not from the inside but only from the outside! :) I even wrote a blog about it, you can check it out: http://www.xpatgirls.com/2014/01/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/

china. Christmas Eve: eat an apple because in mandarin,we call apple " 苹果”（ping guo）which might be deemed a fruit of peaceful.. Christmas day: all about consuming. Hang out,shopping,eat big meal,and ..for the lovers...you know.... Vive la chinesemas~