Christmas is a holiday which is universally-known and widely adored in the United States and around the world; that having been said, it is rare that one truly considers the wide variety of celebrations which exist for the holiday in every nation and household on the globe. In the United States, the most common celebratory Christmas tradition is, of course, Santa Claus, and the unique lore and culture associated with him. It is hard to deny that there is something logic-defying about the idea of a jolly, red-clad, bearded man giving out Christmas presents, yet Santa is but the beginning of odd and mind-boggling festive traditions.

Firstly, it is common in several countries for the populace to participate in food-related celebrations. In Iceland, for example, celebrating individuals will exchange books on Christmas Eve, then proceed to read these books for the remainder of the night while indulging in chocolate. In the country of Ghana, on the other hand, a large group of people will drink from a cup and pour the remainder of the cup’s contents onto the ground as a symbolic offering to their ancestors. Even fast food plays a role in Christmas celebration (outside of America, that is), with the Japanese sometimes marking Christmas with a bite of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s products.

In the Alpine countries, children are urged to be on their best behavior (especially when Christmas is near), for fear that Krampus or Perchta will take them during the night. The former is an evil creature who tends to capture delinquent children and take them to hell if they are bad, whereas the latter rips these children apart and stuffs them with straw.

Other European nations with Christmas traditions which seem bizarre to us include the Sweden, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Sweden, for instance, celebrates the holiday by constructing a sizeable straw goat in one of its cities. This goat is famous for often being burned down by vandals as a small (albeit somewhat illegal) supplement to the celebration. Italy, on the other hand, includes a Christmas tradition somewhat resembling our own, whereby, as part of a festival, an old witch (La Befana) walks through a village, giving gifts to children in the vein of a more discreet Santa Claus. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, includes an interesting tradition of unmarried women throwing shoes over their shoulders and out of their front doors on Christmas Day. In this unique custom, the direction in which the shoe lands dictates the woman’s future—should it land with its toes pointing in the direction of the door, the woman will be married within the coming year. Finally, Slovakia packs its own dinner plate of Christmas celebrations, with the patriarchs of families filling their spoons with loska (a Slovak dessert) and flinging the food at the ceiling; a large quantity of the delicacy sticking to the ceiling prophecies a greater harvest in the coming year.

The means of celebrating Christmas described above are but a small selection of an overwhelming amount of unique (and sometimes absurd) means of recognizing one of the most well-known and loved holidays on the planet; the creativity and uniqueness of these practices pays great tribute to the rich cultures where they originate from, and truly display and define the exorbitant delight that is so wide-spread each year on December 25.