The Santa Claus blog
Babbo Natale, Ded Moroz, La Befana, the Christkind: who brings the presents, and under which name.
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Christmas around the worldA witch on a broom, a child with golden curls, a log you whack with a stick, a Basque charcoal burner: Santa isn't the only one making rounds, and each visitor keeps a night of their own.
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Christmas around the worldIn Australia, Christmas falls in high summer. People eat prawns instead of turkey, have sung carols by candlelight in a Melbourne park since 1938, and its own carols send three drovers across the outback.
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Christmas around the worldFrom Saint Nicholas Day in Lorraine to the thirteen desserts of Provence, Christmas in France changes every hundred miles. Here are the traditions, their dates and where they came from.
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Christmas around the worldThe Advent wreath, the Advent calendar, Christmas markets and stollen all came out of Germany. Here is how the country lives through December, from the first Sunday of Advent to December 26.
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Christmas around the worldIn Japan, Christmas is not a public holiday and barely one person in a hundred is Christian. Yet people reserve their fried chicken weeks ahead, share a strawberry cake and keep Christmas Eve for couples.
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Christmas around the worldIn Mexico, Christmas runs from December 12 to February 2. Nine nights of posadas, a star-shaped piñata, a midnight dinner and carved radishes: here are the traditions and their history.
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Christmas around the worldIn Spain, Christmas starts with children singing lottery numbers and ends two weeks later, when the Three Kings climb up to the balconies. In between: a family feast, a day of pranks and twelve grapes swallowed at midnight.
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Christmas around the worldIn the Netherlands, presents arrive on December 5, brought by a saintly bishop who sails in from Spain. His helper, Zwarte Piet, has divided the country for more than a decade. Christmas, three weeks later, lasts two days.
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Christmas around the worldA paper tube invented by a London confectioner, a king who speaks at 3 p.m., a pie that once held mutton and a day named after a box: Britain's Christmas has rituals of its own.
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Christmas around the worldSaint, grandfather, goat or farm gnome: depending on where a child lives, Santa answers to a very different name. Each name tells a story, from Mexico City to Moscow and Athens.
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