• Opening one gift on Christmas Eve and begging to open the rest that same evening.
  
• Leaving milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.
• Cleaning pieces of carrot off the driveway on Christmas afternoon after my dad spent a few minutes the evening before chewing them up and spitting them out to make it look like the reindeer ate them. (Of course, this role has been taken on by me in recent years now that I have my own children to fool.)
• Singing Christmas carols.
• The list goes on…

Before I dig a deep hole for myself, yes, I fully understand that not everyone celebrates Christmas. I'm choosing to blog about it because it's what I know and understand. It's part of my fiber. Last evening, I was thinking back over my family traditions and planning for this Christmas. It got me to wondering what other parts of the world do to celebrate Christmas. I've spent a couple of Christmases in Denmark and loved being a part of some of their unique traditions. And, after reviewing this site, I'm anxious to visit other parts of the world to enjoy new experiences. I may even start including many new worldly traditions in my family's Christmas celebrations (of course, not all of them as one in particular involves giving one of your children to another tribe as a peace offering).

You can review the site for yourself, but a few of the traditions around the world include:

• In Denmark, Christmas Eve dinner begins with rice pudding that holds a single, magic almond inside. Whoever finds the almond receives a prize. (While partaking of this tradition on two occasions, I was told stories of family members who tried to sneak their own almond to the table in an effort to claim the prize. So, the smart cooks now cut a distinguishable "notch" in the real almond to make it easy to identify as the authentic nut.)
• In New Guinnea, to create peace amongst feuding tribes, the chief of each tribe exchanges an infant son known as the Peace Child. Each tribe takes great care of the adopted child for if the child dies, the treaty ends and fighting erupts once again.
• In Pakistan, December 25 is a public holiday. However, it is in memory of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. They have a church service on Christmas day which is called Bara Din ("The Big Day").
• In Poland, during Advent and, in some homes, on Christmas Eve, bees wax or plain is poured on water and fortunes are told from the shapes which emerge.

What special traditions does your family have? Have you ever spent Christmas in another country where you were part of a unique tradition? I'd love to hear about them, so please feel free to leave comments.

From all of us at The Envision Group, we wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! And, if you celebrate something different or don't observe any holidays at all during this time of year, may the remainder of 2008 and the start of 2009 bring you success and happiness!

—Greg