This page is dedicated to the traditions of Christmas celebrated across North America

~ Canada ~

In Canada, people usually celebrate Christmas by putting up Christmas trees and decorating them with ornaments and lights, sometime long before Christmas, and many times Christmas trees are put outside. The northern country usually gets a lot of snow by the time Christmas rolls around, and with all the decorations it looks very festive for the holiday season.

Most people in Canada will go to a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, and some, especially for those in the providence of Quebec, will return at around two o'clock in the morning to have a Christmas meal, referred to as a 'Reveillon', or waking up, dinner. The most commonly found food at Christmas dinner is turkey, but some will take to their ancestral roots and have Tourtire. This is a stew consisting of a layer of meat, a layer of potato, and a layer of onions, repeating as necessary to how many people will need to be feed and slowly cooked the day before the meal.

Varying from family to family, opening presents will usually have children waiting until Christmas morning to open presents from Santa Claus.

~ Native American ~

For several hundred years, ever since they were Christianized, the Native Americans have celebrated Christmas. With most traditions stemming from the American Missionaries, there are very few differences in the way the holiday is celebrated.

One of the largest of Christmas traditions is a dance on Christmas Eve. During the dance, gifts are exchanged at a manger, which is another important tradition, though Native Chiefs have replaced the wise men in many displays.