Christmas is Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. For millions of Christians throughout the world it is the happiest and the busiest time of the year. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth but most Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25. The word Christmas comes from Christes masse, an early English phrase that means Mass of Christ.
People of different countries celebrate Christmas in various ways. People in the United States and Canada decorate their homes with Christmas trees, wreaths and ornaments. City streets are filled with colored lights; the sound of bells and Christmas carols can be heard everywhere.
Children write letters to Santa Claus and tell him what presents they would like to get. Many department stores hire people to wear a Santa Claus costume and listen to children's requests. People send Christmas cards to relatives and friends. Many companies give presents to their employees.
A Christmas tree is one of the main symbols of Christmas in most homes. Relatives and friends may join in trimming the tree with lights, tinsel, and colorful ornaments. Presents are placed under the tree. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, families open their presents.
Many children believe that Santa Claus arrives on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer and brings presents. Some children hang up stockings so Santa Claus can fill them with candy, fruit and other small gifts.
In many parts of the United States and Canada groups of people walk from house to house and sing Christmas carols. Some people give singers money or small gifts or invite them for a warm drink.
Many people attend church services on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. They listen to readings from the Bible and singing Christmas carols.
A traditional Christmas dinner consists of stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and a variety of other dishes. Some families have ham or roast goose instead of turkey. Pumpkin pie, plum pudding, and fruitcake are favorite desserts.
Translation:
Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. For millions of Christians around the world, this is the happiest and most troublesome time of the year. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth, but most Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25th. The word "Christmas" comes from "Christes masse", an Old English expression that means "Mass of Christ".
People in different countries celebrate Christmas in different ways. People in the United States and Canada decorate their homes with Christmas trees, wreaths, and various decorations. The city streets are full of colorful lights, bells and Christmas carols can be heard everywhere.
Children write letters to Santa Claus and tell him what gifts they would like to receive. Many department stores hire people to wear Santa Claus costumes and listen to children's requests. People send Christmas cards to relatives and friends. Many companies give gifts to their employees.
The Christmas tree is one of the main symbols of Christmas in most homes. Relatives and friends can gather to decorate the Christmas tree with lights, tinsel, and colorful decorations. Gifts are placed under the tree. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, families open gifts.
Many children believe that Santa Claus arrives on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Some children hang out stockings for Santa Claus to fill with candy, fruit, and other small gifts.
In many areas of the United States and Canada, groups of people go from house to house singing Christmas carols. Some give the singers money or small gifts, or invite them inside for hot drinks.
Many people attend church services on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. They listen to passages from the Bible and sing Christmas carols.
A traditional Christmas dinner consists of stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a variety of other items. Some families eat ham or roast goose instead of turkey. Favorite desserts are pumpkin pie, plum pudding and fruit cake.
A correspondent for the Minsk-Novosti agency found out how Christmas is celebrated in Canada, where the snowdrifts do not melt, the illumination makes it as bright as day at night, and winter lasts almost 6 months.
In North America, Christmas is celebrated. New Year here simply marks the beginning of another winter month. On December 26, the holidays end and the Christmas trees go to waste. But both adults and children are waiting for Christmas like a fairy tale. Post offices are filled with children's letters to Santa - he even has his own official Canadian postal code: OHO-HON. Everyone here is sure that Santa Claus is a true Canadian. This was recently stated personally and with full responsibility by the country's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney. “Hands off, Norway! Step aside, Russia! - Canadian tabloids rejoiced in the headlines. - Santa is ours now! It’s not for nothing that his suit is red and white, like our flag.” Needless to say - irrefutable evidence. Where does he live? Someone believes that in a secret residence in Montreal, someone is sending an old man to the very north to the polar bears. Actually, he will be fine anywhere in Canada. The snow here is lovely, it doesn’t melt all winter, it’s crunchy and compacted. There is no slush, the sun almost always shines.
Little Las Vegas
In the winter months, every owner of a private home strives to turn his yard into a little Las Vegas - there are all the conditions for this. Stores sell outdoor garlands and fantastic figures made from LEDs. The winter duties of almost every Canadian are to clear the path to the porch in the morning and turn on the illumination in the evening. It’s good that all houses are equipped with external sockets. Huge inflatable Santas and snowmen are very popular; during the day they sway importantly in the wind.
In the center of Ottawa, the ancient Parliament building glows with all the colors of the rainbow, and colored light projections flicker on its walls. In this city it’s even difficult to say where the main Christmas tree is. Any large spruce is dressed up as if for a beauty contest. By the way, about Christmas trees. Live Christmas trees are becoming increasingly popular. It is believed that plastic pollutes the environment, and Canadians are very concerned about this. Long before the holiday, adults and children go to country forest nurseries to personally select and cut down their Christmas tree. There's also hot chocolate and sleigh rides - fun and environmentally friendly.
Egg-Nog, skating rink and lollipop
Canadians have been in a holiday frenzy since the end of October. The season of fun opens with Halloween and Thanksgiving, after which they immediately put up the tree and look forward to Christmas. The atmosphere of a magical holiday is supported by shops offering unprecedented discounts. Including skates, skis, sleds, and insulated winter clothing: public skating rinks open at this time. The largest is near the parliament building. Adults warm up with Egg-Nog, an alcoholic drink based on egg yolk whipped with sugar, milk and spices. The taste is magical. Buy without hesitation, because it is only on sale for Christmas. The entire month before Christmas, Canadians visit each other, give gifts, and bake turkey 10 times. December 25 is a purely family holiday. The turkey is roasted for the 11th time, and the children prepare traditional gingerbread men. December 26 - Boxing Day. It’s interesting that for these 2 days all shops in the country are closed - you can’t even buy water. So, whoever made it, celebrates.
That's all, actually... The fun ends, workdays begin. You have to work at least one winter month - until February. And in February everything comes to life again, the season of winter fairs and sales and street shows opens. This is the best time for tourists who want to visit Canada in winter. The annual Winterlude festival begins - mass skating on the Rideau Canal to the Canadian anthem, hot coffee with maple syrup, and the famous Lollipops. How are they made? Simply pour some maple syrup onto the snow, insert a stick, and wait for it to set. The lollipop is ready! Children especially like this fun.
What about New Year...
Alas, it does not exist as a holiday in this country. I remember that on December 31, my family and I specially sat down in front of the TV to listen to a festive concert, the traditional congratulations of Prime Minister Trudeau, and to watch the fireworks, after all. And nothing. It turned out that all this had already happened on the evening of the 24th. January 1 is an ordinary day. True, it’s not a weekday, it’s still a day off. “How great it is for our Belarusians!” - I thought. At this time, all the good things are just beginning for us: New Year, Christmas... And Santa Claus can come to children not once, but twice, or even three times - also on the old New Year. Can a foreigner understand this? So now think about where Santa lives and where he really should go...
Decorated house
In Canada, great importance is given to the celebration of Christmas Eve, December 24th. On this day, local residents look back at the past, just as in Russia they say goodbye to the old year.
Kids in Canada go to bed early so as not to oversleep long-awaited gifts from Santa Claus. And at this time the adults sit down at the festive table, as if rehearsing tomorrow's Christmas feast. 
Interestingly, different cities in Canada celebrate Christmas differently. For example, Vancouver lights up with colorful lights on Christmas Eve. Millions of light bulbs located on houses, parks, squares light up so that every resident receives his portion of the Christmas mood. And at the Vancouver Aquarium, Canadians enjoy watching Santa dive into the water.
In Nova Scotia, for example, there is a tradition of singing Christmas songs and psalms all night. And in Newfoundland and Labrador, on Christmas Eve, it is customary in the church to sell fish that are caught specially for this day. The proceeds go to the church's charitable foundation. Kids can hold a lit candle in their hand, which is inserted into a turnip peel. Turnip peels are specially saved for Christmas from the summer harvest. This is how they say goodbye to the old year. 
Parliament Building, Canada
The Christmas holiday leaves warmth and joy in the souls of Canadians, because no one remains indifferent to the magic that happens in Canada every Christmas night.
Decorated house
In Canada, great importance is given to the celebration of Christmas Eve, December 24th. On this day, local residents look back at the past, just as in Russia they say goodbye to the old year.
Kids in Canada go to bed early so as not to oversleep long-awaited gifts from Santa Claus. And at this time the adults sit down at the festive table, as if rehearsing tomorrow's Christmas feast.
Interestingly, different cities in Canada celebrate Christmas differently. For example, Vancouver lights up with colorful lights on Christmas Eve. Millions of light bulbs located on houses, parks, squares light up so that every resident receives his portion of the Christmas mood. And at the Vancouver Aquarium, Canadians enjoy watching Santa dive into the water.
In Nova Scotia, for example, there is a tradition of singing Christmas songs and psalms all night. And in Newfoundland and Labrador, on Christmas Eve, it is customary in the church to sell fish that are caught specially for this day. The proceeds go to the church's charitable foundation. Kids can hold a lit candle in their hand, which is inserted into a turnip peel. Turnip peels are specially saved for Christmas from the summer harvest. This is how they say goodbye to the old year.
Parliament Building, Canada
The Christmas holiday leaves warmth and joy in the souls of Canadians, because no one remains indifferent to the magic that happens in Canada every Christmas night.
New Year and Christmas are approaching - holidays that are eagerly awaited in all corners of the world by both children and adults. On the eve of the Christmas holidays, people buy gifts for relatives and friends, sign cards, decorate their houses and decorate Christmas trees. Canadians are no exception; for them this is also one of their favorite holidays of the year. Let's see how they prepare for Christmas Holidays, and what awaits you if you are lucky enough to be on Christmas in Canada.
As you know, for Canadians a more significant holiday is Christmas, not New Year. Christmas is celebrated in Canada on December 25th.
Like any other country, Canada has its own Christmas traditions, without which this holiday is simply unthinkable. So first of all this Christmas tree.
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, traditionally associated with the celebration of Christmas in the Christian world. A Christmas tree is often placed inside the home, but it can also be placed outside and can be decorated with Christmas lights, tree decorations, garlands and tinsel. An angel or star is often placed on top, representing a host of angels or the Star of Bethlehem from the birth of Jesus. The tradition of decorating evergreen trees for Christmas appeared in Germany in the 16th century. Christmas trees are often very ornately decorated.
Origin
According to Christian law, the Nativity tree is associated with Saint Boniface and the German city of Geismar. Saint Boniface (672-754) cut down the Tree of Thor in order to, trampling the power of the Northern gods, prove to the local tribes of the Germans that the Ases and Baths (i.e., the German pagan gods) do not exist. Saint Boniface saw a fir tree growing in the roots of an old oak tree. Taking this as a symbol of the Christian faith, he said: “...let Christ be the center of your home...” using fir as a symbol of Christianity. The tradition of using a Christmas tree is not as ancient as it might seem. It appeared thanks to Martin Luther as a contrast to the traditions of Catholic Christmas. Luther imagined it as a symbol of the Tree of Life in Eden.
The first mention of the choice of the Christmas tree as a symbol of the holiday can be dated back to the 16th century in northern Germany and Livonia (a colony of the Livonian Order, which is now Estonia and the northern part of Latvia). Judging by the first documented uses of the Christmas tree in Estonia in 1441, 1442 and 1513, a certain Brotherhood of the Blackheads (it is unknown how, since no written evidence has survived) chose the tree for use in festivities in the brotherhood and Rivel (now Tallinn). On the last night before the holiday, the tree was displayed in the main city square, where members of the brotherhood danced around it. In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote about the established tradition of placing a decorated spruce in the market square, where young people “walked with a crowd of girls and women, first sang and danced around the spruce, and then set the tree on fire.” During this period, guilds began to display Christmas trees in front of the places where the guilds met: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Margburg Professor of European Ethnology) found a chronicle of the guilds of the city of Bremen from 1570 describing how small trees were decorated with “apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" and were displayed at the town hall to the delight of all the children of the guild members who collected delicacies for Christmas.
At the beginning of the 18th century, this tradition became common in the cities of the Rhineland, but had not yet spread to agricultural areas. Wax candles began to be used at the end of the 18th century. The Christmas tree, or rather the tradition of decorating it for Christmas, testifies to the isolation of the Rhineland for a relatively long period, since the tradition did not spread anywhere from there. Catholics did not pay attention to this tradition, since it was Protestant, and the custom was already popularized by the Prussian authorities. Like the German Yule, only slightly “disguised” as the canonical Christmas, the Christmas tree was more or less approved by the Roman Catholic Church, since it could not stop the use of the tree as a symbol.
The tradition came to Canada in the winter of 1781 thanks to the Brunswick soldiers stationed in the province of Quebec to garrison the colony in case of an American attack. General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and his wife, Baroness von Riedesel, held a Christmas party in Sorel, entertaining guests with a decorated fir tree with candy and fruit.
At the beginning of the 19th century, this tradition became popular in high circles of society and spread to the east of Europe, including Russia. Princess Henrieta of Nassau-Wildburg later introduced the Christmas tree in Vienna in 1816, and the tradition spread throughout Austria in the following years. In France, the first Christmas tree appeared in 1810 thanks to the Duchess of Orleans.
The first Saturday of every December is National Christmas Tree Day in Canada. This event and the upcoming winter season are a wonderful occasion to remember the festive tree - Christmas and New Year.
Without a doubt, if the national tree of Canada were not the maple, it would be the spruce - Her Evergreen Majesty. Spruce played a huge role in the history and development of Canada. A decoction of pine needles saved the first colonists from scurvy and death during the harsh Canadian winter. Spruce is an excellent building material, and its wood, bark and needles are used for many different purposes, from paper production to the production of medicines.
By the way, there are about forty species of spruce in the world. Well, it belongs to the pine family, which includes a huge number of evergreen coniferous plants widespread throughout the world.
One of the characteristics of spruce is the ability to grow new plants from the roots or stumps of dead spruce. In this way, spruce can clone itself for centuries and even millennia. In one of the national parks in Sweden, spruce grows - the oldest tree on the planet, which has been reborn for almost 10 thousand years.
Well, how did this northern tree become a symbol of Christmas and New Year? This is due to its distant relationship with the majestic and historic cedar of Lebanon, and the fact that the spruce is the only green tree during the Christmas holidays in the Nordic countries, from where these winter traditions have spread throughout the world.
At the beginning of December, “Christmas Tree” can be bought everywhere, in any self-respecting store or around the nearest corner in the shopping area. But it’s much more fun to go “hunting” with the whole family for that very Christmas tree that has been waiting for you for a year now at some “Christmas tree” farm in the near or far outskirts of Toronto.
When going to a Christmas tree farm, it’s worth understanding a little about the classification of Canadian holiday trees. There are three main types - Fir, Spruce and Pine. The first two can be considered spruce in the usual sense for you and me, but the third is pine.
Several varieties of each of these species are available for purchase at Ontario farms and Christmas tree markets. The most popular Fir trees are Balsam, Fraser, Douglas, Canaan and Concolor. All of them differ in the length, density and color of the needles and branches, the shape of the crown, as well as the smell and ability to preserve the needles after the tree is cut down.
As for Spruce trees, among them there are also the famous blue spruces - for example, Colorado Blue Spruce. Another popular variety is White Spruce. Popular pine trees this holiday season include White Pine and Scots Pine, the world's most widely grown Christmas and New Year tree. Well, White Pine has a very low odor, which is especially beneficial for people with allergies and negative reactions to resinous odors.
When driving through a Christmas tree farm, you most often see neat rows of Christmas trees, grown at the same time and reaching approximately the same height. By the way, to grow a Christmas tree for sale on a farm, it takes from 6 to 12 years.
But in nature, of course, everything is far from being like that. And the majestic Grand Fir, growing in the mountains of British Columbia and Alberta, over many decades reaches a height of up to one hundred meters in natural conditions.
So, it's time to go to the Christmas tree farm. But what to do if it’s a pity to destroy a living tree for temporary pleasure? Experts say there is no need to feel sorry. Christmas trees from the farm, before being cut down for sale, contribute to healthy air for many years and create conditions for the existence of many other living creatures, including birds and animals. Finally, instead of a cut down tree, another one is usually planted, and the holiday tree that has “spent” its life becomes a valuable raw material. Overall, the Christmas tree industry employs many people and supports the Canadian economy much better than plastic Christmas trees from China.
Sunridge Mall
Sunridge Mall is offering Santa photos free of charge this year; just bring your own camera, camcorder or smartphone. In lieu of payment, a monetary donation to The Children’s Cottage Society is gratefully requested.
Address: 2525 36 St NE, Calgary AB
Website: www.sunridgemall.com
Deerfoot Mall
In addition having a photo taken with Santa, bring a non-perishable food item for the Mayor’s Food Bank and you can join in the coloring and crafts in Santa’s workshop. There’s a new craft each week! Deerfoot Mall and Country 105 are also offering a chance to win free Santa photos and a $500 shopping spree.
When: Now through December 24, 2014
Address: 901 64 Ave NE, Calgary AB
Website: www.deerfootmall.com
Southcentre Mall
While waiting for Santa, your kids can watch a holiday movie on Southcentre’s new Magic Pond, locate near Santa’s Enchanted Forest. After seeing Santa, be sure to decorate your own cookie in the Cookie Kitchen. On weekends, keep your eyes open for The Nutcracker and Sugar Plum Fairy, who will be visiting!
Address: 100 Anderson Road SE, Calgary AB
Website: www.southcentremall.com
Market Mall
Santa will be welcoming visitors at his Playland in Market Mall. Proceeds from photos will go to the Ronald McDonald House of Southern Alberta.
Address: 3625 Shaganappi Trail NW, Calgary AB
Website: www.marketmall.ca
Chinook Center
Santa arrives at Chinook Center on November 28, and would love for you to visit.
When: November 28 – December 24, 2104
Address: 6455 Macleod Trail SW, Calgary AB
Website: www.chinookcentre.com
Marlborough Mall
In addition to hosting Santa for the holiday season, Marlborough Mall will be offering kids’ crafts on select days and the opportunity to drop off a new, unwrapped toy for the Toy Angels holiday campaign.
When: November 22 – December 24, 2014
Address: 3800 Memorial Dr NE, Calgary, AB
Website: www.marlboroughmall.com
Westbrook Mall
Visit with Santa by the fountain, participate in free kids’ holiday crafts on select days and take the opportunity to drop off a new, unwrapped toy for the Toy Angels holiday campaign.
Address: 1200 37 St SW, Calgary AB
Website: www.westbrookmall.com
Northland Village Mall
This holiday season, Northland Village's Village Square will be transformed into Sugarplum Lane; parents can bring their children for fun activities, yummy treats, and a visit with Santa! You can save time by pre-booking your visit. Be sure to br ing your camera to take photos for free (no photographer onsite).
