French Christmas Traditions

Video Transcript

"We are talking about different Christmas traditions from around the world. In France, children actually leave their shoes out so that Pere Noel, or Father Christmas, can leave presents in their shoes. And this is actually done on Christmas Eve. And on Christmas Day, the birth of Christ is actually reenacted in cathedral squares, and they actually use actors as well as little puppets to recreate the scene. And very, very traditional in most homes in France are nativity scenes, or cr?ches, and they consist not just of the holy family, but also of little saints, which in French is santons. And these have been created from molds that have been passed down from generation to generation. As you can imagine, the nativity scenes are very unique. The cr?ches are homemade, and the santons are traditionally sold throughout the Christmas season at different markets and at different venues. And this is something that's been going on, as I said, for generations. And some of the food in France, actually, that they eat sort of varies from region to region. In some areas they eat goose. In another they eat oysters. And a traditional dessert in France is the Christmas log, or the Busche de Noel. And that is very popular, and most homes have the Christmas log. Christmas trees are not really quite as common in France. It actually never really caught on."