Christmas in Scotland???

[mirlee]

Well, we have a poster/research project to do. The students need to research Christmas traditions and they get to pick the country. Ds has picked Scotland. Not surprising as he is of Scottish ancestry. I have done some research and have learned about First Foot and Hogmanay and the cleaning rituals and the elves.

Does anyone know of kid oriented resources or stories about holiday traditions in Scotland. Are you Scottish and want to share what your family does?

This is a tough one!

Thanks.

Mir

[angelpie545]

Perhaps you should also X-post in "Finding your Tribe" ? I know there are some Scottish mamas over there who probably be happy to share their traditions with you.

[roxyrox]

On Hogmanay, at midnight, most Scots link arms and sing "Auld Lang Syne". This is the unofficial "national anthem" (most Scots reject the English "God save the Queen"!)

Other than that, for "xmas traditions" I am struggling! Many men wear their kilts on xmas day though, and on New Years Eve (hogmanay) I would say a good 50% of men out in pubs and clubs have a kilt on!

In Scotland, New Year is a far bigger celebration than xmas, it is "thee" celebration of the year. Bagpipes are also heard often at this time of year.

I can't think of anything else off hand. I am Scottish though - if you have any questions I will try to answer them!

[Mirzam]

I am not Scottish, but I am English and I would hazzard a guess that Christmas in Scotland is very much like Christmas in the the rest of the UK. People buy way too much stuff, put up a Christmas tree, Father Christmas brings presents on a sleigh pulled by raindeer, they eat too much turkey for Christmas dinner, and veg out in front of the telly. Sound somewhat familiar?

Seriously, these links might help:

http://www.christmasarchives.com/how2scottish.html

http://www.rencentral.com/celebrations/scotchrist.shtml

http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/festivals.htm

http://hubpages.com/hub/thejockspot_...tish_Christmas

I thought this quote from the above link was interesting:

The Celebration of christmas is a new thing in Scotland even though we have had a very active Christian society which can be traced back to the year 565.

It was illegal to celebrate Christmas in Scotland for over 400 years and it only became a public holiday in 1958.

[mirlee]

Thanks for the responses! Silly me hadn't even thought of posting in Finding Your Tribe. I will give the question a shot there.

I think we need to start celebrating Hogmanay in our house.