Colombian Christmas Traditions

I was chatting with my step-mom the other day about the Christmas traditions in her hometown of Bogota, Colombia. I found it very interesting that the focus is on family and the Christ Child vs. Santa Claus. She was telling me that they start celebrating on Dec. 7 by honoring the Virgin Mary. They'll light 100's of candles (approximately 100 candles on the sidewalk area). During nine days beginning Dec. 16, Colombians usually gather together at night around the Nativity scenes to sing and pray to the Virgin Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. My step mom was telling me that Santa does exist in their culture and people to have Christmas trees but it's the Nativity that gets the most attention.

The focus is also more on Christmas Eve than Christmas Day and gifts are given at midnight after a long Christmas Eve party. The Christ Child brings the gifts although Santa Claus is also well known. My step mom says that the gifts are left at the child's bed so when they wake up in the morning they are surrounded by presents! When I heard that, I thought, "What a NEAT IDEA! The kids can open their gifts without waking up the sleeping parents!"

You can read more about these traditions at http://latin-caribbean-travelblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/colombia-christmas-in-bogot-1987.html and http://www.interpretermagazine.org/interior_print.asp?ptid=43&mid=11687&pagemode=print.

I had never heard of the Christ Child bringing gifts to the children. According to my stepmom, the children write letters of gift requests to the Christ Child instead of Santa. I asked her if that was to teach the children dependence of Christ for our necessities. She said she thought so but wasn't sure. All that led to even more discussion about the different traditions. Although, not one tradition is any better than another, I found it interesting that Colombian traditions are less confusing about the true meanings of Christmas.

After all, isn't the ultimate gift of Salvation brought to us by the Christ Child?

(BTW, I apologize for my writing style on this particular topic. I've been getting tugged at quite often during this post.)