IW Christmas / Holiday Traditions!!!

Posted on December 12, 2020 by DrQueen

What’s Jingling Ice Warriors,

Can you believe it’s already December?!? You know what that means… it’s finally time to bring out the holiday spirit! When I came into Ice Warriors, I was in awe of the diversity our community has. My favorite thing is to hear the stories of troops/staff members as they talk about their culture and traditions they celebrate during the holidays! I decided to hop on my pretty pink sled and venture across the island to find out some cool penguins’ holiday traditions!!!

I first came across Subster, asking her about her favorite Christmas tradition! Subster is known for her lavish Christmas village set up and artistic skills. In fact, she is creating her own gingerbread house to add to her setup!

“I do a ton of things but my top 2 have to be the huge Christmas village I have and the homemade pizzas on Christmas eve!! Since I was a toddler, my grandma would have this village that I loved to see and play with the little people. Eventually, I got my own pieces, and since then I’ve been collecting houses and characters every year and continue to do it to this day! This year I’m actually painting a village piece I got from a craft store which I’m excited to finish, its a gingerbread house!!” –Subster

As well, our Trusted Staff, Chris, is also known for his extravagant Christmas tree and Christmas village as well!

“We like to really decorate on Christmas so we have this huge Christmas tree!! The lights on it can even change colors from the white lights to the colored ones! It’s super amazing. We also do a Christmas village that we have been working for over 10 years old! We’d always buy more pieces overtime to make it look as best as we can!” –Chris

Following that, I had a cup of coffee over at the coffee shop with our amazing advisor Shinde, asking her how they celebrate Christmas in Poland! She claims December is one of the most celebrated months!

“On the 6th of Dec, we celebrate Saint Nicholas Day and kids receive presents from Santa Claus. In some regions ‘he’ leaves them in kids’ shoes. In my region, we just hide those presents somewhere in the house.

The 24th Dec is the fast day. People prepare dishes for the evening. That day we eat only dishes without meat and those dishes are specific (some people eat them only during Christmas!) and it has to be 12 dishes (each for one month in the year). In the evening, when the first star shines on the sky, we are sitting with each other around the table (Christians pray and then share wafer and wish bestest). Then we eat and just spend time with each other. After that there is a time for presents – the youngest or the oldest one member in the family is going to the Christmas tree and take presents (depends on region people believe gifts are from Santa Claus, the Star, Child Jesus, Jack Frost, the Angel or the Snowflake) and give to people. Some people sing Christmas songs, play board games. Around 12am there is time for Christians that they go to the church – they sing carols, etc. Also, people believe that at midnight you can hear animals speaking in human language. After midnight and the church stuff, some people drink mulled wine with cinnamon and oranges or other stuff. Also during the Christmas dinner, you can observe people (kids in costumes like a shepherd, king, devil, star of Bethlehem, etc.) who are going from house to house and sing corals – and they get for its sweets, cookies, nuts or money – depends on what people have. 25th and 26th of Dec are the free days from work. And people still celebrate – but you can eat meat and drink.” –Shinde

Thank you, Shinde for sharing that! Very insightful! Now, I want to shy away from Christmas traditions, and focus on a holiday I learned from our Staff members Abi and Lemonade1S : Dia De Los Reyes Magos which translates to Three Kings Day in English!

“It’s a Hispanic tradition where we celebrate with our loved ones, celebrated with gifts from the three kings, which stands for when the kings gave baby Jesus his three gifts when he was born. We also eat a “Rosca” which is a type of cake or sweet bread topped with the colors of the Mexican flag and fruit. Some people also go to church on the occasion and It normally lasts 12 days after Christmas!” Claims Abi.

“At least in my household, on January 6th, we would place a shoe under the Christmas tree with some candy, and the next morning, the candy would be gone and we’d have small little gifts in it. Most of the time, the gifts were different sweets and cash When I got older and became a boomer, there would be a second tradition on this night involving something called the Roscon de Reyes. This is like a Spanish fruitcake and inside of it, there would be a little baby Jesus toy in it. The way my family and family friends would follow the tradition was if you got the slice with the Baby Jesus toy, you had to make (or buy) tamales for everyone at the table! So must of the time, you were just hoping you didn’t get the little doll!” – Lemonade1s

As you can see, our community in Ice Warriors is super diverse with the different holidays celebrated! I really enjoyed interviewing Subster, Chris, Shinde, Abi, and Lemonade1S as I listen to their favorite holiday traditions and just learning about them!!

Do you have any fun Christmas/holiday traditions you want to share!? Go ahead and comment down below! I would love to hear from you! Until then,

Don’t Freeze Up!

DrQueen

Trusted Staff Member