Christmas here in Chile isn't too different than Christmas in the USA. Of course there are differences. Here is a bit of a comparison:
The biggest difference is it is summer here - not winter. Usually it is pretty warm, but this Christmas it was unusually "cold" for here. So for us, it felt a bit more like Christmas! It was strange to go into stores and see camping items, coolers, fans, and pool accessories for sale right next to the Christmas decorations.
It is very commercialized, just like the States. Christmas decorations and items start showing up in stores around September. A bit earlier because there isn't Thanksgiving to help slow the Christmas arrival here. The stores and malls are very crowded during the weeks before Christmas. We made the mistake of having to go to the grocery store on Christmas Eve - not a good idea! It was CRAZY.
It paid off for us that they start decorating early. Since we were in the process of moving and buying furniture, we weren't really thinking about getting Christmas decorations. So by the time we bought ours, everything was 50% off! We were able to get a bigger Christmas tree and a few more decorations due to being "late". I think we ended up buying it the first week of Dec. Sooo late. . .
People in our neighborhood really decorated their houses with lights and Christmas decor in their yard. Santa on the roof was pretty popular. Even the neighborhood association decorated the two little parks with lights and decorations and Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.
Santa is apart of their Christmas and brings gifts by going through the window - not the chimney. They call Santa, Viejito Pascuero. It translates to the little old man of Christmas. But the interesting part of this is the word pascuero really refers to passover. Like in the passover we usually celebrate in Easter. They have pan de pascua (like fruit cake) and they often even call Christmas Pascua de la Navidad. Seems like they have the holidays a bit mixed up. They will use this term Pascua during Easter as well. We have asked Chileans and no one has a reason for why they use this passover word during Christmas. They always say - that is just the way it is. It also seems Chile is the only country that uses this term.
Every mall has a Santa with a large Christmas tree that you can have your picture taken with - just like the States.
Santa brings the gifts at midnight on Dec. 24th. Jeff and I had finished wrapping the children's presents and were sitting in our living room enjoying the quiet by the lights of the tree. About 11:50 PM, we noticed most of our neighbors were out walking with the children. Some were taking a drive around the neighborhood (it isn't a large neighborhood, so it was funny to see them driving around). We finally figured out that they were walking the kids around the neighborhood so Santa could deliver the presents at midnight! Right at midnight, everyone ran home and about 30 minutes later the kids were back all riding their new bikes. The celebration lasted long into the wee morning hours. We had a very quite Christmas morning as our kids opened their presents.
We were pleasantly surprised that the churches celebrate Advent and sing Christmas hymns during the month of December. While in Costa Rica, the church we attended didn't do Advent nor did they sing Christmas songs. We were so blessed to be able to worship in churches that lit the advent candles and sang Christmas hymns. It made a difficult time to be away from family and friends a bit easier with some familiarity.
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