An Educational Post For The Holidays

I have been sort of lonely since I haven't seen many friends these days, I think they are all busy doing stuff. So I decided to send out a happy holiday greeting to all and hope everyone is feeling good. (I was actually born several years ago during Christmas) Anyway I guess a lot of people don't know all the details about the holiday and since I think it is important to put educational stuff in a blog, here is how Christmas is celebrated around the world.

In Great Britain this guy, whose name was Guy, tried to put a bomb in Parliament on the 26th of December - but the bomb didn't go off. His name was Guy Faults. Well it turned out a big mess, and all the members of Parliament got mad at him and they all got into a big boxing match. The British still to this day celebrate Boxing Day on the 26th.

In the United States Christmas is officially started when they show a TV show called Rudolph the Red Nosed Rain Deer, which is made with these moving puppet things that jerk move around doing stuff in the snow. This show has Burl Ives inside of a snowman. He was a guy who sang folk songs and a lot of people thought people who sang folk songs were communists.  In those days some people were freaked out about communists. These people have now been replaced by people who are freaked out about UFOs.

Anyway Burl Ives used to live with the actor Harry Morgan, who sadly passed away last week. I liked Harry Morgan and was sad to hear this, but he was blessed with a long life. I liked his character on MASH but I didn't like his character on Dragnet so much since I though it made the police look like goody two-shoes.   I am not sure the term "goody two-shoes" will translate into any thing sensible if you are translating this blog post into Japanese.

Any way getting back to Rudolph and how this fits into everything. In the US when people get together for a holiday party, the parties always end up in a big fight every year. Some of the people think the title should be "Rudolph the Red Nose Rain Deer" and another group think it should be "Rudolph the Red Nosed Rain Deer" (past tense nosed). Often these fights are similar to the British tradition of Boxing Day.

Perhaps the best celebration traditions of Christmas come from Germany. The Germans were the ones who invented the Christmas tree. Beaucoup Weihnachtsplätzchens are enjoyed by all the kids. I think people who don't usually like Christmas should take a trip to Germany anyway since all the little toys are so cute and so clever.

In South and Central America Papa Noel will come and leave a present under your pillow. Papa Noel is usually dressed in a red guayaberra shirt which is more sensible attire for that part of the world. I don't know too many more details on this part of the world, other than llamas are decorated with red hats with a white puff. The llamas eventually pull the hats off and eat them since llamas don't understand the holiday season.

Well I hope I was able to waste some of your time and shed some light on how the Christmas holiday is celebrated in different parts of the world.  Please feel free to offer any other traditions that I may have missed. I hope for much happiness for all.