Everyone’s December traditions are different. How we celebrate varies across countries, religions, families, and individuals. Join us as we take you through our Drops December traditions, introducing you to the unique ways our cross-national and cross-lingual team celebrates. If Santa can visit every country in one night, then we can make our way around the world in this blog!
We start our journey in Estonia, with our legal advisor Lisett and QA Stephan. In Estonia, they light advent candles on the first Sunday of December, known as the first advent. They also bake Gingerbread and eat clementines! Our favourite Estonian tradition they shared with us is that on the days leading up to Christmas, children leave slippers next to their windows, hoping to wake up to a treat in the morning!
A similar tradition is observed in Romania with our CRM coordinator Adrian. Children prepare their best winter shoes, making sure they are clean and polished, for the expected arrival of Saint Nicolai. If the children have been well-behaved, they will receive a small present and sweets. If they’ve misbehaved they will receive a wooden stick!
Next up we visit beautiful Ukraine. Our Marketing lead Anna had some beautiful traditions to share, our favourite one being the tradition of Didukh. Didukh is the decoration of the house (a sheaf of wheat stalks) that symbolises the spirit of the ancestors, prosperity and wealth! Many believe that on these holy days the spirits of the ancestors return to spend time with their families. The Didukh is always placed under the family image in the most honourable place in the house!
As we continue our trip around the world, we land in the Philippines with our B2B Sales Lead, Hendi, who shared with us some wonderful New Year’s Eve traditions. The first of these traditions entails you jumping at midnight to make you taller. It is also believed that putting lots of coins into your pockets will make you rich. Lastly, it’s important to make lots of noise at midnight, in order to scare any bad spirits away!
From Asia, we make our way over to Africa, more specifically to South Africa with our Customer support specialist, Nikita! It's lovely and warm in the southern hemisphere during December so it's very common to spend Christmas eve on the beach having a lovely barbecue (braai)!
On our way back through Europe we’re stopping off in Hungary with Maja our Graphic Designer. Hungarians open their gifts on the 24th of December and it's believed that the baby Jesus leaves these gifts!
Have you enjoyed virtually visiting these countries with us? You can learn about over 50+ languages and cultures by downloading Drops and diving into the unique topics tailor-made for each culture.
Daisy Jones is the Social Media coordinator at Drops. She hails from the Bristol area, and has a Doodle named Stanley and a Staffy named Hank.
