Christmas Around the World- Exploring French Traditions
Yule Log
We learned that in the past many people in France burned a yule log in their fireplace . Today they eat a yule log shaped cake called a buche de Noel.
JDaniel and I decorated a store bought chocolate roll cake with candy petal and berries I made out of Starburst candy to create our yule log.
Christmas Presents
JDaniel was thrilled to learn that in France Pere Noel comes twice. He brings small packages of candy and treats on December 6th and also on Christmas Eve. During his stop on Christmas Eve, he lives games, toys, and candy in or around shoes left near a fireplace or creche.
I think he might want to visit France next December just experience to Father Christmas stops.
We have a Willow Tree nativity scene made of the the people and the animals, but we don’t have an creche for that set. We do have wooden creche and nativity set from Bethlehem that my in laws brought my husband. Both sets are usually kept out of JDaniel’s reach. Some of the wise men were cracked last year.
This year I decided to buy him his own set to play with. It doesn’t have terra- cotta figures as a french set might. His is made of Lego like pieces and is called Tales of Glory Nativity Playset.
We decided to make some of our own using tissue paper to create cylinders. JDaniel painted the tissue paper with cotton balls. He made a wild modern design of streaks, spots and blobs. After placing the candy in toilet paper rolls, we wrapped them with the tissue paper and taped them closed with scotch tape to keep the candy from leaking out the sides. Then I tied at each end with rick rack.
So interesting! My Grandma was born in France – so cool to think this might have been how my great grandparents celebrated!! And how cool that Santa comes twice =-)
Love the food and craft you shared! The cracker looks like fun to make & open!!
Thanks for participating in Christmas Around the World!!
Beth =-)
Very fun to learn about Christmas in other places. We have talked about Pere Noel this year too, as one of our books mentions him.
That is so cool to so Christmas in other places. Hayley’s school is learning about this too and it is so interesting!
Cute post, and very accurate if I may say. We eat a Buche de Noel every year, it is very traditional. The daycare here is also called a “creche” since that is where they take in the “babies”! How fun that you are introducing this to JDaniel!
How neat! My daughter is in 4th grade and she got to take a French class this year and it was so fun learning about their cultures and stuff. They would love the crackers 🙂
were did you get the Lego nativity set?
A Christmas around the world study would be great fun. Thanks for the idea. I love the Nativity set for little hands. 🙂
Love that Nativity!!!!!
Nice post! It’s always fun learning about other traditions. Love the LEGO nativity.
There’s a Lego nativity set! I need to find that or create it!
This is all very neat!! Which kid wouldn’t like Santa stopping by their place twice a year?! Mine would love it!!
What wonderful traditions! I love learning about the traditions from different cultures! We have a strong Norwegian heritage and include many traditions from the country.
Really cool look at different traditions! The Christmas Crackers are so cute 🙂
I love the Christmas Crackers…we had them one year on Christmas Eve at our place settings. They were from a store though. I think the girls would love making their own 🙂
Love all of your great ideas on how to celebrate Christmas in France!
Nice to know they are celebrating the birth of Jesus in France!!
What a great way to teach children that not everyone is the same or celebrates in the same way–I worked for a French baker here in the US for a while–at Christmas time he used to make Bouche de Noels–lots of them–they really are very good!!
That was pretty clever to give him his own nativity scene!
We always have Christmas crackers (but I have to admit it never dawned on me that we could make our own!) Awesome!
What a great way for him to learn a bit about France :). Sounds super fun 🙂
We love the Christmas crackers. They’re so expensive in the stores though…and you get cheesy prices.
Being Canadian, we also have he bouch de Noel. I think it’s gross…because i don’t like chocolate *bows head in shame
We are planning to celebrate St. Nicholas Day tomorrow with our preschooler-I lived in France for a year when I was little, and my husband’s ancestors are actually French, so we thought it’d be a fun addition to our activity Advent calendar.
We are going to have our son put his shoes out tonight and aren’t going to tell him why until the morning when there are treats in it, lol.
I had thought about a buche de Noel but just didn’t want to bake…I’m seriously going to buy some Swiss cake rolls today and copy you. That is brilliant!!
How fun is that!! And yea- I like the idea of Santa coming twice 🙂 Well maybe as a kid I would have not as the parents as much. We would sometimes do a few Swedish traditions growing up but I have never done them with my kids,I should.
thanks for sharing..
learned something new 🙂
This is brilliant!! I love how you used the starbursts!
I agree, brilliant! Father Christmas coming twice might lesson the high anticipation of a single visit? I like the legos from Trinity Toys, especially, as that is so child-centered! Carolyn