Austria

    In Austria, St. Nicholas is accompanied by an evil counterpart, Krampus. According to the lore, they visit children on December 5th for a reckoning of each child’s behavior. St. Nicholas awards tasty treats to good children, while Krampus punishes badly behaved children.

    The general consensus is that the demonic creature Krampus is half-human, half-goat with cloven hooves, horns, and a long pointed tongue. He carries a large basket or bag (for stealing away badly behaved children to eat later), chains and bells (to thrash and jangle menacingly), and/or birch branches (to whip badly behaved children).

    However, it’s not all demons and punishment in the Alps. Children submit their Christmas wish lists to Christkind (Baby Jesus, who is responsible for delivering presents in Austrian tradition rather than Santa or Father Christmas) by burning them in the fireplace.

    Many Austrians decorate Christmas trees, sing carols, bake cookies, and visit picturesque Christmas markets, as well.

    San Fernando is known as the Christmas Capital of the Philippines, and it lives up to the name both with its year-round Christmas-themed park and its Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul Sampernandu).

    The festival has become incredibly popular, with members of 11 villages competing to create the most impressive star-shaped lanterns. 

    When the festival officially started in 1931, lanterns were made with paper glued to bamboo frames with rice paste, but today’s technicolor lanterns feature enormous welded steel frames, plastic rather than paper, and thousands of tiny lights.

    Norway is home to some stunning Christmas markets as well, but the country has a couple of unique traditions besides.

     First is risalamande, which is a creamy rice pudding dessert often served with a delicious fruit sauce after the Christmas Eve dinner feast.

     Sounds yummy, but here’s the fun part: The cook hides a single whole almond in the pudding and whoever discovers that almond wins a prize!

     Then, after dessert, Norwegians hide all the brooms in their homes in the safest possible location, to prevent the witches who are said to come out on Christmas Eve night from scoring a new flying ride.