Christmas Traditions in Greece
Christmas Christmas is the most popular holiday in the world. On Christmas Day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christmas is a celebration of family and love. Families and friends eat together and have fun. We also give money to charity.
Christmas Decorations At Christmas people decorate the Christmas tree and their houses. We decorate the Christmas tree with red balls and our houses with Christmas lights. In Greece it is also traditional to decorate a small boat because we are a country of sailors.
Carols On Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve children go from house to house and they sing carols. They knock on the door and say “Να τα πούμε;” which means “Shall we say them (the carols)?”.At the end of the carol they say “Και του χρόνου” meaning “Next year as well”. They usually hold a small metallic triangle and a metallic stick to play the music of the carol. People give them money. They sometimes give them sweets too.
Food For Christmas dinner we usually eat stuffed turkey or chicken with baked potatoes. Some people eat rolled roast beef or pork. For dessert we eat melomakarona and kourabiedes. These are the traditional Christmas sweets.
Desserts
Melomakarona (small honey cakes) Ingredients For the dough:
soda
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of chopped walnuts ½ cup of sugar
1 kg flour
2 cups of sun flower oil
1 tablespoon of cognac
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
2 cups of sugar
200 gr of honey
1 cinnamon stick
1 orange zest
For the syrup: 2 tablespoons of baking powder 3 cups of water
1 tablespoon of clove
2 tablespoons of baking
Desserts
Melomakarona (small honey cakes) Procedure for the dough: 1.
Add the sugar, the baking powder, the cinnamon and the clove to the flour and mix.
2.
Add the oil and mix.
3.
Add the cognac. Add the baking soda in the orange juice, stir and pour on top on the mixture.
4.
Mix and knead the dough but not for too long. Otherwise the honey cakes will become too hard after baking. The dough must be oily.
5.
Pinch off the dough small pieces and roll them with your hands in an oval shape. Put them in a baking tray.
6.
With a fork, make the shape of a grid on top of them.
7.
Put them in the oven at 200 째C for 20-25 min or until golden brown.
Desserts
Melomakarona (small honey cakes) Procedure for the syrup: 1.
Add the sugar in medium temperature water.
2.
Add the honey and mix them until they are dissolved in the water.
3.
Add the orange zest and the cinnamon stick and let it boil for about 5 min.
4.
Take the syrup off the fire and let it cool.
Final procedure: 1.
Dip the hot melomakarona in the cold syrup for 1 min.
2.
Pout chopped walnuts on top.
Desserts
Kourabiedes (dry biscuits with icing sugar) Ingredients
2 cups of butter
1 cup of sugar
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
6 cups of flour
1 cup of chopped (in big pieces) almonds
1 bag of icing sugar
Desserts
Kourabiedes (dry biscuits with icing sugar) Procedure: 1.
Put the butter and the sugar in the mixer and leave them until they are fully blended.
2.
Add the egg yolks one by one and mix.
3.
Add the flour little by little and knead.
4.
Add the chopped almonds and the vanilla extract and knead again. The dough must be soft and buttery.
5.
Shape the dough into balls.
6.
Put them in a baking tray and bake them for 35 min at 170 째C .
7.
Let them cool off. Pour the icing sugar on top.
New Year’s Day New Year’s Day is a very popular holiday. On New Year’s Eve all the people wait until 12 o’clock midnight for the new year to come. When the New Year comes we cut a type of cake called Vassilopita (St Claus’ pie). Inside the Vassilopita there is a coin, the “flouri”. Whoever gets the coin in his piece, will be lucky for the whole year.
New Year’s Day This night Santa Claus brings gifts for the children and puts them under the Christmas tree. In the morning, on 1st January we break a pomegranate outside the door of our house for good luck. The first visitor to enter the house must step in with his right foot to bring us luck for the whole year.
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year