Many people on earth celebrate this holiday - some out of religious reasons, some for getting presents, some because everybody else is doing it. How Ford must have wondered....

Love it or detest it, in the most countries you have to live with it.

There are lots of different customs in and about christmas time in different countries. I asked around, and then I thought "why not ask h2g2?". Some kind of comparison seems nice - or how would you know when to send a fellow researcher from the other side of the earth "seasons greetings" just in time - not even counting the time differences?

The pre-christmas time, advent, seems to be similar, with counting the 4 sundays to Christmas Eve by lighting 1 more candle each sunday. Whom I asked personally did know advent calendars. You don't? Tell me, I'll get you one ;-).
By the way: that's about the time where you should start the baking...

But I found differences, too - I'm from Germany, and here Santa Claus (called Nikolaus) comes at December the 6th, sometimes accompanied by his "menial" Rupprecht, who is responsible for handling those who've been bad - he is supposed to spank them. But the reading aloud of all the instances where the kids have been bad is usually punishment enough. Oh - no elves that I knew about.

The children (yes the grown-ups, too) open their presents at the evening of December 24th, not on the 25th like in the english speaking countries...

That's when the candles on the Christmas tree - any needle-bearing tree, decorated with toys, glass balls and lametta - are lit for the first time. This tree is supposed to stand till January 6th, but not longer - that would be bad luck, has been the usual superstitional explanation. Maybe it is, seeing that the tree looses his dried needles with time, and someone has to remove them...

Cookies. Important to have those, especially when stolen out of the guarded cookie jar...

Ginger bread - or something similar to it, little spice cakes with chocolate. I'm eating one right now ;-)

Mulled wine. Especially when outside at the end of a workday... The stronger version is "Hunters Tea" - mulled wine with rum *hicks*

For the 25th, it's often roasted duck or goose as far as I know.....

Advent calenders:

Starting on December 1st, one is allowed to open one little present/door/sock/bag/whatever each day till Christmas Eve. It was supposed to shorten the waiting for Christmas for children, and maybe was a nasty trick to teach them how to count to 24....