A couple of days ago I changed host family's and we traveled to Uberlandia, a big city in Minas Gerais, to spend Christmas with the family. This year is not only my first Christmas without my real family but also without cold and snow. The truth is that it doesn't feel at all like Christmas. Although I am loving my new family and they make me feel like I am part of theirs, I am still missing some of the regular Canadian traditions. Also with some of the cultural differences it's hard to relate what Christmas is for me in Canada with any of the traditions here. One of them is everyone does a Secret Santa with each other. Families are very large here and always come together at big holidays. So what they do is put everyone's name in a big bucket and everyone picks a name. Afterwards you\re supposed to buy a present for the person that you picked out of the bucket. Then on the night of the 24th/morning of the 25th everyone trades presents. There isn't really any difference in the seasonal food and the everyday food and they don't use real Christmas trees because not very many grow here. The one in my current house is a small pine tree which you can buy at the grocery store during December. But my family before used a small regular tree (the kind with leafs) and decorated that with the decorations you would usually find in Canada. Santa Claus does exist here for small children but he's not as popular here as he is in Canada.
Hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year :)
