Christmas in Switzerland

Christmas in Switzerland

The main Christmas celebration, known as Heiliger Abend, is celebrated on December 24th. Many Swiss people decorate their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and after dinner, gifts are exchanged. For children, the Christmas Eve gifts usually come from Baby Jesus.

There is no traditional dish to commemorate Christmas Eve, although many Swiss people eat fondue or raclette. After dinner, many families attend Midnight Mass.

In Switzerland, there are many Christmas traditions you might want to take part in. One of them is baking cookies like Zimtsterne and Grittibänz, the latter being a sweet dough shaped like a person. Another tradition is making a traditional Advent wreath to count the days leading up to Christmas Eve.

In Switzerland, there is no explicit traditional Christmas menu; however, there are some essential dishes that have been shared by Swiss families for centuries.

Firstly, in many households, it is impossible to imagine Christmas Eve without a Fondue Chinoise on the table. This dish features delicious, thin slices of beef cooked in a fondue pot filled with hot vegetable broth (replacing cheese), and then dipped into sauces such as herb or spiced mayonnaise or tartar sauce.

Raclette or cheese fondue, which are consumed throughout the winter, are also usually present, as well as cooked ham accompanied by potato salad. But if there’s something that truly defines the Christmas season in Switzerland, it’s the sweets, with cookies being the true “star” of the festivities.

The cake is so beautiful that we almost don’t want to eat it! It’s shaped like a tree branch, but in reality, it’s a fluffy cake filled with a buttery cream. The outer layer of chocolate is the tree bark, and it’s decorated with ladybugs, leaves, and marzipan mushrooms. In the old days, rural families would gather around the hearth at Christmas, burn a large log, and then scatter the ashes in the fields as a thank you for the harvest and to bring good luck for the coming year. Today in Switzerland, it’s not common to have a fireplace, and it’s very rare to have a field next to the house, so instead, people sit at a table decorated for the occasion and eat a slice of Yule log (bûche de Noël).

In conclusion, Switzerland is a country that has a lot of traditions that help them to celebrate Christmas with families and close family.

It's interesting that in Switzerland almost in every country and including the home made of Santa Claus "house" and the other name that is clauard.

In the streets, in Switzerland, they have a lot of market but they have some typical food or cheese that they eat at this celebration.

The activities with the Santa Claus or Papa Noel is so different than the one here in Mexico.

It's interesting that we like that the country because it's a little country and they record Roger Federer was born there, and is a person that we admire.