Here is Ankara, the capital of Türkiye. And today is 23rd April, Children’s Day. There are a lot of children from different nations at the stadium. Some of them read poems, some of them sing songs, and some of them dance. 

Deniz is excited about this festivity because this is the first time for her to join. The students wearing colorful dresses walk in the parade with flags, take great photos in the streets which are decorated and lightened up.

 Deniz has great friends from Spain, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Lithuania and Slovakia at the end of the day. They enjoy this festivity so much and thank Deniz and Turkish people for this entertainment.

It is an unforgottable memory for them to sing and dance together with Barış Manço at the stadium. He is the most popular and most loved by them! He is welcoming them.

MERHABA ÇOCUKLAR!

However sad they may be for leaving Türkiye, they have an idea to meet up again! The children of different nations will talk about how they celebrate their most popular festivity, “Christmas” in their country.

So Deniz may want to visit and join with them. She is very interested in this idea and begins to listen to them...

Hi, Deniz! I am Don Quijote, a famous character in our country.  I am the protagonist of 

Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece. 

Good to see you again, Deniz!

Welcome to Spain!  

Let us show you what

Christmas is all about here.

We sing traditional Christmas carols. These are the first graders singing "Arre borriquito"...

 In Spain we decorate the streets, houses and schools with the Nativity scene or the Christmas tree. We are colouring Christmas decorations for the school.

We write the letter to Santa Claus or to the Three Wise Men. If we have been naughty they bring us coal. But the coal is sweet!!

The Three Wise Men parade is on the night of 5 January. 

It's a magical night for the kids waiting for their gifts.

In the New Year we eat the twelve lucky grapes, one for each month of the year. If you manage to eat them in time with the chimes, you will be lucky in the coming year. Our village produces this type of grapes which are grown in bags.

We eat typical sweets such as ‘Turrón’ from Alicante. 

On the 6th of January we eat 'Roscón de Reyes' (Three Kings' cake).  Inside the cake there is a bean and a figurine of the king. If you get the figurine on your piece of cake you will be crowned. If it is the bean, you will have to pay for the "roscón" next year.

Welcome to Greece!

This is our city, Patras, at Christmas time.

Christmas is one 

of our most favourite festivals.

Hello,Deniz!

In November, we start decorating our houses, the streets, the shops and other buildings. 

At home we decorate the Christmas Tree and put Christmas decorations all around our houses.

Children write letters to Santa and ask for presents. People buy presents for family and friends.

           Diples

We make traditional Christmas sweets, which are delicious!

Kourabiedes

                   Melomakaron

On Christmas Eve, children sing carols from house to house and people give then money or treats.

On Christmas Day we go to church in the morning. At noon, we get together with family and friends and we eat roast turkey with potatoes, salads, pies and other tasty dishes.

On New Year's Day we visit friends or relatives and we also eat delicious food.

For dessert, we eat a special cake called Vasilopita (Santa Claus cake). Inside the cake there is a coin and the person who gets the piece with the coin gets a present or money.

Hello Deniz! Welcome to 9th primary school of Heraklion. I'm the Minotaur, a mythical creature from Crete. 

Everybody knows me. Even tourists! 

Let me tell you about some more Greek Christmas customs.

In the photos you can see our school's and  city's Christmas  ships.

We sing cretan Christmas carols in the streets every year.

In Greece we have different carols in every region. In this photo children of the 5th grade are singing Christmas carols in our city center with their music teacher.

Christmas decorations in our school.

On the left corner is the European Christmas tree with exchanged  ornaments from different countries.

The Eiresione was an ancient Greek custom that brought good harvest and happiness.

People  decorated a branch of olive tree with fruits, ribbons and wool.

The decorated branch was placed at the door of the house to bring good luck and prosperity to the family.

Here is a custom kids are planning to revive  a few  days  before Christmas. Then they 'll be able to upload  photos.

I am Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco), a Greek painter, sculptor and architect. Welcome to the Kingdom of Candia (modern Crete). The pupils of the 57th Primary School of Heraklion are going to sing the Christmas carols of Crete for you! 

By the end of November pupils, parents and teachers decorate our school with beautiful Christmas decorations. During the last week of school before our Christmas break, we make Christmas crafts, cards and ornaments. In December, we also have a Christmas bazaar.

Christmas Bread “Christopsomo”

Christopsomo , the   Cretan bread, is a cherished must have at every Christmas table. It  is  sweet, buttery, spiced bread and is considered sacred by many of the devout Orthodox  of Crete. It is round , adorned with the Holy Cross made of the same dough and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Bougatsa

Bougatsa is a traditional Greek pastry that is particular popular on the island of Crete. There is the New Year’ s Eve  custom to buy bougatsa and eat it on this day, so as to have  a sweet New Year. It is made by layering phyllo (dough) pastry with a filling of semolina custard or cheese, often with a hint of lemon or vanilla. 

Xerotigana

Xerotigana, or diples as they are also called, are a traditional, crunchy and sweet Cretan Lenten dessert. They have the shape of long narrow strips of dough baked in hot oil and then dipped in hot syrup. Placed on a plate, they are sprinkled with honey and cinnamon and garnished with crushed walnuts or sesame seeds or both. 

Hi Deniz! I'm Luka Modrić and I love celebrating Christmas in Croatia. Come, I'll show you!

Welcome to CROATIA!

 CROATIA  1

In Croatian schools the children are looking forward to our two weeks holidays, from Christmas week to Epiphany (6th January- in Croatia it's called The Three Holy Kings). It's the end of the first half-term.

 The tourists say that Advent in Zagreb is the best Christmas fair in Europe. You can enjoy in cheerful atmosphere, light decorations, ice-skate park in the open, music and good food and cooked wine with the taste of cinnamon and clove. The children can ride a special Christmas tram with Santa driver and elves. You can ski at our mountain  Medvednica on the north side of Zagreb.

Advent is a period of four weeks before Christmas. We make ADVENT WREATH with FOUR candles, one for each Sunday.

Saint Nicholas Day is called Nikolinje in Croatia (male names: Nikola, Nikica, Niko; female names: Nikolina, Nina, Nika).

In the night before the 6th of December we clean our boots so that St.Nicholas puts treats or symbolic gifts in them. If you should behave better you get a twig from Krampus. So you better be good!

On the 4th (St.Barbara's Day) or on the 13th of December (St Lucy's Day)we plant WHEAT. If it grows tall and thick we will have fruitfull year. We use that wheat as a decoration underneath the Christmas tree.

At home we decorate the CHRISTMAS tree with baubles, lamps and nativity scene under the tree.The children are most  excited on Christmas Day morning to open the presents that Santa Claus has left for them.

On Christmas Eve there's a midnight mass in the church where Christians celebrate the birth of baby Jesus. In front of Zagreb's Cathedral there's a tradition of live nativity scene with actors and real animals.

We eat TURKEY WITH MLINCI or ROAST  SUCKLING PIG for lunch. For the dessert there are WALNUT and POPPY SEED ROLL, hot FRITULE (sweet pastry fried in hot oil) or biscuits made of honey -MEDENJACI or with honey and black pepper PAPRENJACI. 

Welcome to Italy, Deniz!

I'm Gerry Scotti and I'm one of the most popular Italian television showmen.

Here are your Italian friends who will show you our Christmas traditions!

Hi Deniz! We live in Cosenza, in the south of Italy!

Follow us... we'll show you how we celebrate Christmas!

On December 24th, we celebrate Christmas Eve having a dinner with our relatives.

On the night of December 24th, Santa Claus brings us gifts. We open them after dinner or on the morning of December 25th.

Santa Claus leaves us gifts under the Christmas tree!

On the night of December 31st, we celebrate New Year's Eve with an outdoor musical concert.

They are made with flour, sugar, orange or lemon and are covered with honey. 

They are very good!

One of our typical Christmas desserts are "Turdilli".

Welcome to snowy Lithuania, Deniz! 

November is the month when it starts snowing here, so wrap up warm and join us for a pleasant adventure in our country.

Nice to meet you, Deniz!

We are wearing our traditional costumes.

At first, a short tour to see the most famous landmarks in Lithuania:

Christmas celebrations start on December 24 - it's Christmas Eve when most families decorate their Christmas trees and gather around the table with 12 dishes you can see below. 

Meat is not on the menu during this feast. 

Herring or its salad

 Fish 

Kūčiukai - hard bite-sized Christmas cakes.

Poppy milk

Baked potatoes with savoury cream dip.

The recipe of KŪČIUKAI: 

You will need: 

500 g all-purpose flour 

250 ml milk 

20 g fresh yeast 

100 g sugar a pinch of salt 

2 tbsp of oil 

50 g poppy seeds

Preparation: 

Christmas Day is the time when we visit our relatives and exchange presents or unwrap the ones from Santa Claus. 

Thanks for visiting our small, but unique country Lithuania. 

Next time visit us in summer - we'll go camping by the lake or river, have a barbecue and enjoy some traditional songs and dances. 

See you!!!

In the end, they begin to make plans to meet again. Some of them have great ideas! They feel very satisfied about both their future plans and their growing friendship.

A good friend is like a four-leaf clover;

hard to find and lucky to have.

Irish Proverb