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Bilingual Babies- Christmas 2011 Traditions

This month is a wonderful time to blend and merge traditions of two cultures.  Often times schools will introduce Christmas around the world to their students in the form of crafts.  I would encourage you to take your child’s learning a little further! The Internet and your local library are great sources for learning more about holiday traditions around the world. If you are fortunate to have family members close by or a phone call away- ask them about their family traditions! Here are some hints for Celebrating a diverse holiday from the Language Castle.

I was always curious about the Russian traditions.  They do not celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but on January 7th based on the old Julian calendar.  For many years celebrating Christmas was forbidden (More info here) For many people, New Years became the “New” Christmas complete with a tree, fireworks, gifts, and a visit from “Ded Moroz,” Grandfather Frost.  New Year’s today remains the largest holiday, but many Russians also celebrate Christmas.

My husband and I laugh because although we were born many, many miles apart, my Christmas and his New Years were very similar!  Our families decorated trees ( we both have baby pictures next to the tree.)  We both gathered with our family for dinner and toasted for good health, happiness, and fortune.  Our families all baked breads, roasted meats, and made other traditional dishes.  Small gifts like books, sweets,  and clothing were also given to family members.

Our tree went up this weekend and it is a symbol of our traditions merged and is by no means meant for the cover of Martha Stewart magazine, rather an awakening of memories in our hearts.  Just as my grandmother started a tradition of giving me one ornament for Christmas each year, we have asked our parents to continue the tradition for our children.  Because of this – our tree represents who we are as a family.  There are more classic Russian ornaments such as this one from my sons’ Christmas ornament last year.
And a more modern ornaments such as these from my daughter’s collection that represent the different cultural dresses of some Ethnic Russian groups.  We enjoy telling our children stories from the year they received each ornament and have made sure to label and date the boxes or the ornaments themselves with a permanent marker.
Now that our tree is up and decorated  – we have time to enjoy it!
My Bilingual Goals for the month are to
1. Cook some traditional pastries and soups – at least one each week.
2. Read 1 story a day in Russian
3. Make a felt board story for Snegorichka (Grandfather Frost’s Granddaughter)
4. Teach my kids the song about the evergreen tree! More Russian songs here and here in case you were looking for some! We have the first verse mastered.
Here are the words =)  WISH ME LUCK!!!!
В лесу родилась елочка,

В лесу она росла,
Зимой и летом стройная, зеленая была.
Зимой и летом стройная, зеленая была.

Метель ей пела песенку:
“Спи, елочка, бай-бай!”
Мороз снежком укутывал: “Смотри, не замерзай!”
Мороз снежком укутывал: “Смотри, не замерзай!”

Трусишка – зайка серенький
Под елочкой скакал.
Порою волк, сердитый волк, рысцою пробегал.
Порою волк, сердитый волк, рысцою пробегал.

Чу! Снег по лесу частому
Под полозом скрипит;
Лошадка мохноногая торопится, бежит.
Лошадка мохноногая торопится, бежит.

Везет лошадка дровеньки,
А в дровнях мужичок,
Срубил он нашу елочку под самый корешок.
Срубил он нашу елочку под самый корешок.

И вот она, нарядная,
На праздник к нам пришла,
И много, много радости детишкам принесла.
И много, много радости детишкам принесла.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for the ideas! I try to take pictures of any new ornaments we get each year, so I knew when we got them and where they came from. I love the idea of a new ornament each year for my son. We haven't done anything specific, but I'm already thinking of certain ornaments to set aside that will be for him.
    We will also continue a tradition my parents started when my brother and I were kids. We each had our own little tree in our room. Then Santa left a present or two for us to open Christmas morning – before we woke up our parents! Then we had something to play with, and they got to sleep until a normal hour! It will be fun to start collecting his own ornaments for his own tree.
    Sarah – I love your idea of making a photo book!!

  2. Thanks, Amanda. I love hearing about your ornament story idea, too…sounds like you've done a fantastic job of honoring traditions for both cultures!

  3. I'm making a photo book through Snapfish with pictures of our favorite Christmas tree ornaments (most mine and my husband's from our childhoods and the ones I picked up while traveling as a young adult). The captions and stories about them are all in French, the language I speak with our kids. (I'm hoping that) this makes a fun, personalized, meaningful, colorful book that the children will enjoy looking at!

  5. Thanks for posting this Amanda. I found it interesting to find out that in India my husband had Christmas off from school even though the school mostly was made up of Hindus. Emily and I were just hanging lights yesterday talking about how the whole world celebrates the Birthday of Jesus in all different ways and how special that is.

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