Originally posted by AThousandYoung
"Christmas" trees aren't really Christian. Germanic peoples have been decorating trees in the winter like forever...
That's one thing I like with Christmas - it's a delightful blend of different religious and cultural traditions. Here in Norway, it's still called "jul" (i.e. Yule), and they throw some Norse mythology into the mix. For example, Santa Claus is called "julenisse" ('Christmas nisse'😉 here, Nisse being a short form of Nicolaus; but a "nisse" is also a Norse mythological creature. The "julenisse" has taken over some characteristics from other "nisser", while "nisser" in general now mostly appear in connection with Christmas, too.
This year I'll spend Christmas in Japan and am curious to see what kind of mix of traditions I'll see there. The Japanese seem to be pretty good at integrating different cultures and religions.
Speaking of Christmas trees, obviously I won't have one this year as I am going to Japan (and I don't know if my brother and his family are going to have one), but last year I had my first own Christmas tree (it was the first time I was celebrating Christmas at home), with star and all: http://home.online.no/~khgott/juletre2.jpg
At my parents' home, we have a nativity set with wax figurines that was created over many years by both adults and children, a nice family activity (I think I wasn't even born when it was started; now the next generation has contributed, too). In addition to the traditional set-up, you'll find lots of animals you won't find in most nativity sets, such as snakes, snails and mice, and even a dragon that my father made in celebration of the Chinese year of the dragon. It has many family memories linked to it, so it has a lot of personal meaning in addition to the cultural and religious meaning.