Christmas coloring pages from Catalonia

The colouring pages present Christmas traditions in Catalonia. To print the picture just click on the picture and choose print button.

Portuguese Arroz Doce - Christmas recipe

The recipe was sent to us by Portuguese school. It sounds very nice :-)

Sweet Rice – Arroz Doce

Ingredients:

250 gr. of rice

7.5 dl of milk

250 gr. of sugar

3 egg yolk

as much lemon peels as you see fit

a pinch of cinnamon stick

cinnamon

as much salt as you see fit

Directions:

Heat the milk in a pan, once it starts to boil add sugar, rice salt, lemon peels and the cinnamon stick. As soon as the rice is cooked, remove it from the stove and let it cool for a while.

Scramble a yolk on the side, add it to the rice, mix it all together, then place it back on the stove to cook the yolks.

Afterwards serve it on a tray, or individual bowls, with powdered cinnamon on top. This is a traditional sweet rice recipe, a traditional Christmas recipe.

( receita recolhida  pela aluna Margarida Mira, 3º  ano G – prof. Madalena Rabasqueira )

Want to see it? Have a look at the link:

http://vimeo.com/7585391

Yummy!!!

Christmas fair in Laporje, Slovenia

Every year there is a Christmas fair at our school. This year it was truly magical. Everything seemed to work for us. It was snowing and the snow created the real Christmas spirit.

 

Our pupils made a variety of interesting products, that we were selling at our fair. They've made jewelry, ornaments, Christmas cards, rattles, statues and many more.

5 th Grade with it's Christmas  decoration

The children didn't hesitate to "get their hands dirty"! Literately!

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Snow provided for a beautiful scenery...

...for our school quire.

On the stands we always have a teacher and a parent. This is a perfect way of involving the whole community. The parents are glad to help.

And what would a Christmas fair be without a Santa? he visited us on his sleigh and said a few words to the gathered crowd.

See you next year Santa!

Language day

We had a language day in our school, where children learnt about your countries, languages, myths and legends. They had to prepare a poster about each country, they've created a dictionary of 10 words and they have learnt a bit about different cultures and languages. They were very creative and some nice posters were the result of their work.

Every group read a story or a myth from a different country and it was very interesting how different the stories were. Some groups even made puppets and acted the story out.

 Then they prepared a translation of some words. At the end and they created a multicultural dictionary.

We prepared a presentation about Comenius project, our meeting where children could ask questions they've always wanted to ask.

Nativity Play - "Jasełka" in Przemyśl

Last day before Christmas holiday is always very special at school. We haven`t got any lessons but we meet in the classroom to have traditional "wigilia". We share "opłatek" and wish each other all the best.

After that there is a nativity play. This year it was prepared by youngest pupils.

We had the best class decoration contest and the best crib competition.

CHRISTMAS IN THE NETHERLANDS

During Christmas, the traditional Christian holiday, the Dutch are commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas in The Netherlands is celebrated over two days, i.e. Eerste Kerstdag (First Christmas Day) on December 25 and Tweede Kerstdag (Second Christmas Day) on December 26, both of which are public holidays.

While it may seem similar to what you know, Christmas is not about Santa Claus and reindeer in the Netherlands. In fact, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day) on December 5, and it is this day that Dutch children get really excited about. They receive most of their presents on “Sinterklaas”.

Cosy atmosphere!!

This means that Christmas in the Netherlands is really about the ambiance. People buy Christmas trees, and decorate them with glass balls, gilded nuts, ribbons, glittery pine cones, frosted bells, and red and white candles. Many people place beautiful Advent star lights in their windows.

The main square of every city has its own brightly lit Christmas tree. Twinkly lights shaped like bells and stars, and garlands are strung over many of the charming old streets or new Shopping Centres, adding instant Christmas cheer during the darkest days of the year. Department stores are beautifully decked out in red, white, green, silver and gold decorations. Christmas carillon music is played and you will find many old-fashioned stalls selling donuts and other fried seasonal favorites like oliebollen and appelflappen on the street. Flower sellers offer beautifully made wreaths, red and white poinsettias, holly, mistletoe, and decorated pine cones.

Oliebollen



Appelflappen



It’s Family time now!!!

Christmas is family time, although the commercial style of Christmas that is found in so many other Christian countries is gaining ground here too, unfortunately. Rather confusingly, Santa Claus (called de Kerstman) is also trying to edge his way into Dutch Christmas. Of course, kids are only too happy to accept two gift-giving Santas, if it means more presents for them.

Families spend the day together on the 25th.  They attend a late night Christmas service at church, after which they eat breakfast at home, often in the early hours.

Breakfast usually consists of a brunch with a kerststol (fruited Christmas loaf) with butter, and luxury breakfast items like fancy bread rolls, smoked salmon, pates, etc.

Sending X-Mas cards to families & friends is very popular throughout the country, although “electronic” cards through Emails or SMS services become more and more popular. 

kerststol

Many families eat course after lavish course for their Christmas dinner. These meals could include meats, roast pork, fondues or gourmetten (a style of eating that involves a grill on the table so that everyone can cook bite-sized pieces of meat and vegetables themselves). Turkey is not usually part of the feast in Holland, although it too is gaining ground. Second Christmas Day is often spent visiting family or, weather permitting, going ice skating or on an outing. Leftovers are enjoyed on this day.

AND LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD: WE ARE ALWAYS DREAMING OF A WHITE X-MAS!!!!!    AND.....  

.......We can stop dreaming, because a lot of snow has been fallen!!

     

Typical Dutch Christmas treats include

  

·         Kerstkransjes (Christmas wreath cookies)

·         Kerststol (fruited Christmas loaf)

·         Kerstkrans (a wreath shaped pastry decorated with glace fruits and filled with sweet almond paste)

·         Jan Hagel cookies (a fragrant and flaky Christmas cookie)

·         Speculaas (spiced cookies)                       



Christmas in our school

Our school is decorated with beautiful Christmas trees in every class. The children are very busy making nice Christmas decorations. On Wednesday 22^nd December in the evening all the children with their parents and all the teachers come to church to celebrate Christmas together. The children will perform a Christmas musical and we sing and pray. Thereafter we come together in the schoolyard to drink and eat something and to wish each other a merry Christmas.  It is a very warm and happy gathering.

 

     

We wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Vrolijk Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuwjaar!  Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo! Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!   Feliz Natal e Feliz Ano Novo!   Vesele Božične praznike in srečno Novo Leto!  Priecigus Ziemas Svetkus un Laimigu Jauno Gadu!



More about Christmas in Catalonia

If you click this link, you'll see some of our school Christmas decoration.

http://picasaweb.google.com/113105725469939217085/ChristmasDecorationDrFerrerSchool?authkey=Gv1sRgCLKF1_qjzvq_bQ&feat=directlink

And clicking that other link, you'll see how the Christmas TIÓ (the magic log) does work.

http://picasaweb.google.com/113105725469939217085/ChristmasTimeTheTioIsWorking?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnyvrLy1qOvYg&feat=directlink

CHRISTMAS IN CATALONIA

On Christmas’ Day, family gathers to eat a big and good lunch.

For dessert, they eat a special nougat called “torró”.

At the end of the meal, all together do sing Carols and children say Poems to their parents.

One week after, they all make a party to celebrate New Years’ Eve.

At midnight, at the start of the New Year, everybody do eat 12 grapes, one at each stroke.

After that, they hug and kiss each other and they wish “Happy New year” to everybody.

The Three Wise Men

And…  the longest moment for children is on the 5^th of January, when  parents and kids go to the street to meet the Three Wise Men ( the White one, the Brown one and the Black one )  who arrive loaded with thousand of presents

and a hundred of assistants.

It is said that Jesus was born in a manger. Some days later, three wise men gave him three presents: gold, myrrh and incense. So the nowadays tradition pretends to imitate that old one.

On the 6^th of January, all children will find out at home lovely presents given by the Three Wise Men during the night. They usually leave the presents at the balconies or under the Christmas Tree.

Some days before, children had written their wishing list and gave it to the Wise Men’s Assistant.

The Three Wise Men give to the children all sort of toys: cars, balls, dolls, bikes, books…    Children have to behave very well during the whole year. If not, they will get sweet black coal instead. 

But children always do behave, don’t you?

After the Wise Men’s Day, all children will come back to school having spent lovely holidays.

Two funny days

The Innocents’ Day

Three days after Christmas, kids and young people do make jokes to their families and friends.

The last day of the year is the Noses’ Man  “l’home dels nassos”.   That is a man who is said that he only goes to the streets on the 31th December.

People says that he has got as many noses as days are in the year.  Children do imagine a man with 365 noses in his face… But notice that on that day, there is only one day left.

Sometimes children don’t realize that this is just a joke !