Why I ALWAYS Prefer Christmas in The USA vs France!
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- Опубліковано 8 гру 2022
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Its officially the month of December and the month of a whole lotta of holiday celebration! I personally celebrate Christmas and after having celebrated christmas in both the USA and in France for the past 12 years, it was time to come clean about where I prefer celebrating all those french/american christmas traditions..... and the winner is.... USA!
In today's video, i dive into the 5 reasons I really really prefer celebrating Christmas in the USA vs France. You get to learn about American Christmas Traditions, some French christmas Traditions, and some good ole american vs french culture shocks! Let me know in the comments where you prefer spending your holiday season and why!
Lots of Bisous, Kate ✌
#usavsfrancechristmas #christmasintheUSA #francevsusacultureshocks
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I love classy Christmas decorations in small French towns. High class & low consumerism. Maybe because I’m european, I prefer it this way (without craziness). Anyway it was interesting. Merry Christmas
In New England, it's really common to decorate by placing one white candle in the center of each street-facing window, and a wreath on the door. Very understated.
@@anisaromano5352 It's beautiful.
+
Then there is la Fête des lumières in Lyon
@@anisaromano5352 that is nice😍
Christmas is connected so much to childhood memories. That's why everybody prefers celebrating it the way they used to in childhood, I think. ❤
My childhood I spent in Germany and obviously I swear Christmas is nowhere near as magical as in Germany 🎄
You hit the nail on its head! I also feel like for me the feeling is very much transported through smells and music and those simply vary across cultures. Also as a fellow German, German Christmas will always be the superior version to me as well 😅❤🎄
I LOVED Christmas in Germany as well. So special.
If you want to have a magical Christmas spiriy during the holidays, you should go to Alsace in particular to Strasbourg or Colmar🤩
My sister lives in London, so we've always done it there the past 10 years, or at her husband's hometown in Sofia. Meanwhile I live in Estonia, and we were born in the US. So I would say, I really enjoy London Christmas the most. I think everything is decorated very tastefully, and it is especially the commercial districts that are decorated. People have trees, but rarely are the outside of homes decorated. But, because it is such a walkable town, you can really walk into the lights and magic in only a few minutes. I will say Estonia has magical Christmas markets :) And while the US has nice Christmases, I always found them to bit too gaudy for my taste.
Estonia is amazing, the nature there - omg !
I'm with the French on this one.
One family tradition we had growing up was the gift from the family cat. Every year she bought us a Rupert the Bear annual. Even now many years later (& my childhood cat long gone) my sister’s cat Molly always remembers to keep the tradition going.😊
I am Mexican American and my family celebrate Xmas both American🇺🇸 and Mexican🇲🇽 way. We do roast / tamales 🫔 😊. We open our gifts on Xmas eve not Xmas morning. Bake Xmas cookies and decorate them . We have a fun mixed but on the Mexican side our festivities don’t end until January the 6th. The day of the kings when they brought gifts to baby Jesus. That day is another kind of celebration for us Mexicans. 🇲🇽
Concerning points 1 2 and 4, really it depends on where you live in France. North and Alsace are full of decorations (on houses / villages, Christmas markets every days week-ends/ Christmas cookies recipes / St Nicolas Brioche etc.)
Something similar to the White elephant game that I discovered in Australia and in New Zealand is Secret Santa ! Usually it's at work and everybody will go for a little 5/10$ gift and you just pick someone's name (that you keep for yourself of course) and so on.. So it's pretty nice because if 2 people don't really get along and they are each other's secret Santa, they will still have to find a gift for the other one, think about what they would like to have, think about how they would be seen by others as you usually open gifts all together.. It's pretty sweet. You only have one gift to make. You don't pick your gift or the person, you just know who you have and sometimes you don't even know who offered you yours. Some people don't tell who they had
Bonjour, en France, près de Bordeaux il y a le service exclusif de la boîte aux lettres pour le père Noël, et les lutins répondent à tous les enfants qui écrivent . Et dans beaucoup de villes les marchés de Noël bon moins beaux qu’en Alsace ou Allemagne mais c’est quand même sympa. Joyeuses fêtes à tous quelques soit le pays🎄
I’m always surprised at how nasty and critical people can be in the comment section. Excellent video. It’s your point of view and your pronunciation is fine. Merry Christmas 🎄
Awesome!! The response that makes the more sense to what she is posting! Everyone is getting tooooo personal!!
My preference for Christmas is Europe, more specifically Bavaria, Wein, & Praha. Why? The Christmas markets, the food, and the "wassailing."
Umm idk I hate christmas in the USA is sooooo commercial like... Im born and raised in the USA.. and I JUST dont feel its for me or the way This Holiday should be spend. The malls are always packed everyone just cares about gifts and material things.. When I was growing up and we were lower income it was AMAZING and simple..... Now that I have a career people call me "what do you want or going to give so and so"!!!!.....Like I dont want anything or need anything or want to shop for anyone thank youuuuu!!!!
Well, I'm with you: I love a bit of holiday-decoration excess. It's silly and fun and magical. I like the yes-we-went-overboard look at that time of year. I also keep a few fairy lights around during the year - I can't live without a small string of them somewhere (usually an LED string of them) all year long. I need a hint of magical lighting during the year.
As I am watching this, I am making sugar cookies for my kids to decorate over the weekend. I love this tradition every year too! Merry Christmas :)
Totally agree on the amount of gifts in the US! It’s overwhelming! 😅
in America, on Long Island, our Christmas celebration centered around our amazing Christmas tree which our whole family decorates together. We bake special cookies that we only make at Christmas time. Food for Christmas Eve was always Italian with 7 fish dishes and homemade Italian cookies. We would have a very lengthy, leisurely dinner that would go on for 3-4 hours. Christmas Day was American. We opened up our family gifts and Santa gifts Christmas morning. Our meal would be at noon with beef, potatoes, asparagus, stuffed artichokes and other vegetables. Dessert would be American cookies and cakes that we made.
I think all over America, towns and cites decorate for Christmas. But it does get expenses buying all the gifts. And it is also a very stressful time of year.
I think Xmas really takes us back to our childhood, moments we cherished as a child. So I think our way of doing Xmas is always very special to us. It is hard to rate objectively !
I am Jewish so I don't celebrate Christmas personally, but my French partner and I always spend it with his mother and it's a lot of fun. Because I never celebrated it myself I don't have any expectations or memories associated with it and I can just enjoy their traditions. We don't do much in the way of gifts since none of us wants more stuff, usually something small and edible lol. They always had a tradition of making different tartines as their Christmas Eve dinner which I love. So we basically play games, drink wine/champagne, and eat tartines. 😄
The one thing that makes me sad is how little the French seem to know about Chanukah and Judaism in general (my partner's mom didn't realize that Jews don't celebrate Christmas 😮). Not to be too much of a Debbie downer, but I really feel the lack of Jews and familiarity with Judaism there at this time of year. I try not to think about it too much though and just focus on the Christmas decorations and markets which I love.
Saint Louis (a Saint and a King..) was not too fond of talmudic practices.
France is named after the Franks.. The genetics and culture is Old European, Gallo-Roman and Hellenic, Germanic and a bit Basque.
I think semitic customs might be more popular in the Middle-East... Ever tried celebrating them there?
French people also know enough about the sanity of NOT mutilating babies that they tend to have little respect for a culture making it central and fundamental.
French people baptize babies.
People following the talmud do nothing (girls), or mutilate baby boys.
Might be good enough explanations.
@@HAYAOLEONE Reporting you for your disgusting hate speech.
I was fortunate to be in Paris just after Thanksgiving and was amazed at how decorated it was. Stores were putting up lovely windows and streets were lit. The US does go over the top, and I feel from Halloween through New Years, the air is electric with good holiday vibes
"white elephant" look fun 👍
I love your enthusiasm... but christmas is already too much for me even in its lesser French vibe 😆
I don’t have a little one-my son is 28-but I do understand the Santa experience you are talking about. Père Noël comes to our Christmas market and kids get very excited. I haven’t been in the states for Christmas since December 2016 but I do enjoy the French Christmas!
I spent Christmas in Denmark and Germany when I was younger and it was much nicer than Christmas in the US. Spending Christmas every year in the US with children is an absolute nightmare that you can not escape. Once you've done something with them it is exceptionally difficult to take it away. I foolishly bought an Elf on the Shelf without realizing the commitment. Finally I had to tell my kids that they killed him because they touched him too much. Il est mort!! There is no time to deal with the nonsense of moving a stupid elf around every day and posing him in different positions. We've just hosted Thanksgiving and had to quickly flip to Christmas decorations that weekend. Christmas is more here which means that I've spent 10 hours working on my kids Christmas lists and sending it to all of the family with links. I then had my mother in law argue with me for 2 hrs this past weekend because she didn't feel like the list that my kids asked for was sufficient. In the mean time I had to order and mail Christmas cards, order and wrap presents, find gifts for our neighbors, teachers and my employees and I get to do all of this while working 50 hours a week. This weekend is gingerbread cookies and driving around seeing lights and I am already too tired to deal with it.
It cracks me up that you told your kids that they killed Elf on The Shelf by touching him too much. I love Santa but think Elf on the Shelf is anti-Christmas.
Christmas in the US is seriously OTT. Too much. Seems to me it’s a race to performance. It’s exhausting. I like the lights and decoration but I prefer a much more tone down version of a European Christmas 🎉
Interesting insights, thanks! Merry Christmas 🎄
While I love the technicolor U.S. Christmas, I prefer the French way of celebrating the season: all the twinkle lights strung across the streets, the little pop-up villages with the kiosks of mulled wine and choco-tetes and lovely gift ideas. I personally dislike the white elephant game- I feel it negates the spirit of the season - instead of giving, you're taking from a loved one or friend.
I’m Ethiopian-Canadian and BF is french where his family is from the south and they r now in naucelle . Their parties are so over the top than I just want to hide in my room sometimes .
I keep my Christmas simple and classic. We only give 5 gifts and we do 5 acts of service/ charity. I love this time of year and I look forward to seeing family and friends.
I love the white elephant game! Merry Christmas to you and your family. ❤
Relating to visiting neighbourgs to enjoy their decorations: in North of France, we used to do exactly what you describe. Hoping in the car or strolling in the neighbourhood with hot beverages and enjoying the sparkling decorations. Some villages even organized a competition around this, bringing even more decor and visitors in the mix. I have not been there in years, so I don't know if it is still the case.
As a European... I am all in French "undertone". I also want to add that Christmas is not about lightning, the tree, Santa, cookies, or presents. It is about Jesus Christ coming to the men.
Interesting how you highlighted how social and even multicultural Christmas is in the US. It is a blast, it’s true. I sing in a couple of concerts that have all different groups, go to the Christmas market, parties at work, dinners with different friends etc. Christmas in Germany I thought was more private, maybe more of a religious holiday. I remember enjoying long afternoons with a host family after dinner drinking tea and coffee and eating cookies and just talking for hours while the snow fell outside. Happy holidays, peace!
The Christmas spirit is more focused on the historical area of towns in France, which is a shame. In Canada it depends where we are. I don't like Christmas in Vancouver, but it looks like it's nicer in other parts of Canada. Love the outside decorations here in North America.
Great video, Kate! I am an American in London and, while I love Christmas the US, I think Europe manages to strike the right balance of festive and classy. Tbh I prefer London’s decos a bit to Paris (my second most frequented city here!) but honestly I’ll take any level of holiday cheer! 😊
Actually had a question for you. I’m thinking about moving to Paris (mostly bc of work); I’m a novice to the language so thought having some expat friends would be v helpful. Any ideas on how to find expat friends (social activities, sports clubs, societies, etc?)
The longer I live abroad, the more I realise American Christmas is too much. We still do some of the American traditions but WAY toned down. For example, I make no more than 5 kinds of Christmas cookies while my American relatives make 20.
Do the French emphasize St Nicholas on Dec. 8th more than "Santa Claus" on Dec. 25th? Also is there more of an emphasis on the season of Advent prior to Dec. 25th?
I’d never heard of it called the white elephant game but instead yankee swap. You should try playing the Christmas mitten and hat game. Now that’s a blast. You’ll laugh your ass off.
Oh my gosh. I wish this video had a heads up, I was watching this with my daughter in prep for living to France. 😕🙁
One aspect you didn't mention was Church, baby Jesus, religion etc so I'm not sure if Christmas is a "Santa" thing for you or just a fun part of it. I'm Canadian so the vibe here is the same as in the USA 😍, tho two parts I would add is the European Christmas Markets like in Germany, or the traditional Christmas food/church services in England! Beautiful and fun. Buying a special new tree decoration every year. Christmas parties. Donations to charities. Rereading A Christmas Carol every year. Aaaaaaall the Christmas movies. Panetonne. Turkey dinner with all the fixins'. LOL. Setting aside time to REALLY evaluate why we are celebrating in the first place. ❤️
yeah, I was going to post almost the identical comment. I love Christmas in Canada mainly due to the traditions and spending time with family and friends - but one of the nicest Christmases I've ever experienced was in Germany, in the hometown of a good friend of mine. I've got to give two thumbs up to the Christmas markets in Germany and the terrific food, wine and vibe there.
I love your comment.
It varies within families but as a huge stereotype the Midwest (where I believe she is from), the west coast and the east are seen as far more liberal and educated. The middle/central aka flyover states and the south are considered far less educated and extremely more religious in the US. I also grew up in the Midwest and there was no religious association in my family with the holiday but certainly with some families there was in the area but its much less common.
Outstanding eyebrows...love em.
We leave carrots and sparkly magic oatmeal for the reindeers in America.
how long is each class? Just thinking about how many hours I will be investing to lingoda. Thanks!
I've read that in France the New Year is a bigger celebration than Christmas, but I don't know if that's true.
Christmas is for family and God, New Year is for parties and couples/lovers starting a new year, in lots of European places. And I would think everywhere Europeans live.
Thing is more MONEY is made and spent (via taxpayers) with NY celebrations in some cou tries where there is a political 'top-down' will to suffocate Christianity.
Plus people tend to be outside more for NY celebrations, so they're more visible.
A trivial question! Why are many Americans currently living in France going back either to the United States or to Canada? two couples of my son's friends who are well established in France have moved to the USA, one couple sold their beautiful house and left, the other couple put their house up for sale and are waiting for a buyer. Is this the current situation in Europe? threats from the Russian leader? Well it is true that the two countries are in a sort of bubble... This is an observation that many Europeans make!!!
J'ai eu un repas avec des collègues où il fallait faire un cadeaux 10€ maximum et il y avait un tirage au sort
In Germany they also have many traditions and I'm always shocked at how they feel forced to honor them all. They would do the decorations, cookies, gifts, even when they're old or disabled or sick as hell. And when I say they should let go, it's not all mandatory, they don't listen 😄
I'm french living in Canada (yeah not the USA but not much different) and I get really annoyed with over the top Christmas celebration here. I feel like it's way too much to the point where I get Christmas hangover. I really prefer the more discreet European way than the crazy consumerism North America way.
🥶 soyez prudente
Really? Living in Los Angeles you would never even know that Christmas exists. Alas. Very little celebrations, no christmas markets, no real parades or lights. Stores only dress up to sell cheap merchandise. Compared to Germany or France Christmas in Los Angeles does not even appear on the radar screen. I much prefer celebrating Christmas in Europe and when I lived in Chicago - miss it so!
Christmas in Chicago is great. Come back sometime! Decorations, concerts, the Christkindlmarkt!
but US doesn't have christmas markets and that only thing I care about here xD
I can't say the Elf on the Shelf is appealing to me. Someone created the elf story a few years ago, but it's not a tradition.
As a Muslim I would prefer living in the US due to the issues of Hijab ban in France.
I have a child now and I really want to stop this christmas nonsense!
Just stop it then. Pretty easy :-)
@@stephanekaufmann411
not really. people are part of communities, towns, relatives… families are not islands, you cant do your own traditions easily.
Yeah, a little warning before you tell my kid that santa isn’t real would be nice 😂
En France Noël est nul 😢
In France Noël is garbage. I really whent to try Holliday in US, and also any celebration like Halloween and national day.
In France it's only a thing for child, and maybe sound like a celebration for Grandpa, if that make any sense : boring and shy, without any fun.
Is she unintentionally gorgeous?
Bonjour, ne voulez-vous pas changer un peu vos thématiques? Beaucoup d'américains je pense seraient ravis de savoir ce qui se fait en France.
Vous pourriez faire une vidéo sur les principaux influenceurs en France et ce qu'ils font ex TiboInshape, sur la fête de la musique, les différents styles musicaux qui n'existent pas aux USA, quelques performances de the Voice France que vous avez aimé, idem DALS, parler de differentes émissions version française ex Etchebest vs Gordon Ramsay, les sports atypiques en France (savate pro, canne d'arme, béhourd, pétanque...) et non connus aux USA (même le handball est mal connu), quelques livres que vous recommandez, quelques films forts (la Haine, Bac Nord), des grands moments d'Histoire de France... Et beaucoup de followers pourraient vous donner avis pour vos recherches.
future video? Are a lot of French people joining gyms in January? are you laughing at my comment?😉😊
Elf on the shelf. That was only invented in 2005. It's a dumb idea and kind of creepy. Don't even start doing it. Stick with Santa.
Le dessert c’est une bûche de Noël, pas une bouche de Noël 😃😉
They don't have the sound in the US. Except for Scandinavians.
Tough one!
Those words sound the same to us
So much more festive in the US. What do you expect when a godless nation celebrates the birth of Christ? BTW I am French.
I grew up mostly in the United States, but all 5 things that you listed are things that I totally despise about Christmas in the U.S. And your #5 is shockingly disgusting. Stealing a gift???