Hawaiian Christmas Traditions

Christmas is the time of the year when people enjoy the festivities with family and friends. This is time to clean homes and decorate them with garland, evergreen twigs and lights. Families go out to shop for a Christmas tree and buy one that best suits their requirements. Once the tree is brought home, it is decorated with lights, ornaments, tinsel and so on. Family get together, parties and feasts are important parts of Christmas celebration. Music, dance, gifts, Santa Claus, etc. are traditions associated with Christmas. The festival of Christmas has universal appeal. Christmas is celebrated in different nations using various traditions.

Christmas traditions may be different but the motive of welcoming the festival is same all over the world. Christmas is celebrated with great excitement and joy in Hawaii. The Christmas holiday is spent with family. The Hawaiians attend church during Christmas. The houses are decorated with light, balloons, Christmas flowers and Christmas tree. Traditionally, colorful candles are lit on Christmas Eve. There is a lot of enthusiasm about the festival in Hawaiian people. The Christmas trees are brought from various countries through ships that travel the Pacific Ocean. The well grown and beautiful fir or pine tree is chosen and taken home and then decorated.

Some Hawaiians decorate palm trees as a Christmas tree. Santa comes in a canoe is a general belief among Hawaiians. On Christmas Eve, people sings traditional carols in accompany of guitar and other musical instruments. People enjoy feasts that have special traditional dishes. The main course has chicken noodle soup with raw fish, fried spring rolls with beef or vegetable stuffed, pork cutlets, baked pork and so on. The deserts have fruit cakes, chocolate pie, green tea ice cream and almond float. The dinner is elaborate and enjoyed with family and friends. The delicacies are home made and the preparations for them start well in advance.

The Hawaiians celebrate four months of celebration before Christmas. This celebration to respect the mother earth and is called as Mahahiki. During these four months, people celebrated with feasts and traditional rituals. The Christmas is the pinnacle of the celebration for Hawaiians. People go out to beaches with friends and family to enjoy the holidays. Santa too comes in Hawaiian clothes on the beautiful beaches to meet children and give them gifts. The entire atmosphere is lively and people party a lot. The Santa Claus from different parts of the city come together and have a parade in vehicles that are decorated with festive lights and accompanied with music. The parade is great sight to watch and therefore, the streets are crowded.

Hawaiian loves to enjoy celebrations and Christmas is one of the biggest. They take complete liberty of celebrating the birth of Christ with dine and wine.