Christmas Celebration Hi, People! Do you want to know how we celebrate Christmas in Portugal?

Christmas Celebration Well…we just love Christmas. People send Christmas cards each other and exchange presents.

Christmas Celebration The cities, the villages are full of light at night and every public place you go we are listening to Christmas songs (and singing, too!). This year, in Lisbon, we had the highest Christmas tree in Europe, which could be seen from the other side of Tagus river. It was really beautiful.

Christmas Celebration In the beginning of December, people start decorating their houses: they have their Christmas tree with tinsels, bells, small angels, ribbons and, of course, the star at the top of the tree. Some families also place a Christmas crib under the tree.

Christmas Celebration Small children write to Santa Claus asking for their gifts, and on Christmas eve they hang their stockings over the fireplace or any other place near the tree and wait for Santa Claus to come and fill them with presents while they are sleeping.. If there are no stockings, Santa Claus will put the presents under the tree. But the best part about Christmas for everyone is waking up on Christmas morning and finding lots of presents.

Christmas Dinner On the 24th, Portuguese families get together for Christmas dinner: they eat cod fish with boiled vegetables and potatoes. The table is set the whole season, full of sweet things: cakes, puddings, sweets, crackers, nuts, pine-nuts, dried figs, etc. Some parts of Portugal have their own specific confiture which enriches our gastronomy.

Cake – bolo-rei with lots of dried fruit most common cakes

Cake - Christmas trunk a trunk shaped cake covered with chocolate most common cakes

Arroz doce Its sweet rice traditional confiture

Other traditional sweets SonhosFilhozes Rabanadas

Christmas Celebration Portuguese are very religious people, so, at night, they go to midnight mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Christmas Celebration On Christmas day, people eat meat: roast turkey, roast potatoes, lettuce and tomato salad, and for dessert theres: fruit salad chocolate mousse

Christmas Celebration The traditions may differ in some places of the country. For example, in the north of Portugal, on Christmas eve, people light a fire with a huge trunk and join together around it, singing Christmas carols. Children enjoy themselves playing and singing.

Reporters Ana Gláucia Cheila Martins Inês Costa Melissa Ferreira Cleusa Fernandes Well, this is how we celebrate Christmas here, in Portugal.