One time of the year seems to bring out the carnival spirit in the Irish more than any other: the seven short days between Christmas and New Years. If you’re a first time visitor to the country you’ll be amazed by the hectic social round of parties, gatherings, rituals and dances that mark this week in the Irish calendar.
Of course, this being Ireland, there are centuries old Irish traditions to follow too, if you want to spend your Christmas like a local, that is. Here’s Irish Central’s list of 10 Irish Christmas Traditions that will give your gathering a distinctly Celtic atmosphere no matter where you celebrate it this year.
1. The Unwanted Sweater
The first portent of an Irish Christmas is the sending of an Unwanted Sweater. Hand knit and presented in recycled wrapping paper, its arrival heralds Christmas like the first swallow heralds spring.
Some people will swear that your old aunty Mary hand knitted it for you but the truth is much more sinister. There is, in fact, only one toweringly terrible hand knitted sweater in the whole of Ireland and it’s passed on in secret from house to house, in the dead of night, by a chain of cackling elderly women until Christmas Day, when it mysteriously vanishes, only to reappear again one year later.
Avoid the unwanted sweater stigma by shopping here instead:
2. The Fashion Melt Down
You know you’re having an authentic Irish Christmas when you witness a full-blown Fashion Melt Down, although most Irish women (and men) have closets that avalanche when you open them, Christmas week is prime time for an annual Fashion Melt Down. Just as there are five stages to Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s model of grief, there are five distinct stages to an Irish fashion melt down.
Stage 1: Denial. “These Prada boots work with this Lainey Keogh dress, don’t they? Of course they do! Don’t they? I won’t have to buy new things, will I? Well, will I?”
Stage 2: Anger. “I have nothing to wear! Why do I have nothing to wear? Why am I so poor! I look like Susan Boyle! Why did I marry you! I have nothing to wear! It’s Christmas! Waaahhhhhhhh!”
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