Traditions

Traditions

There are many amazing and unique christmas traditions that the Indonesians go by. 

In Indonesian, 'Merry Christmas' is 'Selamat Natal.'

On Christmas Eve and Christmas day, Indonesians usually go to church service. In most churches, people create nativity scenes and use them as nativity plays. 

Indonesians have a variety of different materials that they use to decorate. 

Most Indonesian homes use an artificial christmas tree. Some others have pine trees decorated as normal christmas trees. Another UNIQUE christmas tree is one made out of chicken feathers! These Christmas trees are incredibly soft and are homemade in Bali. These feather trees have been exported to different countries around the world. There are also huge Christmas trees made out of edible chocolate made by Indonesian chocolate factories!

Chicken Feather tree!

Many songs are sung at church service like the indonesian version of 'O holy night' (Malam Kudus.) Most TV channels broadcast live plays on Christmas. TVR is a renowned channel for christmas plays.

In Indonesia, Santa Claus is named 'Sinterklas' (that's because Indonesia used to be ruled by Holland) 

Cookies are a must-have food during Christmas in Indonesia. Some popular types of cookies include 'Nastar' a butter cookie with pineapple jam filling, cheese cookies called 'Kastengel' and 'Putri Salju' or 'Snow White' cookies, a butter cookie covered with powdered sugar and cheese!