Christmas in Haiti

In Haiti, at the beginning of December, people start looking for Christmas Trees. They might cut pine branches or go to the market and get trees brought from the mountains. The trees are decorated with bright ornaments. At the bottom of the tree is a large nativity scene. Sometimes the trees and scenes take up a lot of the living room! Churches and other organizations also have trees on display. Artificial trees are also more common as they last longer!

People also fix and redecorate their homes ready for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, children place their newly cleaned shoes, filled with straw, under the tree on the porch. They hope that Santa (called 'Tonton Nwèl') will remove the straw and put presents in and around the shoes!

Often, lots of houses in neighborhoods are open with all lights on until about 3.00am! Children are normally allowed to go out and often their parents don't know where they are in the early morning. The older children are expected to look after the younger ones! And children of all ages are also allowed to drink 'Anisette', which is a slightly alcoholic drink made by soaking anise leaves (the spice from which star anise comes) in rum and sweetening it with sugar.

Some people go to a Midnight Mass church service, or you might go out carol singing. After the Mass, people come home and eat the main meal, called 'réveillon' (it's a French term meaning 'to wake up' and is also name of the main Christmas meal in France). The meal normally starts in the early hours of Christmas morning and lasts until the dawn!

Christmas Day is much quieter with people sleeping off the celebrations of the night before! However, there will be more eating and playing with the toys from Tonton Nwèl.

In 2010, Haiti suffered from a huge earthquake that made many people homeless. It has also suffered from a great deal of crime and violence, so lots of people can't celebrate Christmas like they used to. There is also a lot of civil unrest and gang violence in Haiti. Many charities like Compassion work in Haiti to help people. Find out more about Haiti on the Compassion website (goes to another site).

In Haiti, there are two main languages, French and Haitian Creole. In French, Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Joyeux Noël'. In Haitian Creole, Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Jwaye Nowel'. Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages.

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