Christmas in Edinburgh / UK - a festive CULTURE SHOCK SPECIAL! 

As a Scot myself, I'm a little surprised that no one appears to have pointed out that it was only from the early-mid 60s that Scotland started to cave in to the idea of Christmas as the main holiday - and both Catholic & Protestant clerics shared a distaste for the "ungodly commercialisation" inherent in the present-giving culture. Our big festival was of course Hogmanay (New Year's Eve). The religiosos knew better than to even attempt to criticise the alcohol-fuelled revelry associated with THAT event! We even carried on with a full Xmas-Day programme of senior football matches until the 1971/2 season.

Simon yelling off camera is hilarious

St Nicholas is a Catholic/Orthodox saint. Britain is (was) a Protestant country and Protestantism was against the worshipping of Saints (although they are still honoured to some extent). But, basically, the Reformation is to blame for the lack of a St Nicholas Day. Santa Claus is St Nicholas plus various other European traditional figures mixed together in America and augmented by comparatively recent storytelling myths via songs, TV and movies. Father Christmas, on the other hand, was a distinctly British character, a personification of winter and of Yuletide. He didn’t bring presents, he was about feasting and festivity. These days though, most people conflate Santa and Father Christmas. Mince meat used to include meat (centuries ago) and still does include suet.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love this, so fun to watch

Edinburgh is very beautiful and I am your new subscriber from Afghanistan.

my favourite part of christmas in north america is the lights - we decorate our homes and front yards with lights! and a treat i didn't see mentioned is candy canes...i don't think they are anyones favourite but they are a christmas staple! oh and watching the classic claymation movies!

I really enjoy your vlogs! In the US, bakeries will have an assortment of cookies based from other countries. Over last weekend, I got together with my pod and decorated cookies; gingerbread, sugar cookies, and a chocolate shortbread ones. It was so much fun! In my family, on Christmas morning, we have coffee and toast then open gifts in the stockings, then open some presents before we have breakfast. After breakfast open the rest of the presents. We started prolonging opening presents when our kids were young. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! Thanks for sharing.

Ouu! I'm in Canada and very much thinking of making the move to Edinburgh in 2022. Your videos have been an amazing help and I love that you keep it so light and entertaining - Cant wait to see more in 2021. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 🎄🎁 !! I’m not too surprised about the nativity scenes because I don’t think a lot of Scottish folks are very religious. Kat, super awesome video lots of interesting details I liked how you compared Czech to Scottish Christmas 🎄 stay safe. I’m lookin forward the the next video😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

Amazing love this :)

No Saint Nick day in Canada Trees in Canada go up the first of December Santa Claus omes on Christmas eve, delivers gifts and we open them on Christmas morning Our family has Christmas dinner on Christmas eve and on Christmas day we have brunch Christmas day

Thank you, Kat. It was really interesting to see how different nativities are between Czech and Scotland. I hope you could come and see the Japanese Christmas in 2021, which will give another interesting story you can report on your vlogs. (We never eat carp for Christmas in Japan, anyway.) You could get some Christmas-special stationery as well on the occasion. Wish you and Simon Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year!

Amazing video as always! I can relate having lived in Slovakia as a Scot. When I was a kid we always had a nativity scene in the house because my mum is religious. Oh, and she always makes trifle every year for dessert because we hate the traditional pudding!

You are good... Very good! ❤️🤓🥰

Older people still tend to have a nativity in their homes, other than that the only people who tend to have them are those who are really religious, though I know some people have one because they were gifted it by a relative. Now that you've mentioned it though, I've never seen a nativity at the Edinburgh Christmas market, but there's usually one in Glasgow! And the purple Quality Street are definitely the best!

Yeah in the US we do a lot of Christmas cookies. My family does a big Christmas breakfast but a lot of our big cooking and holiday meal (like you mentioned the UK does) we do on Thanksgiving. Guess we're too lazy to do another big meal a month later 😂

George Square in Glasgow always has a Nativity scene. But yeah it's not really a feature these days, particularly in Glasgow as we are so diverse and most christians have given up on it by the time they finish school. But you will see plenty of home Nativity scenes if you happen to hang around a lot of Roman Catholic families especially with toddlers, they always have one, guaranteed.

A Christmas in China is a shock. Because they don't celebrate Christmas, all the shops stay open. I had a Starbucks and read my book last year. Some trees in shops for just the commercial side of Christmas. Great video

I loved this video! Thank you! Here in Italy we don't have Saint Nick's day but in certain regions we celebrate Santa Lucia on the 13th of December and she brings children sweets and little toys. We traditionally put up our Christmas tree on the 8th of December but it actually depends on the single family traditions. Nativity scenes are also very very popular in the households and at Christmas markets as well. Gifts are usually brought by Father Christmas but some (especially the elderly) people say it's baby Jesus (which never made sense to mee when I was a child 😂)

very nice video 🤗🤗🤗🤗

Where do you get all your adorable Christmas jumpers?

Try and find a bakery that does Black Bun.

While living in Scotland I spent Christmas at a friend's family farm in Fife. His grandmother told me that they'd really only celebrated Christmas since the 1960s and copied most of it from the English and Americans. So it is pretty much the same to me.

So many Lolsssssss in this one. "STONE YOU TO DEATH!!!" "Devil will throw you in a sack and drag you to hell". "Stop pooping on Czech Republic Christmas". Moments of gold. :D

As a Polish girl I've experienced similar culture shocks, but I didn't know about a pantomime! That's really weird. ;O And I need to say: carp on Christmas Eve - relatable!

In America the tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving- this is the 4th Thursday in November- & comes down after new years. We also decorate the whole house- inside & out. Is the chezch republic cathlic? Could explain the nativity. Anglican are Catholic Light. I say 1/2 people do nativity in USA. I think saint Nicholas is from present day Turkey. Lapland is close enough to the north pole. We do our big ham dinner Xmas eve& we cook it all. Presents, big brunch & all day grazing Christmas. Lots of sweets & drinking. I'd like to know what people but on top of their trees- me an Angel

Only 368 sleeps to Christmas.

There are big differences kakibot.xmas wasn't even an official holiday in Scotland until 1958.traditionally England would shut down for Xmas week.Scotland only for one day .Scotland would shut down for a week at Hogmany so big difference..nowadays thing are changing though.

Scottish folk used to be really religious. Ive never heard of the st nick stories its not a Scottish thing.

The north pole is in Canada, therefore Santa Claus is a Canadian. The Canadian government has even issued him a passport.