We asked our international teams to reflect on Christmas and what it means in their own countries. Here is a selection of our favourite responses.

German-speaking Switzerland

Christmas in the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland is very similar to what they do in Germany, and still a little different from the UK or the US (though with globalisation things are starting to get blurred somewhat). Most people are still aware of the basic fact: It's the most important Christian festival, the celebration of the birth of Christ. It is meant to be a joyful event, one that is pervaded by the Christmas spirit, though these days that feeling gets rather swamped by all the glitter and the commercial aspects, which in many cases appears to cause more stress than joy. Christmas now conjures up pictures of gift-laden people rushing around the shops, in an attempt to find yet more gifts for family and friends. If they are lucky, the sales might start just in time before the 24th.

However, just like in the rest of the Western world, in Switzerland signs of Christmas start appearing in the landscape earlier and earlier (some cynics claim right after the summer holidays). Supermarket shelves fill up with nostalgic chocolate and cake tins representing sentimental snowy scenes with toboggans and children clad in old-fashioned little red coats and hats, throwing snowballs and building snowmen. Angels with trumpets everywhere, and Father Christmas with his reindeer-drawn sledge. Not that there are any reindeer in Switzerland of course, and Father Christmas is an import from America too. In Swiss tradition, a bearded fat man turns up long before Christmas, on the 6th of December in the shape of St. Nicholas (Samichlaus), accompanied by Schmutzli, his helper who does the dirty work (giving a good beating to children who have misbehaved; I got beaten for using my left hand for writing, instead of the right one - admittedly that's a few decades ago ...). The pantheon of Christmassy figures and symbols that now turns up on Christmas cards is really quite confusing, kitsch rather than culture, I would say.

Traditional Christmas traditions include the Adventskalender and the Advent wreath with four candles, and baking a variety of Christmas cookies. These days of course you can buy ready-to-roll dough for a variety of traditional Christmas cookies that our mums used to make by hand, with us children fighting to scrape the mixing bowl. Licking our fingers, we used to think the dough tasted rather nicer than the actual biscuits. The most exciting event of course is Christmas Eve. The children are asked to play and keep out of the way, while the parents prepare the Christmas tree, adorning it with Christmas tree balls of all sizes and colours, sometimes made out of glass, little figurines of angels and ornaments such as walnut shells (sometimes dipped in gold dust), stars, snowflakes, bells, and more "heathen" symbols such as horseshoes or clover-leaves and chimney-sweeps for good luck, or little harps and other musical instruments. Some people might hang gingerbread figures on the tree too. Important also is the tinsel (lametta), which they say was invented around the year 1600 in Germany, when it was made out of real silver strips. In fact all these ornaments have pretty much conquered the world. Their origin however is in the German-speaking parts of Europe, never mind their Made in China sticker. You won't see real candles very often these days - they've been replaced by electric lights that remind you of a disco, flickering with alternating colours. The tip of the Christmas tree is usually a big golden star, and under the tree you would typically find a nativity scene, made out of wood, clay, or cardboard. The presents are placed under and all around the tree. Small children believe that it is the Christkind (a dubious mix of little Jesus and a female angel that acts as a messenger) that puts them there.

The family sits down to a light meal on Christmas Eve, perhaps Cervelatsalat or a platter with dried meat (Salami, Bünderfleisch), gherkins, and cheese and bread. Shortly after, the bell on the Christmas tree will call the children into the room where the tree's been set up. One of the parents is supposed to read out the Christmas story. My father had a treasured book with pictures where he had pasted Sofia Loren's face over the saintly face of Mary, and Khrushchev's over that of Joseph, to spice things up a bit. Shepherds, angels and the three kings were other minor world leaders of the day. We used to sing Stille Nacht and Oh du Fröhliche, and Oh Tannenbaum, these days I suspect the music will come from a CD. The main thing, after all is tearing all the presents out of their packaging, trying on the jumpers, knitted socks and gloves and hats, eating plenty of Christmas cookies, and begging the family to start playing their new board games - or perhaps more likely, kids insisting being allowed to try out the brand-new Fantasy titles on their Playstation. 11.30 pm is the time to put on your boots and winter coat to make your way to Midnight Mass. Chances are that this year again, like so often in recent years, there won't be any wading through deep snow.

Finland

Gravlax

My Finnish grandmother gave me this recipe for gravlax. Gravlax is salt-cured raw salmon, and it is one of the dishes my Scandinavian side of the family serves for Christmas. Just take into account that it needs to be made at least 24 hours in advance. Make sure you get the freshest salmon, from a trusted supplier, because even if it is cured, it is still raw fish.

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients:
One whole salmon, cut in half lengthwise, backbone and small bones removed, skin left intact (ask your fishmonger to do it for you)
1 cup dill
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
Ground white peppercorns

Mix the salt and sugar together. Rinse, dry and chop the dill. Line a deep and wide dish with saran wrap (use a generous length of it, because you will need to wrap the salmon in it later). Rinse the salmon fillets and pat dry. Place one fillet skin side down in the dish, on the saran wrap. Sprinkle with pepper, and cover with chopped dill. Sprinkle with the salt and sugar mix. Sprinkle the other fillet with pepper and place it on top of the first one. You will then have a 'sandwich' of salmon, filled with dill and salt/sugar mix. Wrap it tightly with saran wrap. Place a cutting board on top of the salmon and put something heavy on it - I use my 'Joy of Cooking' cookbook. Leave in the refrigerator overnight (or for 8 hours). In the morning, the water from the salmon will have pooled in the dish (make sure to use a deep one). Remove the water, and let it rest for another 8 hours or so. The gravlax is ready when it stops releasing any more juice.

To serve, remove from the saran wrap and scrape the leftover salt/sugar mixture and dill off the salmon. Remove the skin using a very sharp knife. Serve thinly sliced with rye toast or steamed potatoes, lemon wedges and mustard dill sauce. It also goes very well with vodka or aquavit!

Poland

Christmas is the most celebrated holiday in the Polish tradition. All Poles prepare very carefully for the festive period, spend time with their families and show a lot of affection to their relatives and friends.

Christmas Eve, called affectionately "Gwiazdka" (little star) in rememberance of the star of Bethlehem, is the most important day of the year. On that day Polish families gather together around the table, and when the first star appears in the sky, everyone starts exchanging greetings and good wishes by breaking off pieces of holy wafer with scenes of nativity engraved on it. They want to forgive everyone who hurt them and unite with their relatives and friends.

Preparation for the dinner starts many days in advance, when Poles buy a lot of carp (which has to swim for a day at home in a bath-tub before it is killed), bake ginger breads, and poppy-seed cakes, cook beet or mushroom soup, and decorate Christmas trees with sweets and tinsel. The dinner table is laid in a special way. Hay, fish scales and coins are put under a snow-white table cloth as the symbol of prosperity in the new year. The whole family sits together to eat a huge dinner, which usually consists of 13 dishes. Custom demands that an extra setting be left for an unexpected guest.

The second part of the evening is the most joyous as everyone sings Christmas carols and give presents to each other. At midnight they attend "Pasterka" (The Shepherd's Mass). Poles try to make this day very special, because they believe that being good on Christmas Eve makes them good all year round.

Germany

Silent Night in der X-mas-Zeit

A brief reflection on language in the run-up to Christmas

X-mas-Shopping, Weihnachtshopping, Shoppingtrip, Kurztrip, Eventerlebnisse, "Live on Ice", Singing Christmas Tree-Konzert, Shoppingparadies ... They're creeping in everywhere: English words, and English-German hybrids. Marketing-speak is gaining ground, even in something as Ur-German as Weihnacht. Weihnacht is out, X-mas in. Jingle Bells, not Weihnachtsglöckchen.

Yes, Weihnachten is turning into a "Game & Fun-Event". "Der Countdown im Shoppingcenter läuft". "Aus dem Lautsprecher scherbelt ein Christmas Carol." "In der coolen Strassenbar trinken coole Menschen coole Cüpli". "Zwischen Bestseller-, Kochbuch- und Kalenderregalen herrscht Stop-and-go-Verkehr." (Original quotes from an article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.)

Clearly, as Christmas is becoming more and more a commercial and a marketing event, it is felt that English rather than German is the appropriate vehicle for communication. German words are considered homespun, drab, uncool, and old-fashioned, so: "Relaxen Sie sich im neuen Coffeeshop vom Stress des X-mas-Shopping oder kommen Sie zu uns in Wellness-Center".

Besides, some of us would go so far as to say that many German speakers no longer master their own language and therefore seek refuge in English. Many of them consider their English "perfect"; after all it is their English skills that are in demand. No-one seems to ask them about whether they can write German, or speak it. Just look at the statistics: German has a vocabulary of some 300,000 to 400,000 words, of which the average user actively uses only around 12-15,000. Quite soon, it is feared, this will reach an all-time low of some 2,000 words which are sufficient to get by in everday life - and more and more of those are English, or quasi-English. According to an article by the Sprachkreis Deutsch in Bern, if you listen to some of the talkshows on TV you're left with the impression that the German language has one adjective for expressing approval only - super. It is of little comfort that this actually comes from Latin rather than from English, but then English has the monopoly of the other words that make up young people's vocabulary: cool, okay, happy, power, event, life-style ...

Marketing copywriters seem to find it easier to get their inspiration in English ("it just sounds better in English"!). Anything that's new and appealing, forms part of the lifestyle experience and that you wish to sell must be advertised in English, from company names to product names, to superlative adjectives. The general belief is that consumers are seduced more easily with English words and phrases. English stands for desirable, interesting and cool, German is sober and boring.