Have you ever wondered what Christmas is like somewhere else in the world? Most countries have their own traditions, decorations, and beliefs when it comes to the festive season.
Did you know that Christmas Trees were first popularised in the UK during the Victorian era? Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, brought the tradition of having a Christmas Tree and decorating it over from Germany as a way of bringing one of his Christmas traditions over to England.
Without further ado, here are five examples of what Christmas looks like around the world.
Argentina
Like many other countries worldwide, Argentina usually celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day. Houses are decorated with light and wreaths, while doors are hung with red and white garlands. Christmas Trees are also popular here and typically decorated by 8th December. Some even put cotton balls on their trees to look like snow!
Some will often stay awake into the early hours of the morning chatting to friends or visiting family, and will often spend Christmas Day sleeping or going to mass in the afternoon.
Argentinians speak Spanish, so to wish someone a Merry Christmas, you would say “¡Feliz Navidad!”
Finland
Santa never has to travel far to deliver presents to the people in Finland, as his home in Lapland (or Korvatunturi in Finnish) is in the north of the country.
Everyone’s houses are cleaned to prepare for the three holy days of Christmas: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It’s traditional to buy a Christmas tree from the local market, either on Christmas Eve or the day before. Some people even enjoy visiting their nearest sauna on Christmas Eve!
The main Christmas meal is eaten on Christmas Eve and will usually consist of a leg of pork with mashed potatoes, mashed swede and other winter root vegetables. Cured salmon is also a popular main meal as well as turkey. Traditionally, dessert consists of a baked rice pudding to be eaten with spiced plum jam. A single almond is hidden in the pudding and whoever finds it will be lucky for the next year!
“Hyvää joulua” is how you would say Merry Christmas in Finnish, and to the Sami people who live in the northern parts of Finland, Norway and Sweden, you would say “Buorit Juovllat”.
Christmas in Finland
Greece
One of the oldest and most traditional decorations to have in a Greek home at Christmas is a shallow wooden bowl with a piece of wire suspended across it, and water kept in the bottom. There will be a sprig of basil wrapped around a wooden cross and hung from the wire. Once a day, the mother of the family will drip the cross and basil in holy water and sprinkle it into every room of the house to keep away the bad spirits, or Καλλικάντζαρος (kallikantzaroi). These spirits only appear between Christmas and Epiphany (6th January) and will put out your fires and make your milk go off!
Loaves of ‘Christopsomo’ (Christmas bread) are traditionally kept on tables as decoration. Christopsomo is a round, sweet bread and is decorated with a cross on the top. Families usually make this bread on Christmas Eve ready to eat on Christmas Day.
Some parts of Greece also have households throwing a pomegranate at their front door! The fruit will break and will scatter its seeds around the door which signifies good luck and happiness for the house.
To say Merry Christmas in Greek, you would sayΚαλά Χριστούγεννα! (Kala Christougenna!)
India
Christmas isn’t widely celebrated in India however, there are still approximately over 25 million Christians in India.
People will decorate their homes with mango leaves, and will decorate a banana or mango tree instead of a Christmas tree! On Christmas Eve in Goa, people will hang giant paper star-shaped lanterns between houses and buildings, so the stars will float above you as you walk down the street.
In Southern India, Christians will burn oil-burning clay lamps on the roofs of their homes to show that Jesus is ‘the light of the world’. Tribal Christians known as the Bhil in north-west India will go out every night during the week of Christmas to sing their carols and visit surrounding villages to tell the Christmas story.
Merry Christmas in Hindi is शुभ क्रिसमस (“Śubh krisamas”), in Urdu they say کرسمس (“krismas mubarak”), and in Sanskrit it’s “Krismasasya shubhkaamnaa”. Many languages are spoken in India apart from Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit such as Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Shindi, and more.
Goan Christmas Stars
Philippines
In the Philippines, Christmas is a much-adored holiday and is celebrated for as long as possible! Shops may start playing Christmas songs and selling decorations as early as September.
Some Christmas traditions include having a parol, which is a bamboo pole with a lit star lantern on it, and it represents the star that guided the Wise Men to the birth of Jesus.
Filipinos will also have a ‘Noche Buena’ which is a big open house celebration with friends and family, where anyone can drop by to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. There will be lots of dishes laid out, including roasted pig, rice cakes, steamed rice and sweets.
On Christmas Eve, most families will stay awake all night and into Christmas Day. They will go to church for Christmas Eve mass and then attend the midnight feast of Noche Buena.
The Philippines has several widely spoken languages, but to say Merry Christmas in Filipino/Tagalog you would say “Maligayang Pasko!”.
We hope you learned a few facts about Christmas around the world and the different traditions that are celebrated!
As Christmas fast approaches, many of us will receive a new book to get stuck into. Or perhaps you’ve already got a big collection of novels, autobiographies and more that you’d like to keep in a special place. It doesn’t matter if you already have a few ideas or if you’ve got a blank canvas, this article will help you with some useful tips when creating the perfect reading corner!
Location
Are there any empty or spare spaces in your bedroom you could turn into a cosy reading corner? Whether it be a nice bay window with a view or an alcove you’ve yet to make any use of, it’s ultimately down to you where you choose to create your new reading corner. No matter the location, as long as you’re comfy and it’s somewhere quiet to read a good book, it will be perfect!
Lighting
Where possible, it’s best to choose somewhere that has good natural light to avoid eye strain. However, we know that not all rooms have enough windows or natural lights to make this possible, so we recommend that you use extra lighting where required. If you have enough space, a floor lamp that hangs slightly overhead while you read is a good idea. If you’re using a smaller space, a table lamp might be more appropriate, try one with a warm lampshade that brings a soft light into the room so you don’t get distracted by any harsh lightbulbs. A good side table also provides somewhere to pop your book down so you can come back to it later!
Soft Furnishings
Pillows, blankets and throws are all great options for making your reading corner nice and comfy. Adding a rug to the floor space of your reading corner will also help separate it from other areas of the room. While adding plenty of pillows and blankets are great for making sure you stay cosy while reading, make sure you don’t overdo it. Adding too many pillows to your seating space might make things a little overcrowded and distract you from your book!
Distractions
There’s nothing worse than being distracted while you’re trying to read! For a great reading corner, we recommend placing it away from any windows facing busy roads where there may be a lot of traffic noise, and away from any technology such as televisions and music players. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to reach for the remote and have the TV on in the background! Also, don’t be afraid to tell your family or housemates that you need a distraction-free zone when reading and ask them to keep the noise down.
Storage Options
We all need somewhere to put our books! Whether you’d like bookshelves acting as pillars on either side of your reading corner or you’d rather have book cabinets underneath your bay windows, that’s where we can come in. When you book your showroom appointment, you can let us know everything you’d like!
Whether you’d like us to help create shelving for your reading corner that matches your wardrobes, or you’d just like to add storage options to improve your space, we can definitely help!
Functionality and space are so important when we think about our living rooms. Many of us want an equal space for relaxing, floor space for the kids to play and smart storage solutions.
Our fitted furniture is made-to-measure and designed to your specifications, to create a unique design which is perfect for the modern living we all enjoy. Whether you need specially designed shelf space for entertainment systems or enough room for your collection of books, we can work with you to make that happen.
TV Cabinets
It’s hard to find TV and media cabinets that are perfect for various entertainment systems and suit all of our storage needs. The good news is we can design the exact TV cabinet you want! We can make sure that your TV cabinet hides any unsightly wires and cables and fits the exact size of your TV, so you can have a more cinematic experience!
Bookshelves
Although we are in a digital age where some people might prefer to read on e-books or scroll through their phones, books are still a treasure to read. If you like showing off your collection, we can create bookshelves that fit exactly into your space. Standard flat-pack bookshelves are often made to a standard size and can look a little out of place and disjointed, so we’ll make them to the perfect size and colour to match your existing living room furniture.
Awkward Spaces
If you’d like your fitted furniture to fit beneath the staircase, or if you have sloped ceilings or ceiling beams, we can create your order to fit in your space without faulting on design or quality. Your furniture can be made to look like it was designed and installed exclusively for your home, creating a space that will be timeless and will delight you for years to come.
If you’re interested in designing fitted furniture for your living room or if you’d just like to enquire, don’t hesitate to contact our sales team on 01536 697996 or email us at info@madeinteriors.uk We endeavour to get back to all enquiries within 1-2 business days. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Have you started your design for your fitted wardrobe or you’re just thinking about what you’d use it for? The good news is that we’ve put together this little guide to help you plan the interior of your fitted wardrobe!
Here are some things you should consider:
Shelf Space
It’s important to know how many shelves you might need in your fitted wardrobe, if any. Shelves are a great way to reduce clutter, especially if you usually hang large quantities of clothes. Having shelves in your fitted wardrobes mean you can fold up trousers, towels and other accessories without clogging up your rails with too many hangers. We can also create slanted shelves designed to store shoes, meaning you will no longer have to rummage around the bottom of your wardrobe!
Lighting
Picture this: it’s 5 am, you’ve got an early start and the sun hasn’t come up yet. Everyone’s still in bed, but you need to get up and get dressed. Most of the time, you’d have to navigate your room with your phone torch to get ready for work, but the benefit of having LED lights or downlights in your wardrobe is that you can get ready in your wardrobe space, without worrying about waking anyone up, especially if you share a room with someone. Wardrobes are usually dark spaces so it means you can find clothes easily without having to search around too much.
Rails
We don’t just stock straight rails here at Made Bedrooms & Interiors. If you want a different look to your wardrobe, we have curved rails so you can make more use of the space. We can also put double rails in one compartment of your wardrobe (depending on the height of your walls) so that you have two levels of clothing. It’s also useful if you’re sharing your wardrobe with someone else, meaning there are plenty of rails for both of you!
Various Storage Solutions
Rails and shelving aren’t the only ways to style your wardrobe. If you’d prefer to hang jeans and trousers instead of folding them, you can opt for a trouser rack to be installed. We also have accessory drawers that are sectioned out, so you can neatly store belts, socks, watches and more.
We hope we’ve given you some ideas to think about for your fitted wardrobe interior! If you have any queries or need more help, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Working from home isn’t exactly a new concept, there are some that have been doing this type of working style for many years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced working-from-home as a very new way of life for thousands of workers across the UK.
So, here’s the thing. You’ve been working from home for almost two years now. You might be working from your spare bedroom, on a second-hand desk or on a desk you scrambled to purchase from that big Swedish furniture store in March 2020, when you were told to stay home from work. Or, maybe you’ve got your own office space, but it’s lacking a certain flair?
We can help! We aren’t just fitted wardrobe connoisseurs, we can also create and build your dream office space to your design and specification. Do you need a big desk to fit two, even three monitors? Do you also want bookshelves and cabinets that seamlessly come together with your primary working space? We can do exactly that.
Whether you want an office wardrobe to quickly change into something formal for a video meeting, or if you want plenty of cabinet space for filing and storage, we can meet your needs and design your WFH space exactly as you imagine it. There aren’t many limits to what you can do, and even if your WFH space is small, we can still modify your vision to fit into the room you work in.
If this sounds like something for you, why not give us a call? We’ll take down the details of what your project is and the specifications you’d like before we invite you to our showroom for a brief tour, and to sit down with one of our designers to visualise your dream office space.
Call Made Bedrooms & Interiors on 01536 697996 or email us at info@madeinteriors.uk to find out more.
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