5 Christmas Folk Tales From Around The World
Christmas Day has a ton of special traditions which are truly unique in their own way. Keep reading to know more about such fun and exciting Christmas folk tales from across the world.
1) The Wooden Shoes of Little Wolff
This engaging Christmas Folk tale is from France. Little Wolff lives with his aunt but has a tragic and sad life. She is so stingy that all his clothes are old, food is scarce, and gifts are almost non-existent in his life. He walks around in the winter snow and heavy snowfall in stout wooden shoes.
During one special Christmas, the village boys leave the church and pass a child sleeping outside the church. All of them pass the boy, except Little Wolff, who takes pity and gives him one of his wooden shoes.
His aunt is enraged at him and puts his other wooden shoe next to the chimney. The following day the whole room is filled with all kinds of luxurious and wonderful gifts. A little bit later, the priest arrives and proclaims that it must have been Christ's child. This story teaches us to be kind and help the poor too!
2) The Little Girl and the Winter Whirlwinds
This lovely folk tale originated in Bulgaria. One such year, the wicked Winter Witch decided to stop Spring from coming on time and make Winter remain the only season on Earth. She hid the Sun behind dark clouds and encircled the Earth with heavy snow. So one morning the people from a small mountain village woke up and found their houses suppressed under the snow up to the roofs. They started digging tunnels from their own house to the neighbouring houses and gathered in diminutive groups to decide what they could do.
As snow and darkness filled the earth, the people planned to send a messenger to Father Frost. But who would go through the icy cold?
A girl volunteers and she says: “my warm little heart, full of love, will keep the cold and winter away from me.”
She overcomes numerous obstacles but is finally put to sleep by a disguised Winter Witch. Luckily, all the fluffy animals of the forest come to her rescue, and she reaches Father Frost, who moves to put things right again.
3) Babushka
This is an exciting story from Russia. If you were a Russian child, you wouldn't wait to watch Santa come down the Chimney with his presents, but you would certainly stand by the windows to catch a glimpse of Babushka as she rushes by. So who is she?
She is only a poor little crooked wrinkled old woman who comes into everybody’s house at Christmas time, peeps into every cradle, drops a tear on the baby’s white pillow, and treads away. She is known to love little babies and when the tired mothers sleep, she bends over their cradles, puts her brown, wrinkled face close down to the pillow, and looks very sharply.
Through the cold winter of Christmas, the Russian children hear the rustling steps of Babushka running along the crowded streets and the quiet country fields. Babushka is known to be a gift-giver.
4) The Fir Tree
The lovely story of the Fir Tree originates from Denmark. A little fir tree in the forest is anxiously waiting to become more prominent in size.
One day unfortunately he is cut down for Christmas. He is then sold, taken to a house, and decorated. He shines and sparkles during the whole day of Christmas Eve. He even listens to a man tell a story about his life.
Nonetheless, he is taken down the next day and stored in the attic. He is sad and disappointed, the only fact being that he can tell the story he heard to a group of mice. Then during spring, he is carried into the yard and burned.
5) The Christmas Fairy of Strasburg
This popular folk tale is from Germany. One day Count Otto, while hunting in the forest, came upon the Fairy Well. As he washed his hands in the cold water, it felt like a hand touched his, and his ring was softly taken from his finger. Delighted, he returned home.
As he was sitting in his castle, suddenly many beautifully dressed fairy beings arrived, who started dancing around a beautiful tree they set up in the middle of the main hall. The whole tree sparkled and shined.
Ernestine, who is the Queen of the Fairies, greets him and gives him his ring back. He asks her to marry him, and she agrees under the condition that he will never say the word ‘death’ in her presence.
They live happily together until one day, the Count uses the word death, and she vanishes. Since then, the Count sets up a lighted tree every Christmas Eve, waiting for his beloved. And that’s the origin of the Christmas Tree during each Christmas!
Written by Sara Ayoob
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