When many non-Christians of a certain age around the world hear some Christmassy terms being used, they either think that they are icky or that they have a certain meaning because of the descriptiveness of the term itself. But often they don’t have that meaning. And sometimes they hear words that make no sense at all. In their defence, they may not be familiar with the Christmas tradition.

The other day I mentioned the word Santa’s Grotto to an elderly friend who wasn’t brought up around Christmas terminology. In her defence, the word grotto sounds like it’s an offshoot of the term grotty which means unpleasant or of very bad quality. In fact, the word grotty is often used as slang when you’re feeling unwell. But the word is, in fact, an olde word used to refer to a manmade cave. Apparently this is where Santa’s workshop and his elves are working away at making and wrapping gifts for good children. So, grotty ¬ bad, grotto — good.

Now speaking of bad children, as opposed to good, another myth is that of a creature called Krampus which is meant to be half demon and half goat. His role is to punish bad children and people who’ve been horrible throughout the year. But people probably won’t understand why he’s half goat since a goat is a harmless animal!

Now where do you think Santa’s Grotto is located? Well, we’ve all heard of Lapland which is a place in Finland. But people assume that’s where Santa lives with his elves and presumably where his grotto is.

In certain countries, mostly British territories, like the UK, Canada and Australia, the day after Christmas Day is called Boxing Day. When I was very small growing up in England, I often thought that on that day, the public would have to spend the whole day enduring boxing matches on TV. I thought there must be some Christmas tradition around boxing that is special on 26th December.
But I later found out that it was a term that originated from ‘the days of yore’ when the masters of the house would take boxes, fill them with goods and give them as gifts to their servants. Everything was boxed, hence the term Boxing Day. Of course no one does that anymore because there are no servants. But it’s a term that is closely connected with massive sales in shops which are now referred to as Boxing Day Sales.

Now here are some foods that throw those non-versed in the Christmas tradition.

The obvious one is mince pies. If you are vegetarian or just choose not to eat more meat after a heavy turkey meal, then you might wave away the platter. But you’d be wrong. In fact, the mince pie doesn’t contain meat. It contains fruit, usually, raisins, cranberries and other dried fruit that has been turned into a compote and baked inside a pastry casing.

And gingerbread isn’t even bread. It’s actually a type of biscuit, or cookie to our American friends. It’s made from molasses and ginger and is brittle in texture. And because of that brittle stiff texture, many people are able to make gingerbread house models as decorations for Christmas.

Now sugarplums might make you think of plums that have been candied and then covered in sugar. But sugar plums don’t always contain plums but can be made from prunes, figs and even dates.
Now to me eggnog sounds disgusting when you think about what goes into it. I mean it has either milk or cream, some sugar and a raw egg and that’s for the children. But for the adults, it may also contain some spirits. It sounds disgusting to me.

So there you have it. Some common Christmas tradition terms whose meaning can either evoke icky thoughts (eggnog and Santa’s grotto are case in point) or consternation and confusion.

And here’s another piece of snippet I discovered. Did you know that, until 1907, in Oklahoma it was illegal to celebrate Christmas? Now, that, I didn’t know. But with all its weird and wonderful traditions, even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you can’t but help enjoy the fun of the festive season.