Picture from “Hearth & Homes” Creative Publishing International 2001

Canada and the United States - According to the University of Illinois' web site German settlers migrated from the United States to Canada in the 1700's. One of the many cherished Christmas traditions they took with them was the Christmas tree.

Britain - Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband, put up a Christmas tree in the Windsor Castle in 1848 and soon the tradition there became widespread.

Greenland - The tree does not grow in Greenland so is imported and then decorated with candles and bright ornaments.

Guatemala - Because of the large German population residing in Guatemala the Christmas tree has become tradition here along with the “Nacimiento” or Nativity Scene. Although gifts are placed under the tree on Christmas Eve for the children, parents and adults do not exchange theirs until New Year's Day.

Finland - From early accounts we can establish that in 1829 Helsinki nobleman; Baron Klinkowstrom had eight Christmas trees decorated in his home. The first recorded Finnish decorated outdoor Christmas tree stood in the Pietarsaari in 1905. In 1954 Helsinki donated a Christmas tree to the Belgian city of Brussels.

Brazil - In Brazil citizens are creative enough to take tiny pieces of snow and place them on a pine tree to represent falling snow.

Ireland - Throughout December trees are purchased and decorated with brightly colored lights, tinsel and baubles. The top is usually reserved for either a star or an angel.

Sweden - Although the trees are purchased well before Christmas they are generally not taken inside until just days prior to Christmas and then the Evergreen tree is decorated with stars, sunbursts and snowflakes made from straw. The straw is thought to bring luck for good crops, and there is one other difference with the Christmas tree celebration in Sweden, according to http://www.pickyourownchristmastree.org/global.php the tree must stay up until precisely 12 days after Christmas. At this site there is a wealth of information regarding choosing and caring for your Christmas tree. This site also offers a variety of Christmas tree farms, hayrides, sleigh rides, holiday recipes, and various other winter fun.

By Roger Lynn on Flickr

Norway - The tree was not introduced into Norway until the last half of the nineteenth century and a beautiful ritual surrounds the tree. On Christmas Eve the children are left outside the living room while the parents decorate the tree. Once the tree is decorated they join the family in “circling the Christmas tree”. They all join hands circling the tree and sing carols and they walk around. Afterwards the gifts are distributed.

Ukraine - Fir trees are decorated and parties enjoyed, with Christmas being a very popular time of the year. According to the book According to the book “A Christmas Treasury”2000, “every Christmas tree has a spider and a web for good luck.” The story is that long ago a poor woman had nothing to put on the tree for children. When they awoke on Christmas morning the tree glistened with spider's webs that had turned silver in the rising sun.

By Nikolay.Zavad on Flickr

Czechoslovakia - Trees are decorated with intricately carved designs on egg shells.

By bcompetent on Flickr

Italy - Miniature carvings of the Holy family are placed in a wooden triangle. This is beautifully decorated with colored paper, gilt pine cones, candles, and miniature colored flags or pennants. Small gifts are placed on the shelves above the manger, and a star or miniature doll may be found at the peek. This wooden pyramid may be several feet high and is built in the tradition of the Christmas tree. It is called a ceppo, and in some homes

each child has their own.

www.italiansrus.com

Germany - It is believed that long ago Martin Luther brought a fir tree into his home to celebrate Christmas when he was inspired by watching the star light shining through a fir tree. Because he found the beauty so remarkable, he cut the tree down and took it home to share with his wife. He then decorated the tree to resemble the beautiful sight he had seen in the Christmas sky.

There is another legend regarding the origination of the Christmas tree. This legend believes the Germans combined two customs which were practiced in different areas of the world. One referred to the “Paradise tree” which was decorated to resemble the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. This was a fir tree decorated with apples. The second tradition was a decorated triangular shaped frame. It was decorated with glass balls, tinsel and candle topped it.

The Tannenbaum (Christmas tree) is laden down with Christmas delights such as cookies, nuts and various gifts, along with ornaments, lights and tinsel, and generally secretly decorated by the mother.

By Markus Moning on Flickr

Saudi Arabia - According to the information obtained here, Christmas trees are generally hid and Christmas, if celebrated, is celebrated in private.

Philippines - The cost of pine trees here is somewhat cost prohibitive, but handmade trees in a large array of sizes and colors are used for celebrating Christmas. Tassels are placed on the points of the tree to represent the Star of the Bethlehem.

Trees are also decorated with rice paper or cellophane.

China - the Christmas tree is referred to as a “tree of light” and decorated with spangles, paper chains, flowers, and lanterns.

Japan - Here Christmas trees are highly decorated with small toys, dolls, paper ornaments, lanterns, gold paper fans, miniature candles, origami swans (or a folded “bird of peace”), and wind chimes. The origami swan is exchanged as a pledge that war must never happen again.

By Himanshu (Mum…on Flickr

By Dayana Souza on Flickr

While there are many documented traditions involving Christmas trees and the celebration of Christmas around the world it is almost certain that there are just as many undocumented traditions. Whether your family makes a trip to a Christmas tree farm and carefully selects one and brings it home to decorate or chooses to decorate an artificial one which you have carefully stored from the previous year is not as important as what is on your hearts and minds as you celebrate the birth of the Christ child this year.

Making and taking the time to decorate the tree as a family creates special family memories and traditions that can be shared with your family for years to come. If you ask each family member this year to share cherished thoughts of years gone by, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that it is not the expensive gifts but the times shared. This time of year can bring families closer together, if we do not let the commercial side of it become overwhelming.

Christmas Newsletter

How about sending out newsletters this year in place of the traditional cards? This gives you time to reflect on the last year and the growth of your family. For tips on how to make your own family newsletter to share with friends and family this season read: http://www.ehow.com/how_4575235_capture-family-memories-share-them.html.

There are free templates to help you get your own newsletter set up, and think how nice it will be years from now to look back at yours.

Merry Christmas and God bless.

None of this seemed otherwordly yet. Only frightening. I went through alternative scenarios in my mind. A war had broken out. This was a stealthy enemy attack with a superior technique that had totally fooled the Swedish military. Perhaps I was the only witness of it. Not many people would be awake at this hour, Sunday night, turning into Monday (mind you, this was before the internet). I quickly closed the small ventilation window to stop any radiation that had possibly already advanced through the air. But then I couldn't get my eyes off those rays, those beams of light.

They were light yellow, as said, and there were hundreds of them. It seems like they were being shot from above, from whatever was making that whirling sound, and they were travelling through the air with an incredible speed that made me think about Star Wars. I rubbed my eyes and kept telling myself that I am seeing what I am seeing and don´t you or anyone come tell me later that I didn´t see this. The rubbing didn´t change my vision, the yellow beams were there, the sound was there, and I knew for sure that I was witnessing something extraordinary.

Suddenly the beams stopped, and the soft whirling sound became more distant. And then, in just a few seconds, it was quiet. It happened so suddenly, the end of it, that it left a weird feeling as if nothing whatsoever had happened. But something had happened.

Years later, through a series of discussions and events, I came to one particular conclusion. The rays perhaps had indeed been a superior technique, but not man-made. An extraterrestrial power had the means to retrieve data from letters and documents in the post terminal. The rays had actually been electrical waves of an advanced information technology emitted by the craft that hovered above the 9-storey house. Had I had the nerve and the time to go out and check that for myself, I am sure I would have seen one of those space crafts that so many people have reported seeing.

Years back, sitting at my desk in Switzerland, I received letters intended for the sister-company in Swaziland at least once a week, and every second one for Sweden. And to be fair, this problem is not Anglo-Saxon only, the French get into the same muddle just as easily. Time for some pictures to jog the mind, don't you think?

Image source

The Swazi individual living in the Kingdom of Swaziland, a country encircled by South Africa and with a bit of border to Mozambique, tends to be slightly darker of skin than Swedes or Swiss. The national language is Bantu.

Image source

The Kingdom of Sweden is a Nordic country and forms part of the European Union. The language spoken is Swedish. Sweden has direct access to the Baltic Sea.

Image source

Switzerland is in Central Europe and not part of the European Union. It has no access to the sea as is therefore the first landlocked country ever to win the Americas Cup. The national languages are German, French, Italian, and Romanic, whereby German is not spoken in Switzerland, only written, as the spoken language is Allemannic. Switzerland is best known for its chocolate, cheese, and watches.

Do you think this helps you a little bit to get the countries sorted?

1. Canada has less a banking system, which is not as much a risk taker as its American counterpart. This maybe due to our history of not being as much a gambler as our cousin is in remaining in perpetrating open ended conflicts and allowing the housing market to go wildly in debt.
2. Canada has other banking rules, which make it less vulnerable than those risk takers. We invest but the rules required by lenders is much more stringent, I understand.
3. Canada has fewer bank branches, which can be affected by the current drop in lending rates. This means fewer banks will lose less money on account of the faulty borrowing that has been going on.
4. Interest rates in Canada are likely to remain low compared to American counterparts but mortgage rates are expected to increase. Lower interest rates will invite more people to borrow and will stimulate the economy (as long as those people are solvent).
5. Canada is on the top of the list of the most stable banks. Sweden is second. Both these countries enjoy a relatively high standard of living and attract a good deal of foreign investment even during difficult times.
6. People have lost billions south of the border. Thankfully the amount of money lost through the Canadian system has been much smaller.
7. Our jobless rate is less than half of what it was in the early eighties when the recession was the worst since the WWII
8. There will be cuts in the demand for our commodities but those will be less in proportion than those felt by our American friends
9. Economic growth is predicted to be smaller but not negative as can be other harder hit countries
10. Banks will continue to cut interest rates to help vitalize economic growth through this economic slump

Once emplaced, it was almost impossible to shift these behemoths even if the battle drifted out of range. Torstensson placed his highly mobile 3-pounders in batteries in front of his infantry. These true field pieces were served by crews of two men, and could be swung around or moved with speed and ease by a pair of horses. Gustavus had also integrated gunners into his army: he did not depend on civilian specialists for hire as did the Catholic army. Highly trained, the Swedish gunners supported equally well-drilled musketeers and achieved a rate of fire that may have exceeded that of their enemies by three-to-one. Gustavus also set blocks of infantry between his cavalry, so that each arm supported and steadied the other two. Tilly positioned his army in standard formation: solid blocks of infantry at the center, with two cavalry wings. His artillery was at his center-right in front of his infantry.

Torstensson opened the fight, peppering the Imperial cavalry with accurate fire from his forward field guns. This seems to have provoked Graf zu Pappenheim to charge with one wing of Imperial cavalry, but Swedish musketeers cut down the Imperial horse. Swedish light cavalry counterattacked and drove Pappenheim's cuirassiers from the field. On Gustavus' left Imperial cavalry under Count Fu¨rstenberg had attacked upon seeing Pappenheim move.

Unlike the Swedes on the right, after just a few salvoes the Saxons wavered, then ran, leaving their artillery to be overrun. Johann Georg also galloped off in fright, tending to neither the exposed flank of his ally nor to his own men. The suddenly exposed Swedes held fast, articulating their flexible infantry line to meet the onrushing Imperial horse, and blasted away at the surprised cavalrymen-who had expected to roll up an exposed flank-with heavy musket fire supported by their light field cannon, which had also repositioned and now blasted away with grapeshot at intimate ranges. The Imperials fell back under withering fire while taking heavy casualties. The Swedes rushed forward and recovered the Saxon cannon which Fu¨rstenberg's cavalry had overrun but was forced to leave behind. As the Imperials also neglected to spike the guns, the Swedes turned them around and fired into what was now the enemy's exposed flank. Then the Swedes again articulated their line, moving with a tactical speed the clumsy tercios simply could not match. Thus, they enfiladed the Spaniards (and Walloons and Croats) and poured musket fire into exposed ranks and files from both front and side. Meanwhile, some Swedish cavalry maneuvered to the rear of the tercios, cutting at their back ranks with sabers or stabbing with lances.

The fighting went on for seven hours, with the Swedes tearing up the Imperial tercios with musket and artillery fire. Gustavus personally led his Finnish cavalry reserve (about 1,000 horse) in a fierce charge against the Spanish, already bled white by his artillery and badly exposed by the earlier flight of their cavalry. Many were crushed or trampled to death by comrades as panic set in and the tercio ranks finally broke. Tilly was wounded thrice, in the neck, chest, and arm, and taken by his bodyguards from the field.

Casualty estimates vary, but as many as 12,000 Habsburg-Catholic League troops were left dead or dying on the field, to just 2,000 lost by Gustavus (and two-thirds of those were allied troops, not Swedish). Another 6,000 Imperials were taken prisoner, along with all the heavy Imperial artillery and 120 regimental and company standards. That represented two-thirds losses for an Imperial Army previously undefeated in battle with Protestant forces. The victory, the first major success by the Protestant side in 12 years of fighting, opened the way for Gustavus to move west or south. This was critical, as he had eaten out his original base and resupply areas in Pomerania and Brandenburg. First Breitenfeld scattered the surviving Habsburg and Catholic troops. Gustavus failed to pursue them, but that was largely due to the more pressing need he had of bringing his own army into fat new lands from which it could feed. After the battle, the Catholic position in north Germany, the Rhineland, and parts of southern Germany, utterly collapsed. The next year, Gustavus invaded Bavaria, occupied Munich, and threatened Vienna. The more general consequence of Breitenfeld was discrediting of the old tactics of ''push of pike'' by infantry squares in favor of more mobility and greater firepower, a lesson read and applied all over Europe.

Bernadotte ended up disbanding from France and joined the coalition fighting against the French and Napoleon during the years of 1813 and 1814. In 1814, Norway was given to Sweden by Denmark with Denmark receiving the possessions in Pomerania from Sweden.

At the closing of the Napoleon war years, Sweden no longer held any territory in Germany.

In the year 1815, Vienna recognized the union of Norway and Sweden.

In 1818, Bernadotte succeeded (to the throne) as Charles XIV John. Bernadotte was continually involved in a power-struggle with the Riksdag. He reigned over Sweden from 1818 to 1844 (some twenty-six years.) Nevertheless, historically he was considered a good administrator of government. It is thought by some, because of his foreign status, he was not able to gain a tremendous amount of popularity with the (Swedish) people.

During his reign Bernadotte was able to affect a great deal of positive change: Both Norway and Sweden made enormous progress in a political, economic and cultural sense. Bernadotte's successors, including: Oscar I, Charles XV, and Oscar II were accepted by the people as Swedes.

The constitution was revised somewhat between 1864 and 1866; however, the new one was close in similarity to the one currently in force.

During the latter portion of the 1800s, the union with Norway began to come apart and in 1905, the Norwegian legislature initiated and declared its independence. The Swedes ratified the dissolution without much resistance.

Social legislation progressed during the leadership (and reign) of Oscar II. Examples included laws involving factories; accident compensation for laborers; and shorter hours of work for females and children.

Charles XII took the throne at the very youthful age of fifteen at which time he initiated and formed a coalition comprised of the countries of Denmark and Russia. This even occurred at the onset of what was known as the Great Northern War. The war took place between the dates of 1700 and 1721.

Charles XII was considered, by many, as a sheer genius in the art of war and military strategy. It was during the early years of the war, Sweden was able to invade the northwestern portion of Russia. Additionally, the Swedes also defeated the Polish people(s).

Peter the Great of Russia, during this timeframe was busy establishing himself in the Baltic coast.

The Battle of Poltava, fought in 1709 took the Swedes out of the picture as the dominant power as Russia took their place in the Baltic region.

Further, Sweden lost a good deal of its German holdings by way of the treaties of Stockholm and Nystad in the year 1721. Livonia, Ingria, Estonia; part of Karelia and several Baltic islands were given to the Russians.

By 1718, Charles the XII had died and with his death ended the male lineage connected with the house of Vasa.

Charles's sister: Ulrika Eleanora succeeded him to the throne. (She was born 1688 and died in 1741.) Her succession was conditional and involved that she must accept a new constitution wherein the absolute monarch was destroyed; and the legislative power was vested in four areas: the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants. The executive power came in the way of a secret committee comprised of the first three groups. This meant that the aristocracy, once again, had governmental control which it held onto for the next fifty years.

Then in 1771, Gustav III became king. Gustav noted the general dissatisfaction of the peoples regarding the strict policy-making of the aristocracy at the time. Gustav was therefore successful in taking control of the Swedish government.

He was able to create a new constitution and (once more) restored the government to an absolute monarchy.

Initially, Gustav's policies appeared very liberal (probably because of the “stuffy” policy-making of the former government.) After 1789, though, with the beginning of the French Revolution, Gustav became a despot and in the year 1792 was assassinated.

Thus, the portion of Swedish history beginning with The Great Northern War years had ended.

China

Brazil

Malaysia

Argentina

Bulgaria

North Korea

Germany

Russia

Ecuador

France

Philippines

Cambodia

Czech Republic

United States

Mongolia

Bangladesh

Sweden

Thailand

Singapore

Iraq

Israel

Japan's SDF

United Kingdom

Vietnam

India

Denmark’s colors contain red and white, and is known to be the oldest continually used national flag. According to legend, it is believed that on June 15, 1219 that the flag fell from the sky on the same day of the defeat of a battle against the Estonians.

The blue and white Finnish flag dates back to 1918. It has a blue cross with a coat of arms in the middle of the cross. The two colors were named because of water and snow.

The Icelandic flag has been official since 1915, and was approved by the king in 1919. The flag’s colors were originally blue and white, but red was later added to show its connections to Norway.

Norway made a red flag with a white cross, which resemble Denmark’s flag during their unification in the fourteenth century. In 1814, Norway ceded with Sweden. Then a few years before Norway’s independence, the color blue was added to the flag.

The exact age of Sweden’s flag is not known, but it is believed to date back to the sixteenth century, but it wasn’t until 1960 that there was evidence that the flag belonged to Sweden. The Swedish flag is blue with a gold cross.