Just a few days from Christmas! I am looking forward to celebrating the holidays here in France. There are a lot of activities and customs that are the same in the two countries, but there are also a number of differences. I’ll highlight some of the differences that I have observed just in this region of France
Both cultures have the standard Christmas chorales, gift share, and family gatherings. Here in France, I noticed that they put up a lot less Christmas lights on the exterior of people’s homes. The French do put up lights in most of the historic downtowns and I’ve seen some in the windows of a few homes. I think part of the reason is that electricity prices are so high here that it discourages putting up a pile of lights outside, manger scenes, etc. In the U.S. we like the outward displays of extravagance; some towns (for example McAdenville, NC) have turned themselves into holiday tourist attractions putting up hundreds-of-thousands of lights.
The show in the U.S. might be the lights and decorations, but here in France, it is the food. No surprise there. This was even more evident to me after counting how many mail advertisements we received for specialty food and grocery stores. Over the last two weeks, more than half of the 40 catalogs and fliers were for Christmas food items. In the U.S., I would have received three or four times as many advertisements for consumer merchandise as opposed to food items. When I walk by even the small town bakeries and butcheries, I understand why. Some much food to sample and not enough meals in the day to do it! 
Speaking of food, the Christmas foods are one of the holiday highlights here in France. Pain surprise, or 'surprise bread' in English, is one of the delightful French Christmas eats. The name doesn’t give a hint of what it is. The version that I ate was is a large baguette that has been cut into sandwich thick slices across its width and filled with smoked salmon, different pâtés, and herb seasoned cream based spreads. It is usually served as a lighter course after eating the main meal. Another typical French Christmas treat is Bûche de Noël, a super sweet Christmas cake that is formed and decorated to resemble a log. It is made from a thin cake that is covered with a buttery sweet icing, rolled, covered with chocolate icing, and decorated with a few crunchy, green sugar leaves. Very sweet.
The French even found a way to integrate food into their Christmas count-down calendars. One of my wife’s delights is the Christmas Calendars that her parents give to her each year since she was a kid. Like clockwork, her parents gave us one at the beginning of December. Each day we get to eat the chocolate surprise hidden behind the corresponding day. I am a big fan of the calendar although my wife likes to eat the chocolate first thing in the morning. 
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