Canadian Birthday and Christmas Traditions
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Birthday
A Canadian birthday custom in the Atlantic provinces is for children to be chased down and cornered and their noses are greased with butter for good luck. It is believed that greasing the nose makes the child too slippery for bad luck to catch them.
A child's birthday cake will typically be a layer cake, within the layers a wrapped coin is hidden, and the child that finds the coin is the first to get a turn at all the party games.
Children attending a Canadian birthday party may receive as a favor birthday crackers. Birthday crackers are small cardboard tubes that are decorated with colored paper, and when the children open them they make a popping noise and they will find a hidden treasure inside, typically a small toy or candy.
Christmas
Christmas in Canada is celebrated in many of the same ways as the United States. A Canadian Christmas tradition is the "lighting of lights" that decorate public parks and buildings, they are traditionally lit for the holidays at the same moment at 6:55 on the first Thursday in December. The lighting of Christmas lights in unison began in 1986 and is a way to show unity during Canada's Christmas celebrations.