National Gardens
Earth's Christmas Forest
December 18, 2009 - January 6, 2010, 10:00 - 17:00
The National Gardens, a highly-favoured Christmas location, once again opens its embrace and welcomes Athens' young citizens and takes them on a Christmas discovery tour. Cheeky hobgoblins guide the children to the little houses in Earth's Christmas Forest to show them how the holidays are celebrated throughout the world. In a uniquely-illuminated Garden, the children take a tour of knowledge and entertainment, decorate the trees with ornaments they create, send their wishes throughout the world, learn about the environment and enjoy performances, fairytales and Santa Claus' stories!
From the main gates, the Garden's young visitors will receive a map-passport from the hobgoblins and the other elves, who invite them to discover the Garden's secrets. The map lists the activities of the "Forest of Fairytales".
The hobgoblins inform the children that they must visit all of the spots on the map. For each activity the children participate in, they will receive a small seal from the Garden's fairytale characters.
At the end of their tour around the Garden and after collecting all of the seals, the children will receive the grand seal of the Storyteller. The map with the seals is a certificate of participation and will serve as a memento of the City of Athens' Christmas events.
The Garden will offer a fairytale setting of small wooden houses and special installations in which children activity groups will greet and invite kids to join the activities of each house.
Launch: Friday, December 18, at 10:30
"Forest of Hope" theatre performance programme
Daily:
- 10.30-11.00
- 11.30-12.00
- 12.30-13.00
- 13.30-14.00
- 14.30-15.00
- 15.30-16.00 .
- 16.30-17.00
Earth's hobgoblins
The Earth's hobgoblins reside in a house in the Christmas Forest.
The hobgoblins invite young visitors to enter the house and transform into little hobgoblins.
Teachers and animators will paint on children's faces with special colours.
The children can make hobgoblin ears with special installations and transform themselves into little hobgoblins.
Christmas time
Children will be invited to a house to learn the time in major cities around the world.
Christmas decorations and clocks on the walls of the house will show the time while children will be able to draw their own Christmas clock.
Christmas Sounds
The House of Christmas Sounds hosts traditional musical instruments and Christmas melodies from around the world.
The carols and generally all Christmas songs will accompany the children during these pleasant days and pass on cheerful messages to them.
The elf and his assistant will explain to the children the origin and use of each musical instrument.
Children can play the melodies game and create beautiful musical instruments with papercutting tools.
Earth's wishes
Young visitors are invited to a specially designed area to write their Christmas wish for the Earth and what they wish for the world on coloured slips of paper.
Afterwards they can decorate the trees that are placed around the area with their wishes.
All wishes will be collected to create a scrapbook that will be auctioned by the City of Athens for charity.
Earth's house
Earth's house aims to teach children on ecology issues through fun activities.
With the use of environmentally friendly materials and "trash" children will learn to use materials that until now they considered useless.
The children are taught about recycling.
Santa's house
Christmas is not the same without Santa Claus!
Santa Claus is waiting for the children in his house to tell them about his adventurous trips across Earth.
He will tell the children about the Christmas and New Year customs and traditions of other countries.
At the same time, the children can be photographed with Santa.
The programme will be enriched with information provided by embassies that participate in the Christmas events.
England:
The house is decorated with red poinsettia plants and "mistletoe" and stockings filled with gifts are hung over the fireplace.
A traditional festive day-out in England is a stage performance called Christmas pantomime.
The English Christmas table includes roast turkey, tarts with raisins and sugar and fruit pudding.
France:
All houses include a decorated manger and red poinsettia plants.
According to tradition, the French make a log-shaped cake called the "Buche de Nol".
Germany:
A Christmas market is organized and stalls are set up filled with sweets, ornaments and hot red wine with spices.
Adventskalender: Christmas calendar. This is a calendar with 24 little numbered "doors" for each of the 24 days to Christmas. Every day one tiny door is opened and a surprise is found such as tiny toys or sweets.
The traditional German Christmas table includes roast goose with red cabbage and potato dumplings. The Germans also make a variety of cakes and biscuits in the shape of Christmas ornaments.
Ethiopia:
Ethiopia still retains the Julian calendar and a spring New Year (Enkutatash - "gift of jewels") is celebrated. Ethiopians exchange bouquets of Meskel Flowers as gifts.
India:
Diwali is the Hindu festival of light and is symbolized with lighting up homes with lamps and candles. Hindus will also travel miles and miles to have their sins washed away in the holy Ganges river.
Sweden:
In Sweden, the festive season begins on December 13. By tradition, on the morning of the 13th, the eldest daughter in the household, dressed in a white gown with a crown of lighted candles on her head, serves her parents breakfast in bed. This is the feast of St. Lucia, the bearer of light, which marks the beginning of the Christmas period.
On Christmas Eve, Swedish families gather around the table for the Christmas tradition called "doppa i grytan" (dip in the pot) and dip rye bread in meat-enriched broth.
Austria:
By tradition, Austrian homes are decorated with wreaths woven from evergreen twigs and decorated with ribbons and candles.
This is a musical period for the country as the famous Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night was first sung in Austria on Christmas Eve in 1818.
Also, according to tradition, children dress up as the Three Wise Men and sing carols.
These traditions will constitute the atmosphere of an Austrian home, for example: Adventskalender - a Christmas calendar with expressions of how we can all become better people.
Earth's centre
The Earth's centre is the stage that will host theatrical performances and puppet shows.
The programme will be enriched by musical groups from embassies participating in events.
During performance intermissions a teacher will read stories from around the world to young visitors.
Recommended Shows
These are rotating half hour shows with a 30 minute intermission between each of them. This is a theatrical event of ecological content with the performance of two actors and the participation of children from the audience. The event includes magic tricks, pantomime and puppet theatre performances.
"Forest of Hope" theatre performance programme
Daily:
- 10.30-11.00
- 11.30-12.00
- 12.30-13.00
- 13.30-14.00
- 14.30-15.00
- 15.30-16.00
- 16.30-17.00
Come to Earth's journey
Young visitors are invited to take part in Earth's journey through special installations. These installations are Christmas balls and children can be photographed inside them.
Christmas stories
In an open but roofed area a schoolteacher tells children their favourite Christmas stories.
14/12/09
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