By Alexandra Hulit –

The View –   

From KFC and Yule Lads, and pickles to Kiviak, many wacky holiday traditions span the world.

According to Reader’s Digest, the Japanese eat Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas. It originated in 1974, when KFC created its Christmas Meal for visiting tourists. Now, the tradition has stuck and locals place orders up to two months in advance.

In Iceland, 13 magical dwarf-like creatures called Yule Lads make a special visit. Children put a shoe on their windowsill, and from Dec. 12 to Dec. 23, the Yule Lads put gifts in the shoes at night. Naughty children get a potato in their shoe.

According to Fox News, German families hide a pickle in the Christmas tree, and the first child to find it gets a small gift.

In Greenland, people feast on foods such as Mattak and Kiviak. Mattak is raw whale skin served with blubber and Kiviak is seal skin stuffed with up to 500 dead auk birds, left to ferment for about seven months.

Ukrainians decorate their trees with spiderwebs made of paper and plastic. The tradition originated from a Christmas tale about a family who was too poor to decorate its tree, but woke up on Christmas day to find that spiders had spun glistening webs on the branches. Nowadays, the spider webs mean good luck.