Traditions From Homelands Mark American Christmas for Immigrants

A service at The Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church in Bay Ridge Brooklyn. Orthodox Christmas is on Jan. 7, 2014. (Adam Phillips/VOA)

Choir Director Zlata Mishima, a recent Russian immigrant, holds the costumes for the Snow Queen portion of the Christmas Pageant. (Adam Phillips/VOA)

For Rebecca Adjei Ofori at the Ghana United Methodist Church in the Bronx, Christmas is a time for thanksgiving, extended family, peacemaking, and delicious traditional foods. (Adam Phillips/VOA)

Handmade flowers (purple for women, white for men) are a symbol of beauty and blessing at the Ghana United Methodist Church. (Adam Phillips/VOA)

Twelve year old Rhiannon Larsen played the Saint in this year’s Sanka Lucia procession, a mainstay of Brooklyn’s Scandinavian-American community. (Adam Phillips/VOA)

Two little girls from Brooklyn, New York, dressed in traditional Norwegian clothes. (Adam Phillips/VOA)