France's `grande bouffe'

The bishop of Dijon who burned an effigy of Father Christmas in front of his church in the 1950s to protest against the commercialisation of the holy holiday must be raging in his grave. Every year, the French embrace Christmas with increasing fervour - tarting up the streets of Paris with extravagant decorations, lavishing much of their "13th month" bonus on gifts and gorging on la grande bouffe de l'annee.

This year, for the first time, the Seine bridges will be decorated with Christmas lights. The rue Royale and the rue du Faubourg Saint Honore have been covered with canopies of millions of tiny fairy lights, while countless streets are festooned with traditional red and green garlands. A giant ferris wheel on the Place de la Concorde and an open-air ice-skating rink in front of the Hotel de Ville add to the festivities.

The big Paris department stores earn 20 per cent of their annual income in December, and their window displays are a magnet for children of all ages. This year, at Printemps in the boulevard Haussmann, a giant, animated teddy bear with a video camera mounted on his head films the children who watch him, and their image is projected on a screen. Another teddy bear travels inside a space ship, and the workshop of "Cyber Father Christmas" is installed inside a huge fluorescent bubble. Children are invited to send their Christmas lists via the Internet, on computers provided by the department store. Three afternoons a week in December, musicians and two metre-high toys parade down the boulevard.

It took Jean-Claude Dehix, France's most famous marionette artist, six months to prepare the Printemps windows, with the help of 40 technicians. Mr Dehix is a legend in French retailing - he has done the Christmas windows for the main French department stores for the past 25 years, after inheriting the job from his father, Jean. He has already trained his children Nathalie and Sylvain to take over when he retires.

A study by the statistical institute INSEE has concluded that the French give more Christmas gifts than any other Europeans, spending a total of £10.8 million - £264 each - on presents. The average French person gives eight gifts, compared to seven for the average Briton, and five for the average German. Clothes, perfume, cosmetics, jewellery, sports equipment and cash are the most popular presents, followed by games and toys. The French economy has recovered from its mid-1990s slump, but consumers still shun useless gadgets as presents. Christmas shoppers say they want gifts that are handmade, authentic, ethnic or hi-tech - from bees-wax candles to portable phones to electronic personal organisers. Among the affluent, theatre and concert tickets and air travel are also in fashion.

If you live in a Paris apartment, it is impossible to escape the Christmas tips known as etrennes. The refuse collectors are usually the first to come calling, although they have been legally banned from doing so since 1936.

The Paris town hall now sends around a yearly circular reminding residents that they should not give to the eboueurs, many of whom are impersonators. The postman is another Christmas visitor, and you are expected to give him £6 for his almanac. He is allowed to pocket the proceeds tax-free. The firemen - who also sell you a calendar for any amount you are willing to give them - contribute their takings to the firemen's welfare association.

The Paris concierge gets the biggest tip - £60 is standard. This is meant to thank him for the little favours he has done for you during the year. From my experience, it is more like a necessary bribe if you want to continue to receive your mail and have the staircase vacuumed.

The French eat Christmas dinner much like everyone else, except that - as with most things French - it is more luxurious and costly. Six thousand tonnes of foie gras are consumed in France every December - more than in the rest of the year combined - not to mention the 10,000 tonnes of smoked salmon downed over the holiday season. The French eat two-thirds of the 120 tonnes of caviare imported to Europe every year, along with a world record 150 million dozen oysters.

Aside from these delicacies, the French Christmas dinner consists of a turkey or chapon (a castrated rooster) with chestnut stuffing, a cheese course and the inevitable buche (log) - a boring chocolate cream cake that has been soaked in spirits.

In the old days, every family burned a large tree trunk in the fireplace on Christmas Eve. It was decorated with holly and ribbons in the forest, then dragged home to be lit by the youngest child of the family with the help of the eldest - after the father blessed it with oil. In 1879 a French pastry-maker commemorated the disappearing custom by inventing the log-shaped cake.