Well about christmas, I remember there's an all around christmas church in Amsterdam - where they celebrate christmas every day (at least there was one when I visited), and for the 'american' way - Halloween is an old Celtic tradition - the day of all saints (tomorrow) was a christian holyday set up on this day in order for people to forget about the old celtic tradition of Samhain (just like they chose Christmas and Easter as celebration calebrated at the times of other pagan days). So it's not americanised - it's returning to pre-christian tradition, but people are confusing thing (especially if they can party and act crazy, they won't care what the tradition say).
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