Top Ten Holiday Delicacies from Around the World

Ever wonder how people in other countries celebrate winter festivities, and what they eat? These international holiday delicacies show us a little bit about how others celebrate winter and religious festivals at the close of the year. Journey around the world and get a taste of ten traditional holiday foods unique and special to distinct countries.

Sorrel Recipe from Vegetarian Times

Jamaica – Sorrel

Sorrel is a traditional Christmas drink made from dried parts of the sorrel (a meadow plant), cinnamon, cloves, sugar, orange peel and rum, served over ice. The warm tropical weather of Jamaica means iced drinks are in order for the holidays, and incorporating native plants creates a recipe unique to the island.

Chili – Cola de Mono – Chilean Eggnog
This Chilean eggnog is a part of both Christmas and New Year’s Eve traditions. Usually homemade, the recipe varies but popular ingredients include milk, sugar, alcohol, coffee, cloves and vanilla beans.

United Kingdom - Christmas Pudding

United Kingdom map from mapsales.com

A traditional treat in England, Christmas Puddings are made from many dried fruits, spices, alcohol and held together by egg. The high content of alcohol allows the pudding to be aged for a month or even a year without spoiling, enhancing the flavor.

Greece – Loukoumades – Donuts

Loukoumades are pastries made of fried dough, soaked in sugary syrup or honey, and then covered with cinnamon and sometimes powered sugar. These pastries are often made as treats for Hanukkah in the Jewish tradition.

Mince Pies recipe from FoodHub

New Zealand – Christmas Mince Pies

Historically, ground beef with dried fruit and alcohol were baked into pie dough, though today mincemeat pies are usually made without meat at all. Strongly associated with Christmas, the three spices traditionally used in mince pies –cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon- are said to represent the three gifts given to the Christ child by the Magi.

Korea – Duk Gook – Rice Cake Soup

Korean Duk Gook, a soup filled with Korean rice cakes is eaten on the Winter Solstice or New Year’s Day. It is considered good luck to eat as many rice balls from the soup as years you have lived.

South Africa – Malvapoeding – Marshmallow Pudding

South Africa map from mapsales.com

Malvapoding, or marshmallow pudding, is smothered in a heavy cream and sugar-filled sauce, creating a spongy texture similar to marshmallows. The name ‘Malva’ came from Malvacea wine that Dutch colonists used to serve with the pudding in the 17^th century.

Medianyky recipe at The Ryersonian

Ukraine – Medianyky – Honey Cookies

These honey cookies look like lace and are cut into stars, crescents or circles. A popular tradition is to hang them on low branches of the Christmas tree for children to eat.

Hungary, Germany, Austria – krambambuli - Spicy Punch

This spicy punch is made with chamomile flowers, chopped fruit, candied orange peel, walnuts, sugar, rum, brandy and more. The specific recipe varies from family to family and country to country, but always a popular warm choice for wintertime festivities.

Philippines – Tsokolate – Hot Chocolate

Phillipines Map from mapsales.com

On Christmas day, families in the Philippines gather and drink tsokolate, a native chocolate drink made with egg yolks, milk and chocolate. Traditionally a batirol, a whisk with a spiky head, is used to make the hot chocolate.

Interested in Exploring the World on Wall Maps of your favorite countries and locations? Wall Maps make great gifts; use coupon code GIFT5642 at checkout to receive 15% off your order! Offer ends Tuesday, December 17th. 

Fun and Educational Wall Maps: Gifts for Kids

Looking for the perfect gift that is both fun as well as educational? We've picked out the top educational wall maps as perfect gifts for kids this holiday season! Give the gift that looks awesome on their bedroom wall and is a useful tool for homework reference and exploring the world! Educational wall maps are available for every grade level and age.

Cindy is halfway through first grade. We’re choosing a colorful World Deluxe Political Wall Map with protective lamination. We used poster putty to adhere the laminated wall map close to the ground, next to her coloring table. She has special dry erase markers she can use to decorate the world wall map.

Jennifer is in the fifth grade. She has a big test at the end of the year in which she has to write down every state and its capital by memory. The US Flags Wall Map has more than enough information to help her study! We recommend the US Wall Map with wooden rails so the map can be pulled down and revealed for study time.

Abraham is entering high school next year. He’s already into WWII weapons and machinery, so the World War II Europe Wall Map is the perfect choice for his interests as well as his World Cultures Class. We choose the magnetic wall map so he can track the location of troops as he reads more about the war.

Find Wall Maps for Kids

• Wall Maps on wooden rails
• Shop Wall Maps by Grade
• World, USA, Continent, State Wall Maps
• Historical, Social, Political and other wall maps
• Wall Map Bundles for classrooms or gifts

Gift Guide: Contemporary & Stylish Wall Maps for Her

Welcome to our series of Gift Guides for the Holidays 2013.

Looking for the perfect gift for her? From the most popular wall décor to practical travel items, mapsales.com offers a wide selection of gifts for every personality!

The Most Popular Gifts for Wall Map Décor

• Recognizable Wall Maps of the World
• Popular Wall Maps of the USA
• In political, physical, satellite and antique styles!

Give Her Inspiration for Her Travels

• Over 200 countries around the world
• Explore Canada
• Maps of Every State in the USA

Invite Her to Explore the Outdoors

• National Park Maps
• Topographic Maps for hiking
• Any map can be printed on synthetic paper, perfect for traveling and hiking in any weather

Personalize her gift with her name and a special date; simply call us to personalize her wall map! 

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Why Is North Up on Maps? Upside Down Maps Break Conventional Perspective

Why Is North Up on Maps?

We see it everyday, even on google maps: North is at the top, up, above on most 2-dimensional depictions of the world. But why is north up on maps so often that countries become unrecognizable when show 'upside down'?

Maps Throughout History

Throughout history, the orientation of maps has actually changed more than you might have assumed. In medieval Europe during the crusades, Jerusalem was positioned at the top of the map, putting East at the top. This alignment to where the sun rose helped give us the word ‘orient’.

Arabic maps placed south at the top. Possibly because when one wakes up to face the sun, south is on the right (right having a positive connotation).

In the west, the tradition of orienting maps to the north began with the 5th century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy’s work, the Geographica, is considered the first known geography. Ptolemy was familiar with Polaris, the North Star, and in order to encapsulate his known world and celestial space, he chose to make north up on maps.

North-South Up-Down Concept Affects Perceptions

Similarly, as explorers continued on the quest to map the world in later centuries it was easier to start a map at the top, with the area explorers were most familiar with: the Northern hemisphere. Writing location names and notes in this orientation discouraged the turning or rotation of maps so north remained up on maps.

The orientation of maps is reflective of and has an effect on our perception of the world. We often think of space in the form of ‘above’ and ‘below’ according to the North is Up perspective on most modern maps. That city is ‘below the river’. The United States is ‘above Mexico’ and ‘below Canada’. Australia is known as the ‘land down under’. Although literally ground is below and sky is above nearly any given location, because maps have taught us that north is up and south is down, we talk about places in this way.

View The World From a Different Perspective on Upside Down Maps

Upside down maps force us to view the world differently. When we see south at the top of the map and north at the bottom, we may notice new things about the world. For instance, on an upside down map it is easier to notice:

• most of the land mass of the world is concentrated in the northern hemispheres
• South America is more south-east than directly south of North America
• Europe appears less significant ‘below’ the large continent Africa

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Vintage Wall Maps: Interior Decor with Vintage Maps

Continuing our interior décor series, mapsales.com shows how to display beautiful large vintage maps. If you’re impatient and don’t want to spend time scouring flea markets and secondhand shops for old maps, simply make a new map look old! Add some wooden rails to give any map a vintage charm. I’ve found some great examples of gorgeous wooden vintage maps on pinterest recently and I’ll show you how to get the look!

Choose any map and add wooden rails to create a vintage wall map.

Get a vintage wall map of Europe.

Get this wooden rails vintage map.

Get this vintage world map with wooden rails.

Maps with wooden rails establish a classic, vintage classroom style instantly!

I’ve also spotted some nifty DIY Map Crafts and Artwork across the web and on pinterest.

A penchant for the unusual? Take a look at the oddest, most bizarre maps.

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DIY Map Crafts: Beautiful Map Artwork and Do-it-Yourself Map Crafts

Here are some of the best map crafts we've seen around the web lately. If you follow us on pinterest, you can find even more map do it yourself crafts and art.

There’s no limit to what you can do with maps. Already graphically engaging and informative, maps lend themselves well to incorporation or inspiration in all kinds of art. Artists render their own maps using an outline as a starting point, or cut, paste and overlay maps for visual interest. We love what these artists have done with maps!

Like this beautiful quilled map by Amber Rousse. You can tell she spent many hours perfecting each quill. The land even has mountains! Now that’s a three dimensional map!

We love this DIY map clock, it’s beautiful and inexpensive! The materials? Clock workings, a round tin plate and a map. You could do this with any map, or get a custom map printed just for you!

Create a wall full of maps! Your own unique map wallpaper of the places you been, and/or where you dream to go one day! We love this example of DIY map wallpaper. You can take any maps, old, new, vintage, antique and artistically design your own world.

Simple and elegant, these vintage maps are craftily displayed in wooden embroidery hoops. Similarly, you could use maps of any location and any style to achieve this look. Reminds me of maps with wooden rails because they have this vintage feel to them!

A beautiful wedding gift. This map could represent the location and date of the wedding, where they met, or the location of the proposal. If you’re not a designer, you can get a custom map made with the location marked and the names printed in any design, of any location!

I hope you felt inspired and not intimidated by all this beautiful DIY map artwork! And, if you don’t have crazy amounts of time or the will to stay up all night and craft with maps, you can always go to mapsales.com and shop for beautiful paper, laminated, framed and magnetic maps of all sizes (even large enough to cover an entire wall!). Or call and have a map custom designed just for you!

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Maps for Walls: How to Decorate with Wall Maps

Maps are everywhere right now, stretching across whole walls. Do you need special wallpaper for maps on your walls? No, you just need to find someplace like mapsales.com that will print your map as large as you need it!

On wall maps you see where you've been and dream about where you're going. Maps connect the past, present and future all at once in our physical space. Display your travels and the scope of your dreams with maps that stretch across the wall.

We've picked a few beautifully decorated spaces and we'll show you how to get the look with maps for your walls!

We love the bright colors in this wall map.

Find a World Wall Map

Decor Tip: Find maps for walls with vibrant colors to pull a room together.

Yellow Vintage Wall Map

Decor Tip: Or choose a map in one tone for a bright conversation-starter.

Island Maps for Walls

Islands are prime backdrops for pirate and treasure-seeking adventures. Maps on walls inspire imaginative play and set the scene for good night story-telling.

Decor Tip: Cut your maps and mix up islands for new variety across walls.

Islands of the Pacific Wall Map

Decor Tip: This Islands of the Pacific Wall Map features dozens of islands, with dozens of possibilities for wallpapering, creating a collage or framing different islands.

Indonesia Wall Map

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World Satellite Explorer Wall Map

The Best Wall Map Ideas for the Home

Ever see those beautiful maps on Pinterest and wondered where to buy them and how to decorate with maps? We've scouted out some beautiful wall map decor ideas for the home, and how you can get the same maps!

Bold USA Wall Map for the Bedroom

This USA Wall Map looks great over a master or guest bed. The blue, red and yellow primary color scheme is consistent throughout the room. Following the color scheme in a map is an easy way to make design choices for a room!

We found where to buy this USA Executive Wall Map below!

Get this USA Executive Wall Map!

A Wall Map Across the Entire Wall

This room is one of our favorites, and it's popular on pinterest as well! The white and brown color scheme allows the blue of the beautiful oceans to really pop.

I just imagine having an intimate dinner here with friends just back from vacation. We'd be able to see exactly where they'd gone on this map! And, we found this same Political Wall Map for sale online. You can get it as large as 9x12 feet!

Political World Wall Map

Unusual Thematic Wall Maps for Modern Decor

This wall map hangs over the bed with wooden railings. Just like an old vintage classroom map!

The stark white combined with bright pops of color add life to the room. The hanging lights draw the focus further to the focal piece of the room, the World Climate Wall Map! This unusual wall map features bright bold colors for a modern design.

World Climate Wall Map Available on Spring Rollers

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The Oddest, Most Bizarre Maps

"Mapping our world" can mean a multitude of things. From our first map of a schoolyard or home, to maps of our favorite places to dine, maps of places we've traveled, maps play different roles in our lives, from the classroom, in our minds, in vacations and to artwork. Take a look at a few of these strangely bizarre maps. They'd make great decor and conversation starters at least!

Click on the pictures to zoom in on any wall map; take a detailed look at the world from an unusual perspective!

Titanic Navigation Chart Wall Map
Chart the the path the largest ship of it's time took across the Atlantic Ocean! Marine Charts are usually coveted by a very specific set of people, but the legacy and myth surrounding the story of the Titanic's maiden and final voyage makes this an usually popular map!

Muir Glacier Alaska Wall Map
Artistic and minimalist, this map of Alaska shows the Muir Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. The challenge of mapping a glacier make this bizarre map a work of art.

Upside Down World Wall Map
View the world from a different perspective with this Upside Down World map. After all, there is no "UP" in outer space! This bizarre map shows us how the image of the world "right-side up" is imprinted and ingrained into our minds.

Mars Physical Wall Map
We've barely started exploring space but we can already map out our sister planet Mars. This odd map shows more than it appears to at first glance, just zoom in to see!

Is GIS the Future? Prepare for New Jobs with Educational Wall Maps

GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems, systems designed to capture, manipulate, and present all types of geographical data. It combines technology, geography and data in ways that are quickly changing all aspects of life and how we approach the world. But are our children prepared to become the experts in this field? mapsales.com takes a look at the future job report, GIS innovations and educational wall maps to find out.

Recently in the news, we’ve heard reports about GIS being used to help fight crime in New York, Los Angeles and now Australia. The UN recently promoted the use of GIS in disaster risk reduction, preparedness and emergency response. All of these new innovations mean that GIS is an emerging sector of the workforce.

More jobs are a good thing, right? Not if Americans are ill-equipped to fill those positions.

In this letter to Congress, a former teacher urges everyone to support the Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act. He explains that “There is an enormous demand in both the public and private sectors for people with the ability to interpret and analyze geographic data. There are 70,000 new jobs in geospatial technology each year, but we are not training Americans to fill them.”

Educational Wall Maps - World

It is important to educate young Americans in the way that will best prepare them to take over governance of the USA. This includes immersing children with educational wall maps, and encouraging them to have an opportunity to become interested in the world. Most importantly, starting to do so at a young age. Think about encouraging geographical skills that could help the world and shop by grade level for Educational Wall Maps.

Do you agree that GIS will be the way of the future? How should we prepare our children for a technological world?

Lights Seen from Space: Cities…and Lightning Flashes?

Severe storms have been sweeping across southern states for the last two days and are now currently spreading across eastern parts of the United States. So far the storms have included 430 thunderstorm reports, 20 large hail reports and nine tornado reports.

Last night, the Suomi NPP satellite snapped a photo of not only city lights but also lightning flashes from the storm. In this photo, the satellite captured lights from several major cities not covered by clouds including Atlanta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Also visible are lights not associated with any city; these lights show lightning flashes from the severe storm.

Satellite imaging technology allows us to view the world in great detail. Satellites are able to capture daytime images  that keep our database of roads, buildings, and topography up-to-date. They also warn us of impending natural disasters, as well as perspective on the damage they caused. But at night, we get a view we could only imagine before our ascent into space:

Earth at Night Map

Maps of satellite images from space showcase the entire world at night. Taken from series of images from cloudless nights over a year period to show the clearest rendering of topography and lights, this map shows a unique perspective of the world. Zoom in on the Earth at Night Map to see details of the night sky from space! These lights include urban areas, forest fires and natural gas burn off. This map would make a great gift or decor piece for anyone who loves space, travel or technological art.

Riding the Largest Waves: from California to Portugal

In the wake of Garrett McNamara possibly breaking his own world record for the largest wave surfed, mapsales.com takes a look at geographical features that cause large waves, and where to find them!

How do Waves get so Large?

Zoom in on this Portugal Wall Map to find where McNamara set his world record in 2001: Narare, Portugal.

“There is an underwater canyon 1,000 feet deep that runs from the ocean right up to the cliffs. It’s like a funnel. At its ocean end its three miles wide but narrows as it gets closer to the store and when there is a big swell it acts like an amplifier,” McNamara explains. The ocean floor is far from flat; geographical features play a large role in determining how waves crash and how large they can get. Zoom in on this World Physical Ocean Floor Map to see the variations of our oceans!

His newest record, possibly over 100 feet, took place yesterday also in Praia do Norte, Nazare, Portugal. The previous world record by mark Parsons occurred in Cortes Bank, California. California is well-known for their surfing competitions, including the Mavericks Invitational big-wave competition, which restarted this year after a series of waves crashed spectators in 2010. Even wave-watching can be dangerous when the waves range from 20 to 90 feet!

While previous world records have been documented all over the world, Portugal may increase in popularity for thrill-seeking surfers looking for the largest waves. Take a look at this Portugal Wall Map to plan your next trip!

Previous World Records for Tallest Wave Surfed

1. Garrett McNamara, 78 ft wave

Nazaré, Portugal in November 2011

2. Mark Parsons, 77ft wave

Cortes Bank, California in January 2008

3. Pete Cabrinha, 70ft wave

Jaws Beach, Maui in January 2004

4. Brag Gerlach, 68 ft wave

Todos Santos, Mexico in December 2005

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A Map of the Oscars: Where Do These Oscar Nominated Films Take Place?

The 2013 Oscar nominations were released earlier this week. The 9 films nominated for best picture represent some of the highest achievements in movie making this year. mapsales.com takes a look at the unique settings and locations of some of these films.

 Amour – France

Written and directed by Michael Haneke, this French-language film has already garnered praise worldwide and has won awards at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the 47th National Society of Film Critics Awards.  The story centers on an elderly French couple and their struggles dealing with love and death.  The streets, cafes, and quaint apartments of Paris add to the film’s realist tone. 

Argo – Iran

This taught thriller, loosely based on true events, tells the story of a CIA plot to rescue 6 US ambassadors from Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.  CIA operatives—played by a cast led by Ben Affleck and Bryan Cranston—pose as Canadian filmmakers scouting film locations in Iran.  Their plan is to save the now-in-hiding ambassadors by integrating them into their film crew.  While the film is supposed to take place in Iran, filming actually occurred in Istanbul, Turkey and Los Angeles, California. 

Life of Pi – India & Canada

Though a majority of director Ang Lee’s movie takes place in the Pacific Ocean, many of the early and later scenes are set in Pondicherry, India and Montreal, Canada.  Life of Pi is based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name.  It follows the adventures of a young Indian boy named Pi, after he is shipwrecked with his family’s zoo animals.  The movie boasts impressive performances and eye-popping visual effects. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Louisiana

Set in a region of the Louisiana bayou called Bathtub, a father and his young daughter have to survive amidst a catastrophic storm.  The movie, written by Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar, has already gathered Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actress. 

Zero Dark Thirty – Pakistan

Kathryn Bigelow’s drama is based on the real-life manhunt for terrorist Osama bin Laden.  Although it has garnered its fair share of criticism, mainly based on its depictions of torture, the movie is a grand achievement of film making.  Set in Pakistan, the movie was actually filmed in Chandigarh, India. 

Want to learn more about exotic locations around the world? Try a map!  mapsales.com carries over 200,000 wall maps…delivered as fast as next day!

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