Students whose families recently immigrated to Canada this year experienced their first Canadian Christmas at St. Patrick's Community School in Red Deer yesterday.  

Students from all over the world including Mexico, the Philippines and the Ukraine learned about traditions, made Christmas tree ornaments and even had a visit from Santa Claus.

Lead ESL teacher at St. Patrick's Connie Coe said the event helps build community.

“It introduces the students to Canada and lets them know what we’re all about.”

Herb Barrios who helps integrate new families within Canada and works for the Central Alberta Refugee Effort, said events like these help the new students feel welcome and explained some of the challenges they've had so far.

“Language is probably the number one thing, the other thing is their routines which is different than how they do things back home. The weather is a big factor because they’re not used to this, some are and some are not. These are some of the barriers that we see.”

Barrios added there are other opportunities to help immigrants feel welcome and learn about Canadian traditions including CARE's SNAP Immigrant Youth Program.