Christmas is a holiday filled with joy and blessings, beloved by people around the world. However, each country has its unique way of celebrating this holiday, and not all celebrate it on the same day.
Apart from familiar traditions like Santa Claus, Christmas trees, carols, and gift-giving, many countries, including the United States, bring their own mix of old and new elements to the holiday.
In the US, a particular tradition started in 1966 when the local New York broadcast station WPIX provided viewers, especially those without a fireplace, with the cozy feeling of sitting around a hearth through a program that featured three hours of continuous footage of a burning yule log accompanied by holiday music. According to Time magazine’s 2008 publication “Christmas Diaries,” this program served as a “Christmas card for viewers,” and the desire for that Christmas fire on television has endured for decades.
For generations of Americans, the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marks the official start of the Christmas season. As the parade comes to an end, Santa Claus arrives on his sleigh, and the turkey in the oven roasts to perfection.
Around the world, Christmas celebrations offer a wide range of traditions, as highlighted by Time:
In Australia, there is no notion of a “White Christmas” as December falls during the southern hemisphere’s summer. Many locals head to the beach to enjoy the pleasant weather.
A person told the Australian broadcast company SBS, “It’s very laid back, and everyone is in a good mood.”
On Christmas Day, Australians enjoy activities like swimming at the beach, backyard barbecues, and strolls in the park.
In Denmark, people gather around the Christmas tree to dance and sway. According to VisitDenmark, there is a tradition in Danish families where they hold hands and dance around the Christmas tree, singing Christmas carols before unwrapping gifts. The tree is usually adorned with real candles. Similarly, on Christmas Eve, some families believe in appeasing the nisser, who are thought to help residents through the harsh winter. Many children leave a bowl of porridge for these little barn-dwelling elves in case they need a snack.
Poland celebrates Christmas on December 25th, with a special emphasis on the Christmas Eve supper that includes opłatek, a thin wafer made of white flour. This custom is also observed in other places. Before eating the wafer, family members exchange blessings, symbolizing forgiveness, reconciliation, friendship, and love.
Like many places, Christmas celebrations in France peak on Epiphany, celebrated on January 6th, when the visit of the Three Wise Men to the infant Jesus is commemorated. France24 reports that on this day, the French indulge in a particular cake called Galette des Rois. This cake contains a hidden ceramic figurine called a fève; whoever finds it gets to wear the paper crown that comes with the cake and is treated like royalty for the day.
Italians have their own version of Santa Claus, known as Babbo Natale, but he’s not the only gift bearer during the holiday season: on the eve of Epiphany, the kind and somewhat witchy La Befana appears riding a broomstick, delivering candies to children. Christmas in Italy is also famous for the unique sound of festive bagpipes, based on a legend that some shepherds visiting baby Jesus felt compelled to play their pipes.
On December 25th, Irish families gather with friends at the beaches and lakes of the island, often swimming in waters around 50°F. While some advocates claim that the cold benefits health, most participate purely for companionship, with some places using the event to raise funds for charity.
In Norway, Christmas is incomplete without juleøl (Christmas beer). According to the government’s official travel guide visitnorway.com, historically, there was an expectation for people to brew their beer, as coming together to drink beer was considered a nearly sacred act.
According to the University of Southeast Norway, Norway not only has Santa Claus but also their own barn Santa (Fjøsnissen). Similar to the Danish tradition, families leave a bowl of porridge (Nissegrøt) for the barn Santa on Christmas Eve; otherwise, they may risk offense and pranks.
Finns have the tradition of Christmas sauna (joulusauna), where on Christmas Eve afternoon, all family members bathe in the sauna. The local travel organization Visit Jyväskylä mentions, “After enjoying the Christmas feast, don’t forget to bring some Christmas gifts to the sauna elves. According to Finnish belief, every sauna has its own sauna elf (Saunatonttu), that should be taken care of and respected.”
In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the hard dish for Christmas dinner is carp, rather than turkey or ham. According to the Czech Tourism Authority, carp has become “an indispensable symbol of the Czech Christmas,” to the point where those who do not wish to eat it can buy one, keep it in the bathtub for a few days, and release it afterwards.
In Greece, the traditional symbol of Christmas is not a tree but a boat. It is said that Christmas trees were not introduced to Greece until 1833, and before that, Greeks would decorate a karavaki (small boat) to symbolize the country’s relationship with the sea and sailors. According to the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, this boat is usually decorated on St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, as St. Nicholas, besides being associated with Christmas, happens to be the patron saint of sailors.
According to a Greenlandic travel company, “The Christmas in Greenland always begins with a beloved tradition: in every home across the nation, they light an orange Christmas star, casting a beautiful glow from the windows.”
The Greenland National Museum and Archives mention, “Traditionally, December 24th is a children’s holiday; the main Christmas holiday is for adults and the elderly on December 25th, while December 26th is a holiday for young people.” The Christmas season ends with Epiphany, and decorations come down that day. Food is also an essential part of the holiday; the traditional Greenlandic Christmas dinner includes meats that may seem unusual to others worldwide, such as mattak (made from whale skin and blubber), kiviak (small auks fermented inside a seal body), and tuttu (reindeer meat).
In Icelandic folklore, there is no Santa Claus; instead, there is the female ogre Grýla, her lazy giant husband Leppalúði, and their thirteen children. This is why Christmas in Iceland lasts for 13 days, rather than the traditional 12 that start on Christmas day and end on Epiphany.
This book-loving nation is famous for its tradition of giving books as Christmas gifts. This tradition dates back to World War II when paper was one of the few items not rationed in Iceland, making books a preferred holiday gift.
In Latvia, one of the most popular winter traditions leading up to Christmas is the ķekatas masked procession. According to the Baltic Times, common masks include bears, goats, horses, and wolves, and sometimes even gypsies or the undead. The Latvian Public Broadcasting reports that it is believed that Ķekatas will bring prosperity and blessings to the homes visited during the procession.
In Portugal, there is a tradition of having a special dinner (Consoada) on Christmas Eve. For the religious, this meal usually consists of salted codfish and other dishes and can be held before or after the Midnight Mass, marking the end of the fasting period before Christmas.
According to the national tourism office, “There is a custom of reserving a seat at the Consoada dinner table for recently departed loved ones, or placing candles or lamps on the table, burning throughout the night to comfort and warm their spirits.”
According to Conde Nast Traveler, a head of a household in Slovakia might take part in a holiday tradition of throwing pudding, known as loks, towards the ceiling, with the belief that the more the pudding sticks, the luckier and more prosperous the family will be in the new year. An American family of Slovak descent shared the recipe online for loks and noted, “It certainly adds a lot of excitement to your Christmas Eve dinner, but it also raises another question. Can the person who agrees to let you do this be considered a responsible adult?”
According to the website of the Welsh Otter Textiles store, since the 19th century, Christmas in Wales marks the beginning of a three-week holiday period called Y Gwyliau, during which farm work is paused. The Welsh have many traditions during this period, including the Plygain carol service on Christmas morning.
The government mentions, “Plygain churchgoers often stay up all night on Christmas Eve, playing games, telling outlandish stories, and making toffee blocks by the fire,” hence the name “Toffee Night.”
Although only 1.1% of Japan’s population follows Christianity, post-World War II Japan largely adheres to Christmas traditions, owing in part to the heavy American military presence since then. Today, one of the most well-known aspects of Christmas in Japan is the popular holiday meal at KFC. This phenomenon can be traced back to a successful 1974 campaign by the fast-food giant, “At Kentucky Fried Chicken, there’s no turkey, so you have to eat KFC for Christmas.”
The demand for KFC is so high that restaurants take orders in advance to ensure everyone can have a satisfying meal.
In most parts of China, where there is no public holiday for Christmas, and the majority of the population does not have religious beliefs, some people celebrate Christmas, a trend that has been growing since the 1990s. In the eyes of Westerners, Christmas in China has become commercialized, much like other Western holidays celebrated in China.
In the Philippines, Christmas extends across what locals call the Ber months (September, October, November, December) – heralded by Jose Mari Chan’s spirited vocals in shopping malls on September 1st to announce the arrival of the festive season. Like in some Latin American countries, the tradition in the Philippines is to celebrate Noche Buena with a feast on Christmas Eve; in this predominantly Roman Catholic country, devout Catholics attend midnight mass.
According to the Ukrainian government, due to ongoing warfare with Russia, public Christmas celebrations have diminished, although families still celebrate the holiday by decorating their houses with didukh, a sheaf of wheat symbolizing ancestral spirits. It is believed that during these sacred days, ancestors come back to spend time with their families.
According to the International Rescue Committee, another Christmas tradition in Ukraine is to decorate the Christmas tree with spiders (pavuchki) and spider webs. This originates from an Eastern European folk story where a generous spider decorates a poor family’s Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with its web, turning the webs into gold and silver by Christmas morning.
For Belarusians, Christmas is a time for family reunions and remembering generations-old Christmas traditions. While some traditions such as the Christmas feast and caroling are similar to other countries, Belarus has its unique Christmas ceremonies like the tradition where women should let men enter houses first when visiting others during the holidays, believed to bring prosperity to the household in the new year.