Christmas traditions from around the world

Christmas is a season of familiar rituals, from trees draped with twinkling lights to stockings hung by the fire and carols sung on frosty doorsteps. Yet each of these customs has a history – sometimes centuries old, sometimes surprisingly modern – that ties us to different corners of the globe. 

Look closely, and you’ll find that the Christmas we know is less a single story than a patchwork quilt of traditions, woven from Norse solstice rites, German folklore, Mexican fiestas and even American advertising campaigns. What unites them is an intent to bring light to the darkest nights of the year, to gather communities and to pass stories down through generations. From the floating tree of Rio de Janeiro to lantern festivals in the Philippines, these are the origins of some of the world’s most enduring Christmas traditions and the unexpected ways they’ve travelled into our homes.

Decking the halls with evergreen

The Christmas tree is now a universal symbol of the season, but its roots are ancient. Long before Christianity, northern Europeans brought evergreen boughs indoors during the winter solstice, a reminder that life endures in the bleakest months. The first decorated indoor tree is thought to have appeared in 16th-century Germany, strung with apples, nuts and paper roses. 

By the 19th century, the tradition had crossed borders as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s illustrated Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1848 made the practice fashionable in Britain, and from there, the US. Today, the ritual has grown in scale: in New York, the Rockefeller Center tree, a tradition since 1931, towers more than 70ft, lit with 50,000 LED bulbs; while in Rio de Janeiro, the floating tree on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon glitters with nearly three million lights.

The joy of Christmas carols

Carols began not as hymns, but as folk songs. In medieval England, groups would go ‘wassailing’, serenading neighbours with music in exchange for spiced ale, and it was only later, in the 17th century, that they shifted indoors, woven into church services and family gatherings. 

Perhaps the most famous carol, “Silent Night”, was first performed in 1818 in Oberndorf, Austria, when a broken organ forced a priest and his choir master to set the song to guitar; it has since been translated into more than 300 languages. Over in Mexico, carol-singing merges with las posadas, nine nights of processions reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, punctuated with songs, candles and piñatas.

Santa Claus and his many guises

The red-suited Santa owes as much to Coca-Cola’s 1930s ad campaigns as he does to 4th-century bishops, but his lineage is unmistakable. In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat from Spain each November, greeted by parades and brass bands; while in Iceland, children watch for the Yule Lads – 13 mischievous figures who visit on consecutive nights, leaving gifts (or potatoes) in shoes. 

Russia’s Ded Moroz (‘Grandfather Frost’) travels with his granddaughter, Snegurochka, bringing presents at New Year’s. This generosity traces back to St Nicholas of Myra, in modern-day Turkey, who became famed for slipping coins into the shoes of the needy, and although his image has been reshaped, the impulse behind it – of anonymity, kindness and surprise – remains constant.

Festive tables

If Christmas has a universal language, it’s food. In Italy, Christmas Eve is marked with the Feast of the Seven Fishes, an elaborate meal of fried calamari, baccalà and linguine with clams. Poland, meanwhile, celebrates Wigilia, beginning after the first star appears in the sky with 12 meatless dishes symbolising the apostles including pierogi, poppy seed cake and beetroot soup. 

Mexico’s Christmas table features tamales, laboriously prepared in family kitchens and steaming mugs of ponche navideño, a hot fruit punch spiked with cinnamon and cane sugar. In Britain, the crowning glory is still the Christmas pudding, flamed at the table with brandy and studded with silver charms for luck.

Light in the darkness

As the nights grow long and cold, it’s no wonder that light has become one of the season’s strongest symbols. Long before electricity, German families fixed candles to tree branches, symbolising Christ as the light of the world. The innovation of electric bulbs in the 1880s allowed Americans to string them rather more safely, and by the 20th century, Christmas lighting had become a competitive art form. 

Today, entire cities turn into open-air galleries of light; Medellín, Colombia, attracts nearly four million visitors annually to its Alumbrados Navideños, where more than 30 million bulbs illuminate the riverbanks. Elsewhere, in the Philippines, the city of San Fernando stages the Giant Lantern Festival, where parols (lanterns up to 20ft across) radiate in kaleidoscopic patterns.

Nativity scenes

Amid the sparkle of the season, nativity scenes remind us of Christmas’s religious origins. St Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first live nativity in 1223, in a cave in Greccio, Italy, to help people imagine the story of Christ’s birth. From that moment, the idea spread: Naples became renowned for its elaborate presepi, crafted with entire miniature villages bustling around the Holy Family, and Provence for its santons (hand-painted clay figurines), including not just shepherds and kings but bakers, farmers and fishermen to reflect daily life in the south of France. In Latin America, nativity scenes often sprawl across entire living rooms, while in Mexico’s Oaxaca region, figures may be carved from radishes and displayed during the Noche de Rábanos festival.

Unique global traditions

Not every tradition is solemn or historic – some are delightfully offbeat. In Japan, Christmas isn’t a public holiday, but since the 1970s, a marketing slogan, “Kentucky for Christmas!”, has turned fried chicken into the nation’s unofficial festive meal, with reservations at KFC outlets required weeks in advance. 

Catalonia’s Caganer, a small figurine of a peasant in the act of defecating, is tucked discreetly into nativity scenes as an earthy symbol of fertility and good luck. In Caracas, Venezuela, streets are closed on Christmas morning to make way for an unusual procession of locals roller-skating to early-morning Mass. Such quirks may seem surprising, but they reveal the adaptability of Christmas – the way it absorbs local humour, climate and culture, creating something familiar yet wholly distinct.