Christmas around the world: How your favourite holiday destinations celebrate
It is – as the tinsel-draped, glitter-sprinkled, cinnamon-infused saying goes – the most wonderful time of the year. It is merriment and laughter.
It is family and friends. It is firelight and warmth. It is eating too much – and caring far less for the indigestion and the mountain of dirty dishes. It is little gifts gratefully received and the disappointment of ill-chosen presents carefully disguised. It is over-familiarity and under-appreciation, wrapped in misspoken comments and tearful apologies. It is never-again and can’t-wait-for-next-year. It is hyperactive children and weary parents. It is on Wednesday.
And it is, for the most part, a splendid mixture of these same basic ingredients, wherever it is celebrated. But then, wherever it is celebrated, Christmas also comes with intriguing regional twists. How could it not? A festival that has its basis not just in biblical teaching but in the midwinter rituals of the pre-Christian world, it has been adopted and adapted over the millennia.
The same thing can actually be distinctly different depending on continent and climate, local perspective and ingrained tradition.
Christmas conventions run the gamut from calm religious solemnity to unrestrained indulgence via doses of whimsy and the decidedly perverse. They range in geography from the upper edge of South America to the lower flank of Australia via the blizzard-harshness of the Russian winter and the tropical heat of the Caribbean. Some are frivolous, some are formal. Some are ancient, some are modern. Some want to remember the past – some just want to throw themselves into the now.
And yet, as these pages hopefully demonstrate, they all share a photogenic quality. And they are all inspiration for travel. Not this year, probably – Dec 25th is not really a day for planning a last-minute escape. But each of these celebrations will be back 12 months from now – and with a little planning, can easily be seen in person as 2020 starts to morph into 2021.
For example, Responsible Travel (01273 823 700; responsibletravel.com) has an 11-day group tour of the Philippines scheduled for Dec 21 next year (from £1,525 per person; flights cost extra), while On The Go Tours (020 7371 1113; onthegotours.com) has a 16-day escorted Classic Colombia itinerary scheduled for Dec 12 2020 (from £2,695 per person excluding flights).
Of course, if the weather outside really is frightful, and you really do have nowhere to go in the coming hours, these pictures should also provide a little vicarious travel fun...
Party lines
The Caribbean calendar is scarcely lacking in parties alive with sound and rhythm – and the festive season is no different. Junkanoo has African roots, and is closely allied to the Kakamotobi New Year carnival in Ghana. It lifts its head and dances across the region – on the likes of Antigua, Barbados, St Vincent and Grenada – on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. It is especially vibrant in the Bahamas, where the costumed parades in Nassau (pictured) are the equal of anything that Mardi Gras manages two months later.
Cold comforts
Decades of Cold War movies and Boris Pasternak novels have brought us an image of a bleak, sullen Russia, eternally wrapped in a fierce chill. But Moscow in December is more twinkling Xanadu than snowy Zhivago. The snow is there, of course – but its finger-numbing effect is offset by the festive illuminations laced across some of the capital’s most famous landmarks. Red Square, in particular, seems to gleam – no longer a broad public space under the Kremlin’s nose, but one enormous Christmas grotto.
Just desserts
The French must look on aghast at the British dilemma that presents itself at about 3pm on Dec 25 – Christmas pudding or mince pie (or both)? Or at least they must in Provence, where the menu loosens its belt for the grand climax that is Les Treize Desserts. That’s 13 puddings, ranging from biscuits and figs to Bûche de Nöel (cream-heavy festive logs). Don’t worry: the number is a hat-tip to Christ and the 12 Apostles, so there’s an element of religious observance. It isn’t just gluttony, honest.
Manhattan transfer
The mulled-wine magic of a German Christmas is so persuasive it reaches New York, whose own take on the festive season is incarnate in the window displays of Fifth Avenue. Rolf’s German Restaurant (rolfsnyc.com) brings Bavaria (and French Alsace) to Midtown Manhattan with its schnitzel and sauerkraut, and its famous decorations are as much “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” as “Munich marketplace”.
Taking the biscuit
Bergen gives the Norwegian version of Christmas spirit an extra sweetness in the form of its Pepperkakebyen. This confectionery creation does as its English name, Gingerbread Town, suggests. Visitors can explore a model of the city where everything – houses, trains, cars, ships – is made of biscuit. If you’re really quick, you still have the chance to see it this year – the “town” (facebook.com/pepperkakebyen) is open until New Year’s Eve. Return flights with Wizz (wizzair.com), from Luton on Friday cost from £84.
Devil may care
Christmas comes early in the Czech Republic, and with a demonic twist. St Nicholas – the gift-giving figure behind the “Santa Claus” caricature – is saluted on the evening of Dec 5-6. But when this bearded third-century bishop walks the streets of Prague, handing out sweets and treats to children, he is usually accompanied by a white-caped angel (andel) and a black-cloaked devil (cert) – representatives of good and evil who add a frisson to the pertinent question of whether you’ve been naughty or nice.
Flair play
Happily married to Catholic practice, thanks to almost four centuries of Spanish colonial rule, the Philippines approaches Christmas with fervour and flair. At the forefront of this are its ornamental parols – star-shaped paper lanterns in myriad colours and styles. They can appear as early as September, hang around until Epiphany (Jan 6) and, in the case of the city of San Fernando, be the cornerstone of Ligligan Parul – a mid-December lantern festival where artists compete to produce the prettiest designs.
We love Lucy
This celebration has already cast its spell – St Lucy’s Day is on Dec 13. But this doesn’t diminish its wonder. Lucy was a young woman, martyred in Sicily in the fourth century, who assisted Christians hiding underground during the “Great Persecution” by Diocletian. According to tradition, she wore a candlelit wreath that left her hands free to carry food in the gloom. The tribute to her has special power in Sweden, where the procession of children dressed in white offers a bright contrast to the dark Scandinavian winter.
Aussie rules
If one image can pierce the fireside cosiness of the festive season in the UK, it is the vision of Australians who get to have their Christmas and eat it by celebrating at the height of summer. Bondi Beach has become the emblem of this double fantasy, and the recent record-breaking temperatures in the country are unlikely to disturb its tradition of being awash with surfers on Christmas Day – as it is on most days in December.
Dia beloved
Christmas in Colombia is a glorious combination of fire and devotion. Dia de las Velitas is the kick-starter, a Dec 7 public holiday whose name – Day of the Little Candles – is self-explanatory. Thousands flicker in plazas and on windowsills around the country. Novena follows on Dec 16, a nine-day period of prayers and introspection that concludes on Christmas Eve – just in time for the lighting of vast arrays of paper lanterns (globos).
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