Unique Christmas celebrations across Asia

While Christmas has its roots in Christian tradition, its celebrations have evolved in different ways around the world. The holiday season is shaped by cultural norms and local character, but everywhere it’s celebrated, food and family take centre stage. From apple-giving in the Chinese Mainland to Simbang Gabi in the Philippines, discover some of the most interesting Christmas traditions across Asia.

South Korea: a very Korean Christmas  

Christmas falls during South Korea’s winter, when festive lights and seasonal celebrations brighten cities and ski regions. With cold weather and plenty of snow, you have a very good chance of experiencing a white Christmas. Close to a third of the population are Christian, and Christmas is a national holiday celebrated with friends and family on 25 December. Many traditional Christmas dishes from Europe have been replaced by South Korean festive dishes, such as beef bulgogi, japchae (sweet potato noodles) and, of course, plenty of kimchi. 

Santa Harabeoji – Grandpa Santa – takes on a different look, often opting for green or blue robes instead of his traditional red. You might even catch him wearing a gat – the tall top hat worn by nobility back in imperial Korea. Meanwhile, at Seoul’s Buddhist Jogyesa Temple , Christmas tree-shaped lanterns take pride of place in the courtyard, a symbol of inter-religious peace and harmony.  

India: stars and sunshine

India’s festivals are known for being full of colour, and Christmas is no exception. Though celebrations take place all over the country, they are at their most impressive in places with significant Catholic populations, such as Goa. Here, churches, marketplaces and homes are adorned with Christmas decorations, like the giant star-shaped paper lanterns hung between houses, creating a spectacular scene of Christmas lights floating above the streets. 

Christmas gatherings often take place on Christmas Eve in Goa, and feature shared dishes such as curries and biryani, followed by kuswar: an assortment of traditional festive sweets and pastries. After dinner, Christians attend midnight mass in churches decked out in poinsettias and candles. Gifts are still delivered to children by Santa Claus, or Christmas Baba, as he’s more widely known in India. However, rather than arriving on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, it’s said that he delivers his Christmas gifts by horse and cart. 

Philippines: the world’s longest Christmas 

The Philippines has the longest Yuletide season in the world. Pop-up shops selling festive decorations appear along major shopping streets and Christmas carols can be heard in stores from as early as August. The official Christmas countdown starts on 1 September and continues through the four “Ber Months”, as they’re known – until the Feast of the Three Kings in early January.  

As Asia’s largest Catholic country, Christmas holds a prominent place in Filipino cultural and religious life. Filipinos take part in traditions such as Simbang Gabi, a nine-day-long series of dawn masses that culminate in the Misa de Gallo mass on Christmas Eve, and the feast known as Noche Buena, an open-house celebration with family, friends and neighbours who drop in to share festive greetings. Food typically includes lechon (roasted pig) and coconut milk-laced bibingka (rice cakes). The most popular seasonal decorations are parols – colourful star-shaped lanterns that hang from bamboo poles, said to represent the star that guided the Wise Men to Jesus.  

The Chinese Mainland: a blend of customs

Whether it’s the common and unexplained depiction of Santa Claus as a jolly man wielding a saxophone or the exchange of fruit the night before Christmas, the Chinese Mainland has adapted the holiday in unique ways. With around two per cent of the population being Christians, Christmas Day in China is celebrated not as a religious holiday (nor a public holiday) but more as a festive occasion for friends and family to get together.  

In recent years, apple-giving on Christmas Eve has become popular due to its play on words: the Chinese word for apple has a similar pronunciation to the word for “peace”, which is also part of the word for Christmas Eve (translated as “peaceful night”). The apples are often wrapped extravagantly in stylish packaging before being gifted to loved ones. 

This article was originally published in December 2021 and updated in October 2026.