Christmas dinners around the world: choose your favorite festive dishes

23.11.2024 - 11:13 / lonelyplanet.com / Christmas Eve

Nov 22, 2024 • 5 min read

There's no one way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year – it all depends on where you are, what you love and your own traditions. But there's one festive theme that's beloved around the globe, and that's Christmas dinner.

Whether it's a roast turkey with endless sides, spicy meat stew, a seafood extravaganza or even no-frills Kentucky Fried Chicken, there's no holding back when the season for feasting rolls around. Get inspired for your upcoming banquet with these nine traditional Christmas meals from across the world.

Christmas dinner in the UK is all about the gut-busting roast. This typically consists of roast turkey – chicken and goose are also popular choices – served with all the trimmings, from stuffing, roast potatoes, parsnips and Brussels sprouts to pigs in blankets (mini sausages wrapped in bacon) and devils on horseback (dates wrapped in bacon). All of this is washed down with plenty of gravy, a dollop of cranberry jelly and a healthy scoop of bread sauce. Regional variations include clootie dumplings (fruit pudding) for dessert in Scotland.

Alongside the turkey or chicken (traditionally stuffed with spiced rice), the Lebanese Christmas food fest features a range of national foods: kibbeh pie made from bulgur wheat and minced meat; mezze dishes of lamb, hummus and vegetables; and tabbouleh, a Middle Eastern salad made with tomatoes, parsley, onions and mint. Sugar-coated almonds are also a very popular sweet snack to share among Christmas guests.

One of the oldest nations in Africa, Ethiopia still follows the Julian calendar, so Christmas falls on 7 January. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ganna (Christmas celebrations) involves a period of fasting on Christmas Eve (6 January), followed by an early mass on Christmas morning.

When fast is broken on Christmas Day, it is with a traditional meal of wat – a spicy meat and vegetable dish served with a type of sourdough flatbread called injera that is used as a plate-turned-edible-spoon to scoop up the thick stew.

While Christmas Day is not a national holiday in Japan, people still celebrate by getting into the spirit of giving and spreading happiness. And what could be more joyful than sharing a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken with your loved ones? Thanks to a very successful media campaign by KFC in 1974, fried chicken is now a staple of the Japanese Christmas experience – it’s so popular, in fact, that branches have to take orders many months in advance.

Another festive export is the Japanese Christmas cake; a lighter take on the stodgy puds of the West, it is made up of a sponge topped with cream and decked out with strawberries.

Christmas is truly a time for family in Madagascar. Come 25 December, families don