Christmas in Canada

How Canadians celebrate Christmas

The Canadian season begins in mid-November with Santa Claus parades. Toronto's Santa Claus Parade, first held in 1905, is one of the oldest in the world, and towns from coast to coast stage their own. Through December, homes and streets are covered in lights, Christmas markets open in cities such as Toronto, Québec City and Vancouver, and outdoor skating rinks become the centre of winter social life. Canada's oldest Christmas song, the "Huron Carol" ("Jesous Ahatonhia"), was written around 1642 by the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf in the Wendat (Huron) language, setting the Nativity among hunters and furs.

On Christmas Eve, many families attend candlelight services or midnight Mass. In English Canada, presents are usually opened on Christmas morning, followed by a roast turkey dinner in the afternoon or evening. In Québec and among Acadians, the family gathers after midnight Mass for the réveillon, a long night feast, and many open presents that night. The cold is part of the celebration: a "white Christmas", which Environment and Climate Change Canada defines as at least 2 cm of snow on the ground on Christmas morning, is likely in most of the country outside the coast of British Columbia and parts of southern Ontario and the Maritimes.

Santa's postal code: H0H 0H0

Canada is proud to deliver Santa's mail. For more than 40 years, Canada Post has run a letters-to-Santa programme using the postal code H0H 0H0 ("Ho ho ho"). Volunteer "postal elves" help Santa answer more than a million letters a year from around the world, replying in the language the letter was written in, including Braille. No stamp is needed for letters posted within Canada; to receive a reply before Christmas, letters must be posted by early December (the 2025 deadline was 8 December).

Christmas in every Canadian province and territory

Newfoundland and Labrador: mummers

Newfoundland's best-known custom is mummering. During the Twelve Days of Christmas, groups of "mummers" or "jannies" disguise themselves in quilts, lace curtains, oversized boots and pillowcase masks, knock on doors and ask "Any mummers 'lowed in?". Hosts must guess who they are, offering food and a drink, before the mummers unmask, dance and move on. St. John's now holds an annual Mummers Festival and parade to keep the tradition alive. Christmas dinner may end with figgy duff, a steamed raisin pudding.

The Maritimes: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island

Every year since 1971, Nova Scotia has sent a large Christmas tree to Boston to thank the city for its help after the 1917 Halifax Explosion; it stands on Boston Common through the season. The Maritimes are also major Christmas tree country, with balsam fir farms supplying markets across North America. Acadian families in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island keep French traditions, including midnight Mass and the réveillon.

Québec: Noël and the réveillon

In Québec, Christmas, Noël, centres on Christmas Eve. After the messe de minuit (midnight Mass), families gather for the réveillon, a feast that can last until dawn, with tourtière (spiced meat pie), ragoût de pattes et de boulettes (pork hock and meatball stew), turkey, bûche de Noël and sucre à la crème. Père Noël brings presents, often opened after the réveillon. Québec City, with its snowy old town, hosts a German-style Christmas market, and the season continues with the Jour de l'An (New Year's Day), traditionally a big family day in Québec.

Ontario

Ontario is home to the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, held since 1905, and Toronto's Distillery District hosts a popular winter market. In Ottawa, the buildings of Parliament Hill are lit for the national Christmas lights programme, and Niagara Falls stages its Winter Festival of Lights. Boxing Day is a statutory holiday in Ontario and one of the country's biggest shopping days.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan: the Prairies

The Prairies were settled by large numbers of Ukrainian, German, Mennonite and Polish immigrants, and their Christmas customs remain strong. Ukrainian-Canadian families hold Sviat Vechir (Holy Supper), a meatless meal of twelve dishes beginning with kutia (wheat berries with honey and poppy seeds) and including varenyky (perogies) and holubtsi (cabbage rolls). Some families hold it on 24 December and others on 6 January, depending on the calendar their church follows. Mennonite and German families bake pfeffernüsse (spiced "peppernut" cookies). The Prairies almost always have a white Christmas, with temperatures that can fall below −30°C.

Alberta

Many Albertans and visitors spend Christmas in the Rocky Mountains, where Banff and Lake Louise offer skiing, skating and snow-covered scenery. Calgary and Edmonton hold large light festivals. Over the 2026 holidays, Edmonton and Red Deer host the IIHF World Junior Championship, from 26 December 2026 to 5 January 2027, with the medal games at Edmonton's Rogers Place.

British Columbia

Coastal British Columbia has Canada's mildest Christmas, often green and wet rather than white. Vancouver hosts a German-style Christmas market downtown, the Bright Nights train ride through lights in Stanley Park, and decorated boats sailing the harbour with carollers aboard. BC also gave Canada the Nanaimo bar, a no-bake layered square of chocolate, custard and coconut that appears on many Christmas cookie trays. Inland and in the mountains, resorts such as Whistler offer a snowy Christmas.

Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut

In the North, Christmas falls near the darkest time of the year, when the sun barely rises or does not rise at all in the far north. In Inuit and other Indigenous communities across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, the season is a time of community feasts featuring country food such as caribou and Arctic char, traditional games and contests, dances, and church services and carols in Inuktitut and other Indigenous languages, often running through to New Year.

Traditional Canadian Christmas food

Boxing Day and the World Juniors

Boxing Day, 26 December, is one of Canada's biggest shopping days, often stretched into a "Boxing Week" of sales. It is a statutory holiday in Ontario and for federally regulated employers; elsewhere its status varies by province. For hockey fans, 26 December also means the start of the IIHF World Junior Championship, the under-20 tournament that is a holiday television tradition in Canada. The 2027 edition is being played in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, from Saturday 26 December 2026 to Tuesday 5 January 2027.

Canadian Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Canada: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries