Christmas in Ireland

How the Irish celebrate Christmas

Advent wreaths and calendars mark the run-up to Christmas, but in Ireland the season has traditionally begun on 8 December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It was the day when families from the country came up to Dublin and the towns for their Christmas shopping, and when many homes put up the tree and the crib, the nativity scene that still holds pride of place in many Irish homes. The figure of the infant Jesus is added on Christmas Day. Houses are decorated with holly and ivy, and towns and cities switch on their Christmas lights.

For many Irish families Christmas is a homecoming. Emigrants fly back from abroad in the days before Christmas, airports fill with reunions, and Christmas Eve is a big night for meeting old friends in the local pub. In late November, The Late Late Toy Show, a special edition of RTÉ's long-running chat show first broadcast in 1975, is often the most-watched programme of the year on Irish television and signals the start of the season for much of the country.

The candle in the window

Ireland's best-loved Christmas custom is the candle in the window. On Christmas Eve, a candle is lit in a front window, traditionally by the youngest member of the household, and left to burn through the night. It is a welcome to Mary and Joseph, who found no room at the inn, and a sign that any traveller in need will find shelter. Tradition also links it to the time of the Penal Laws, when Catholic worship was suppressed and a lit window was said to tell a hidden priest that a house was safe for Mass. Today many homes use electric candles, and the light is also kept as a sign of remembrance for emigrants and absent family.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve is busy: last-minute shopping, the lighting of the candle and, for many, midnight Mass or an earlier vigil Mass. In Dublin, the Christmas Eve busk on Grafton Street, begun by the musician Glen Hansard in 2010 and joined by some of Ireland's best-known performers, raises money for the Dublin Simon Community's work with homeless people. Following Hansard's death in July 2026, the charity has said the busk continues. Before bed, a mince pie and a drink are left out for Santa, Daidí na Nollag.

On Christmas Day, presents are opened in the morning, and many families go to Mass. Hardy swimmers take a Christmas morning dip in the sea, most famously at the Forty Foot in Sandycove, south of Dublin, often raising money for charity. The day centres on Christmas dinner, usually roast turkey served with a baked ham, followed by Christmas pudding. Christmas Day is a quiet day: shops close and pubs are traditionally shut.

St Stephen's Day and the Wren Boys

St Stephen's Day, 26 December, is a public holiday in Ireland and the Irish name for the day known in Britain as Boxing Day. It is a day for visiting relatives and neighbours, long walks and sport, especially football and horse racing, with the Leopardstown Christmas Festival in Dublin beginning on St Stephen's Day.

It is also Lá an Dreoilín, Wren Day. Groups of Wren Boys, dressed in suits of straw, masks and colourful old clothes, go from house to house and through the streets playing music, singing and dancing. In the past they hunted a real wren and carried it on a holly bush; today a fake or toy wren is used. The tradition is strongest in Dingle, County Kerry, where the wren parades take over the town, and the money collected traditionally goes to charity or to pay for a local dance.

In 2026, St Stephen's Day falls on a Saturday. Unlike in the UK, the holiday does not automatically move to the Monday: under Irish law, those entitled to it receive a paid day off within a month, an extra day of annual leave or an extra day's pay instead.

Nollaig na mBan: Women's Christmas

The Irish Christmas ends on 6 January, the feast of the Epiphany, also called Little Christmas (Nollaig Bheag). It is better known as Nollaig na mBan, Women's Christmas. Traditionally, the men of the house took over the cooking and chores for the day so that the women, who had done most of the work of Christmas, could rest and visit each other for tea, cake and conversation. The custom never died out in Cork and Kerry and has had a revival across Ireland, where many women now mark it with a meal or night out. Christmas decorations traditionally come down on this day.

Christmas around Ireland

Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, shares most of these customs alongside British ones such as Boxing Day and the King's Christmas message; read more about Christmas in the UK.

Traditional Irish Christmas food

Irish Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Ireland: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries