Christmas in Portugal

How Portugal celebrates Christmas

Christmas in Portugal is a family festival with deep Catholic roots. The season builds through December with lights in town centres, Christmas markets and a presépio, the nativity scene, in homes, churches and shop windows, and it has two public holidays in early December: the Restoration of Independence on 1 December and the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.

The heart of the celebration is Christmas Eve, when relatives travel to sit down together at the Consoada. Christmas Day is quieter, and the season runs on through New Year to Dia de Reis, the feast of the Three Kings on 6 January. The Atlantic archipelago of Madeira has some of the country's most distinctive Christmas customs.

The Consoada: Christmas Eve supper

The Consoada is the most important meal of the Portuguese Christmas. The name is linked to the Latin consolare, "to comfort": the Church traditionally recommended fasting before Christmas, and the Consoada was the modest supper that ended the fast. For that reason it is a meal of fish rather than meat, and the fish is almost always bacalhau, dried salt cod.

The classic dish is bacalhau da Consoada, also called bacalhau cozido: thick pieces of cod boiled with potatoes, cabbage, carrots and hard-boiled eggs, then dressed generously with olive oil. In some regions octopus is served instead or as well. The table is then covered with sweets, from rabanadas to bolo-rei.

Older customs survive in some families. In the north, in Minho, Porto and Guimarães, places have traditionally been kept at the table for relatives who have recently died, or the table is left set and the fire burning through the night to comfort their souls. In parts of the south, a pig was traditionally slaughtered a few days before Christmas, and its meat enriched the meals that followed.

Missa do Galo and the presépio

After the Consoada, many families go to the Missa do Galo, "the Mass of the Rooster", celebrated at midnight. Its name echoes the Latin in galli cantu, at cockcrow, and the midnight Mass has been part of the Nativity celebrations since the 5th century, traditionally the first of three Christmas Masses. It is a social occasion as well as a religious one, when friends and neighbours greet each other and wish the community well.

Churches display a large presépio, and at the end of the Mass many worshippers come forward to kiss the figure of the Menino Jesus, the Infant Jesus, sometimes to the sound of traditional hymns.

Christmas Day and presents

The traditional bringer of Christmas presents in Portugal is the Menino Jesus, but Pai Natal, Father Christmas, is now just as familiar, along with Mãe Natal, Mother Christmas. Presents are opened either after midnight, when the family comes home from Mass, or on the morning of 25 December.

Christmas Day is a public holiday and a day for meat after the fish of Christmas Eve. Lunch is often roast turkey, lamb or cabrito assado, roast young goat. In the north, the leftover cod from the night before becomes roupa velha, "old clothes", fried with sliced potatoes and eggs. 26 December is a normal working day on the mainland, but a holiday in Madeira.

Bolo-rei and Christmas sweets

No Portuguese Christmas table is complete without bolo-rei, king cake: a ring of soft sweet bread with raisins and nuts, topped with crystallised and dried fruit so that it looks like a jewelled crown. It is sold from November and December and eaten until Dia de Reis on 6 January. Its first known sale in Portugal was at the Confeitaria Nacional in Lisbon around 1869 to 1870, when Baltasar Rodrigues Castanheiro Júnior adapted a recipe from France with the help of a French pastry cook; Porto's Confeitaria Cascais followed in 1890. After the republic was declared in 1910, some bakers sold it under names such as bolo nacional to avoid the word "king".

A dried broad bean, the fava, was traditionally baked inside, along with a small metal trinket, the brinde. Whoever finds the fava is supposed to buy next year's cake. A 2001 decree removed bolo-rei's earlier exemption from the ban on trinkets in food; today trinkets are permitted only if they pose no safety risk. The bolo-rainha, queen cake, is a version decorated only with nuts and dried fruit, for those who prefer it without candied fruit.

Alongside the cakes come the fritos, fried sweets made with eggs, flour and sugar and dusted with sugar and cinnamon: rabanadas, bread soaked in milk and egg and then fried; filhoses and sonhos, sometimes made with pumpkin; coscorões; and azevias, pastries filled with a sweet chickpea paste.

Christmas in Madeira: A Festa

In Madeira the whole Christmas and New Year season is known simply as A Festa, "the festival", and it runs until 7 January. It begins on the night of 1 December, when Funchal's Christmas lights are switched on across the main avenues, churches and squares, and a Christmas market opens on Avenida Arriaga, selling crafts, bolo do caco bread, carne de vinha d'alhos (pork marinated in wine and garlic), poncha and seasonal liqueurs.

The Missas do Parto

The island's most characteristic custom is the Missas do Parto, a novena of nine Masses celebrated at dawn, around 5 or 6 in the morning, in the days leading up to Christmas. The nine Masses recall the nine months of Mary's pregnancy, and the tradition dates back to the 18th century. After Mass the celebration continues in the churchyard, with traditional music, hot chocolate, liqueurs or poncha, broas and sandwiches of carne de vinha d'alhos.

Noite do Mercado and the Primeira Oitava

On 23 December, the Noite do Mercado, "market night", fills the streets around Funchal's Mercado dos Lavradores, closed to traffic, with stalls of regional produce, sweets and drinks, and with Christmas singing that has drawn thousands of people for more than 40 years. Homes set up the lapinha, a traditional Madeiran nativity: the lapinha em escadinha is a three-tier stepped altar with the Infant Jesus at the top, decorated with fruit and pots of sprouted wheat. 26 December, the Primeira Oitava, has been an official regional holiday since 2002, a day for visiting family and friends and touring the island's presépios.

Christmas around Portugal

Passagem de Ano, the Janeiras and Dia de Reis

New Year's Eve, the Passagem de Ano, is celebrated with parties, fireworks and champagne. A widespread custom is to eat twelve raisins at midnight, one for each month of the year, making a wish with each. The best-known display is in Madeira, where the fireworks over Funchal Bay last about eight minutes and turn the bay into an amphitheatre; the display for the 2006–07 New Year was recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest fireworks display in the world. Messages fly between relatives at home and abroad as the clock strikes, and free Passagem de Ano greeting images, from Happy New Year 2027 cards to WhatsApp and Instagram status images and quote cards, are an easy way to join in.

From 1 January until 6 January, groups of friends and neighbours sing the Janeiras, going from door to door, often with folk instruments such as the tambourine (pandeireta), drum (bombo), flute and viola, singing verses about the birth of Jesus and wishing each household a good year. In return they receive janeiras: traditionally chestnuts, walnuts, apples or sausages, and today often sweets or money, which the group shares or spends on a meal together. Many urban groups carry on singing through January.

Dia de Reis, Epiphany, on 6 January, marks the arrival of the Three Kings and the end of the Christmas season. On the eve of Reis, carol singers go out to cantar os Reis, especially in rural areas, and the last bolo-rei is eaten. Epiphany is not a public holiday in Portugal.

Traditional Portuguese Christmas food

Public holidays over Christmas

Portugal's national public holidays in the Christmas season are 1 December (Restoration of Independence, a Tuesday in 2026), 8 December (Immaculate Conception, also a Tuesday), 25 December (Christmas Day, a Friday) and 1 January (New Year's Day, a Friday in 2027). Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and 6 January are not public holidays. In Madeira, 26 December is an additional regional holiday, the Primeira Oitava.

Portuguese Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Portugal: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries