Christmas in Switzerland

How the Swiss celebrate Christmas

The Swiss Christmas season begins with Advent. Homes and churches light the four candles of the Advent wreath, Advent calendars count down the days, and in many villages each household decorates and lights one window for a day of December, creating a neighbourhood Advent calendar of windows (Adventsfenster). Families bake trays of Guetzli, Christmas biscuits, and towns put up lights and open Christmas markets.

Switzerland is a federal country with four national languages, and its Christmas customs follow its regions. German-speaking Switzerland shares many traditions with Germany and Austria, French-speaking Romandy with France, and Italian-speaking Ticino with Italy, while Catholic and Protestant areas have their own emphases. What unites them is a family Christmas centred on Christmas Eve and, in much of the country, the chance of a snowy one in the mountains.

Samichlaus and Schmutzli: 6 December

On or around 6 December, St Nicholas's day, Samichlaus arrives. Dressed in a red bishop's robe with a long white beard, he visits homes, clubs and town squares, opens his big book of good and bad deeds and asks for a poem or song in return for a jute sack of nuts, mandarins, chocolate and gingerbread. He is accompanied by Schmutzli, a stern helper in a dark brown hooded robe, and often by a donkey. Bakeries sell Grittibänz, sweet bread figures with raisin eyes, for the occasion.

The most spectacular St Nicholas custom is the Klausjagen in Küssnacht am Rigi, on Lake Lucerne. On the evening of 5 December, all lights in the town are switched off and a procession of more than 1,500 men passes through the streets: whip-crackers, about a thousand cowbell ringers, horn players and Iffelen bearers carrying giant lantern mitres up to 2.5 metres tall, cut with intricate patterns and lit from inside. It draws up to 30,000 spectators. In Fribourg, whose city and canton have St Nicholas as their patron saint, the saint rides through the streets on his donkey on the first weekend of December, handing out biscuits, then addresses the crowd from the cathedral terrace in French and German.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

For most Swiss families, Heiligabend, Christmas Eve, is the high point of Christmas. The tree is decorated, often with real wax candles, and lit for the first time that evening. In German-speaking areas, the Christkind (the infant Christ), pictured as an angel-like figure, is said to bring the presents, which are opened after a bell rings and carols are sung around the tree. In Romandy it is Père Noël, and in Ticino Gesù Bambino or Babbo Natale, while the Weihnachtsmann, Father Christmas, has become common everywhere.

The Christmas Eve dinner is often fondue chinoise, thin slices of beef, veal or chicken cooked at the table in a pot of hot broth, a meal that keeps the whole family at the table for hours. Many people then attend midnight Mass or a Christmas Eve service. Christmas Day, a public holiday in every canton, is for a long family lunch, visits and, in the mountains, skiing and sledging.

Christmas traditions across Switzerland

German-speaking Switzerland

In Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne and the other cities of the north and centre, Christmas follows the German-speaking pattern: Samichlaus in early December, the Christkind on Christmas Eve, Guetzli baking and Christmas markets. In St. Gallen, a sound-and-light show is projected onto the twin towers of the abbey church above the Christmas market, and the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln hosts a Christmas market in front of its baroque church. In early November, before Advent, towns in the canton of Zurich hold the Räbeliechtliumzug, an autumn procession with lanterns carved from turnips that opens the dark season.

Geneva and Romandy: the Escalade

Geneva's great December festival is the Fête de l'Escalade. It marks the night of 11 to 12 December 1602, when the troops of the Duke of Savoy tried to scale the city walls and were driven back. According to legend, Mère Royaume threw a pot of hot vegetable soup onto an attacker. In 2026 the Escalade is celebrated from 11 to 13 December, with the Compagnie de 1602 parading through the old town in 17th-century costume, torchlit processions and mulled wine. Families buy a chocolate marmite filled with marzipan vegetables, which the youngest and the oldest person present smash together. Elsewhere in Romandy, Montreux Noël fills the shore of Lake Geneva with a large Christmas market, and Père Noël brings the presents.

Ticino

Italian-speaking Ticino celebrates in an Italian way. Villages build nativity scenes (presepi), some with living figures, and panettone is the Christmas cake of choice. Gesù Bambino brings presents on Christmas Eve, and on 6 January the Befana, the good witch of Italian tradition, brings sweets.

Appenzell: the Silvesterchlausen

In the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, especially in Urnäsch, the year ends with the Silvesterchlausen. Groups of masked men go from farm to farm, ringing huge bells and singing a wordless yodel, the Zäuerli. There are three kinds: the Schöni ("beautiful ones") with elaborate headdresses showing scenes of Alpine life, the Wüeschte ("ugly ones") in fur and foliage with horned masks, and the Schö-Wüeschte in costumes of moss, pine cones and branches. Urnäsch celebrates twice: on 31 December and again on 13 January, the old New Year's Eve of the Julian calendar the village used until the 19th century.

Christmas markets in Switzerland

Swiss Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmärkte, marchés de Noël) open from late November, selling crafts, candles, ornaments, cheese, Guetzli and Glühwein.

• Basel: often called the largest in Switzerland, spread over Barfüsserplatz and Münsterplatz.
• Zurich: markets in the old town and an indoor market in the main railway station, under a giant decorated tree.
• Montreux: Montreux Noël on the lakeside promenade, where Père Noël makes appearances from the mountains above.
• Bern, Lucerne and St. Gallen: old-town markets under Christmas lights.
• Einsiedeln: a market on the square of the famous abbey, on Advent weekends.

Traditional Swiss Christmas food

St Stephen's Day, New Year and Epiphany

Public holidays in Switzerland are set by the cantons. St Stephen's Day, 26 December, is a holiday in most cantons, including Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Ticino and Valais, but not in Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft or Schaffhausen; Uri and Appenzell Ausserrhoden skip it when Christmas falls on a Monday or a Friday, as it does in 2026. Several cantons, including Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Aargau and Thurgau, also have a holiday on Berchtoldstag, 2 January.

On 6 January, Epiphany (Dreikönigstag), groups of star-singers dressed as the Three Kings go from house to house in Catholic areas, collecting for charity, and nearly every household shares a Dreikönigskuchen, a ring of sweet buns around a larger central bun. Whoever finds the small plastic king hidden inside wears a paper crown for the day. Swiss bakeries sell about 1.5 million of these cakes each year; the custom was revived in 1952 by the bread historian Max Währen.

Swiss Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Switzerland: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries