Arcadia Ireland

The countdown is most certainly on and with 10 days to go until Christmas Day the island of Ireland is BUZZING with excitement. There are lights strewn over buildings and between streets, Christmas music is blaring from every corner and the restaurants and bars are crammed with people meeting friends and catching up. Add to this some hot chocolates, frost and open fires and you can rest assured that everyone is in the festive spirit. Christmas is huge in Ireland and there are a few things that I think make it extra special. Here’s my top 5 list of ‘only in Ireland’ Christmas traditions:

Driving Home For Christmas.

Chris Rea could not have put it better. Christmas in Ireland is all about family and friends and the amount of people that come home for the Christmas period is incredible. People boat, fly and drive from all around the globe to spend a week or two with loved ones. It’s not uncommon for people to fly from all over Europe, but you’d be surprised how many people come from much further afield- Australia and the U.S have a mass exodus during the holidays. If you are one of the lucky ones that are flying home though, you must make sure you get in before or after the 25^th. Dublin airport is the only airport in the world that closes on Christmas Day. It has to though, sure who would be flying on Christmas Day other than Santa Claus?!

Food, Glorious Food.

Similar to Thanksgiving, food is one of the main focal points of Christmas in Ireland. Not only the Christmas dinner (which is obviously the main event!) but considering our holidays last for about 10 days, so does the epic amount of eating. Boxes of chocolates and biscuits are brought out with every cup of tea, cheese becomes a staple food that needs to be eaten a few times daily and meals are often and plentiful. People visit each other’s homes regularly during the period and so mince pies also get brought out with every occasion. (Side-note, it has been brought to my attention that some people don’t know what mince pies are!! They are a delicious mini tart with sweet mince inside. Think cinnamon, glove and every Christmas flavour you can imagine. Heat them up and add a dollop of cream or brandy butter and you have yourself a Christmas staple. It’s what you see me stuffing my face with in this blog’s cover picture!)

Our Christmas dinner varies slightly from Thanksgiving too. We have turkey but we also pair it with a large boiled ham. Along with this there are potatoes (obviously, and usually various kinds!), and then vegetables galore. Brussel sprouts, carrots and parsnips are usually the main players. Obviously two types of meat, three vegetables AND multiple variations of potatoes isn’t enough food so cranberry sauce, bread sauce (yes, it’s a thing and it’s DELICIOUS), mountains of stuffing and piles of gravy are added to the feast just to bulk it up a little. Christmas cake and Christmas pudding (they sound the same, and are similar, but you have to have both!) are served up as a festive dessert. The pudding is usually set alight when coming to the table for a finale spectacular.

After this most people pass out in a food coma.. until the tea comes out with more cheese, chocolates and biscuits of course!

Stephen’s Day.

One very Irish tradition that we have is St. Stephen’s Day. It is celebrated the day after Christmas Day and is always a Christmas favourite. It is known as Boxing Day in the UK but will always be St. Stephen’s Day to us here in Ireland. While Christmas Day tends to be all about family, Stephen’s Day is kept for friends. Turkey sambos galore and this is usually the day where most people go out socialising with their friends. An older tradition is that of the Wren Boys. People used to dress up in old clothes and go from door to door singing, dancing and playing music. It does still happen in some parts of Ireland but it is less common now. The tradition stemmed from Irish mythology and Christianity that linked times in Jesus’ life to Irish myths that included the wren. Although the wrenboys are less popular now, visiting friends and neighbours is still a very strong tradition.

The Religious Element.

One thing that certainly highlights the difference between Christmases in Ireland as opposed to other countries is that there is still very much a religious element to the holiday. As a majority Christian country, Christmas mass plays a large part in the Christmas Day activities. The number of church goers is dwindling in Ireland generally, but you can be sure that everyone will be out in their Sunday best for Christmas Day. It is part of the tradition here, and we don’t like to break tradition! Along with this, nearly every Irish household will have a nativity scene as one of their staple decorations. On Christmas Eve, most families will make sure that baby Jesus gets added into the scene.

Socialising.

 Obviously the holiday period (which we over here just always refer to as Christmas rather than ‘the holidays’) is full of socialising and we make sure we have a good time. There are Christmas parties with your work colleagues, with your friends and it’s also used as a time to catch up with old friends that you haven’t had a chance to see before ‘silly season’ as it’s known. Although I talked about going to mass on Christmas Day, lots of people go on Christmas Eve instead to avoid the early morning rush the next day. We call it midnight mass, but it usually starts no later than 8pm. After mass people tend to go to their local pub and listen to live music and catch up with people in their neighbourhood.  

We also tend to listen to and play lots of music over the festive period. Christmas carols are really important and the religious element is kept in there with hymns being thrown in too. One Christmas song that is blasted from every radio station over and over is The Pogues’ ‘Fairy Tale of New York.’ It is definitely Ireland’s most popular Christmas sound and you can be sure you’ll hear it being belted out throughout the streets of Ireland repetitively for the month of December.

I am sure there are other things that Irish people reading this would add into the mix, but there is a little taster of some very Irish Christmas traditions. It really is a wonderful time of the year and I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays from the very beautiful, very frosty Emerald Isle.