Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
The boat, not the tree
The traditional Greek Christmas decoration is a karavaki, a small wooden boat, lit and set in the window or the square. It is a seafaring country’s symbol: the boat coming home safely, not a fir tree.
Trees arrived later and are now everywhere, but towns and city squares increasingly put up a lit boat alongside or instead. Thessaloniki and island harbour towns do this best.
Kalanda
On Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and the eve of Epiphany, children go door to door singing the kalanda, the carols, usually accompanied by a small triangle. They ask permission first, they sing, and they are given a few coins or sweets.
If you are in a Greek town on those mornings you will hear it, and it is the most characteristic sound of the season.
The food
- Christopsomo, the Christ bread, a rich sweet loaf marked with a cross, baked for Christmas Day.
- Melomakarona, honey-syrup biscuits with walnut, and kourabiedes, buttery shortbread under a heavy snow of icing sugar. Households traditionally lean to one or the other.
- Vasilopita, the New Year cake with a coin baked inside, cut at midnight on 31 December. Whoever gets the coin has luck for the year.
- The Christmas table is usually pork or turkey, and the fasting period before it is taken seriously by some families and not at all by others.
The season runs to 6 January
The Greek Christmas period does not end on 26 December.
- 1 January is St Basil’s day, when the Vasilopita is cut and, traditionally, when gifts are given.
- 6 January is Epiphany, Theofania, and it is the one to plan around. A priest throws a cross into the water, harbour, river or sea, and young swimmers dive for it. Every coastal town does this, and it is a genuine public event rather than a display for visitors. Piraeus, Thessaloniki and the island harbours are the big ones.
What it means for a trip
- Shops and sites follow the public holiday pattern: 25 and 26 December, 1 January and 6 January are holidays, with reduced or closed hours at archaeological sites and museums.
- The islands are still closed for winter. Christmas does not reopen them; see Greece in winter.
- The cities are the place to be, and they are busy with Greeks rather than tourists.
- Book domestic travel early around 24 December and 2 January, when the whole country moves between the cities and the villages.
Last checked August 2026. Holiday opening hours change every year - see our editorial policy.
Common questions
How do Greeks decorate for Christmas?
Traditionally with a karavaki, a small lit wooden boat, rather than a tree. Trees are now common too, and many towns put up both.
What are kalanda?
Christmas carols sung door to door by children on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany, usually with a small triangle, in exchange for coins or sweets.
Is Christmas the biggest holiday in Greece?
No. Easter is by a wide margin, and Christmas sits behind it in scale and in how much of the country stops.
What happens on 6 January in Greece?
Epiphany. A priest throws a cross into the water and swimmers dive to retrieve it, in harbours and coastal towns across the country.
Are the Greek islands open at Christmas?
Mostly not. The small islands are in their winter closure regardless of the holiday, with skeleton ferries and few open hotels.
Next
Read Greece in winter, public holidays and what closes, or Greek Easter and August.