Christmas Day worldwide - open presents December 245h, 25th, or in January?

Santa Claus is calling? When?

In the UK we used to say Father Christmas.

 In England, Christmas presents are opened on Christmas Day, December 25th. According to the Gregorian calendar. A neat number, although the day of the week varies. In 2025 Christmas Day is on a Thursday. 

German Christmas Traditions

The Germans open their presents on Christmas Eve. The British royal family stick to this tradition, which came from Queen Victoria's husband Albert.

But does Christmas eve start at sunset the day before?

Sunset Evening

Starting the next day at sunset is the way that it would have been for Jews at the time of Jesus, and how Orthodox Jews today still start and end the Sabbath.

But when does the next day start? According to modern thinking, at midnight. 

Midnight Mass - Europe and Roman Catholic

Another European tradition in Catholic countries and Cathedrals is Midnight mass. We went to Midnight mass one year in Prague. Midnight of course is the start of the next day.

When we went to live in Singapore, Christmas ended at midnight on December 25th. No Boxing Day.

Angela Lansbury happily holding the Singapore flag. Photo by Trevor Sharot. Taken in August, on Singapore National Day, circa 2022.

Christmas in Singapore and Asia

I had a Christmas message from Singapore from my friend Jaya, who is Indian with a Chinese wife. He called me at 9 am UK time which was 5 p.m. in Singapore. He told me that he is going to work on Boxing day which is a normal working day for him. His wife is a teacher in a European school so for her Christmas is a long holiday, extending over New Year, January 1st.

The Chinese who are the majority in Singapore will be having their big New Year celebration at the time of the Chinese New year, which other Asian countries call the lunar New Year, which varies according to the lunar calendar.

When I was a teenager my parents could avoid giving Christmas presents and the inconvenience of no public transport on Christmas Day by going for a beach holiday to Spain to enjoy warmer weather.

Those who want to celebrate twice could stay in the UK for a British Christmas, then hop across to Europe to a country where Christmas is celebrated on January 6th, known in England as 12th night, celebrated in the Christmas carol, the twelve days of Christmas. 

We are still sending or giving Xmas cards in the uk. Although whatsApp messages and gifs aee taking over.

Jif forwarded to me by an Indian friend in London.

What about the USA?

USA

American flag. Picture from Wikipedia.

The Americans say Happy Holidays, which covers Christmas and New Year, those who celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday as well as those who don't.

In restaurants and malls in the UK and other countries you hear English language carols, as well as the bilingual song, in Spanish and English, Feliz Navidad. Easy to recognize, like the words felicity, happiness, and nativity, birth, as well as to remember as the song keeps repeating the refrain.

So, to everybody, everywhere, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. and Happy Holidays.

Useful Website On Christmas and The Birth Of Jesus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_of_the_birth_of_Jesus#:~:text=Based%20on%20this%20winter%20solstice,held%20on%20the%20same%20date.

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Who Celebrates Christmas In January? Where? Why?

Merry Christmas with green tabletop tree. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I have trouble remember which calendar and which countries celebrate in January and whether it's the 6th or 5th or 7th. Please explain - and make it easy to remember.

Answers
Julius Caesar landed in the UK BC. (Never mind accuracy and controversy - we just want the general easy to remember view.)

From him we get our first calendar, the Julian calendar. Julius Caesar, lived before Jesus. His month, July, occurs before Christmas.

Eventually the seasons got out of sync with the calendar.

Later, long after Jesus, along comes Christianity to the Romans, and a Christian Pope, Pope Gregory, who suggest a new calendar (in around 1582 - but no need to remember when).

If you stuck with the old calendar, events are later. The date of Jesus' birth falls in January.

Different countries were faster or slower to adopted the new, Gregorian calendar which we all follow. Many of the traditional, Orthodox, countries kept the old calendar for Christian festivals (just like Jews and Moslems use a different, lunar calendar so the festivals are on different dates each year).

Who celebrates Christmas eve on December 24th and Christmas Day on December 25th?

UK (and former British Empire - now Commonwealth, including New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Czech Republic.)
USA

January 7th
Russiand and adjacent Ukraine.
In alphabetical order:
Belarus, Egypt, Ehtiopia, Georgia, Kazakstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.