Christmas in Ireland

The Irish word for Christmas is Nollaig which comes from the Latin word natalica meaning birthday.

Preparation

Christmas in Ireland (An Nollaig) seems to start earlier every year with cards and decorations in the shops the day after Halloween.

The first preparations begin in October when the plum pudding is made. This is the traditional Christmas Day dessert, the early preparation is to allow the flavours to mature and integrate. The plum pudding gets its name from the process of “plumming" whereby raisins and currants are plumped up by warm brandy then moulded with suet and a bit of batter.

The 8th of December, the Feast of Immaculate Conception was traditionally a big shopping day for Christmas. Dublin and the major cities would be inundated with visitors from the country to do their Christmas shopping. This is no longer as noticeable a phenomenon as there are now significantly more shopping centres and Malls around the country.

Pantomimes start in December, there are large stage productions aimed at children and bring to life fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Puss n’Boots. The step mother is always a man, as are the ugly sisters and the young prince is usually played by a woman!

Christmas trees are brought in anytime in December and decorated with coloured lights, tinsel and baubles. Some people favour the angel on top while others a star. The trees are generally placed near windows at the front of the house where they can be clearly seen from the road outside. Presents for their family and friends are placed under the tree.

The house is decorated with garlands, candles, holly, and ivy. In more recent times a tradition imported from the US has developed whereby a holly wreath is hung on the door. There is some suggestion that this US tradition actually originated in the 1850’s from Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine. Holly grows wild in Ireland and Irish homes are lavishly decorated with holly. Christmas is a time for religious celebration as well as revelry. A manger scene called a crib, which contains figures representing the nativity, is also displayed beside the more secular decorations.

Before Christmas, gifts (usually of money or drink) are made to people who perform services throughout the year such as milkmen and dustbin men and are known as Christmas boxes. Those employed in the public services are discouraged from actually soliciting these gifts, called “Christmas Boxes”. This tradition is dying out in modern times as most people work during the day and are not in their homes when these people are performing their duties.

People do sometimes go out carol singing to raise money for charity but generally are seen in groups in the main shopping areas. Visitors around the Christmas are generally offered mince pies and cream to eat and mulled wine, Irish Coffee or hot whiskey to drink.

In times gone by it was traditional to whitewash the house and tidy up the area around the house prior to Christmas.  A more modern representation of the tradition, particularly in Dublin,  is the tendency of people to wash their cars for Christmas and in the days leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Eve in particular there are long queues to be found at the car washes!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve children put out stockings,or in some cases pillowcases, on the end of their beds or over the bed for Santa to fill.

Young children are sent to bed early and RTÉ radio and TV (the national broadcasting station) covers the departure of Santa from the Northpole and they are told that they must be asleep before Santa arrives. This gives their parents time to finish the last preparations for Christmas.

Before going to bed children used to leave out a slice of Christmas cake and a glass of milk for Santa to help him on his way and a carrot for Rudolph. In more less socially conscious times a glass of whiskey or Guinness was left out, but in an era where drink driving is socially unacceptable the alcohol is being replaced by milk so that Santa wont be arrested for drink driving!

It is a tradition still partially observed whereby a lighted candle is placed in the window of the house on Christmas Eve. This is to light the way of the Holy Family as well as any other poor travellers out on such a night. In the latter part of the last century it also became a symbol of welcome for the vast numbers of people who had emigrated.

Traditionally after the evening meal, the table was set with bread and milk and the door left unlatched as a symbol of the hospitality that the family is offering to Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. Sadly this is no longer the case for security and crime prevention reasons.

Younger people meet up in the local pub, as everyone celebrates the return of friends from abroad and from other parts of Ireland as people return to their parental homes to celebrate Christmas with their family and use this as an opportunity to renew childhood friendships.

Adults often go to midnight Mass to see in Christmas day and some people open their presents after mass.

Christmas Day

The presents are opened on Christmas morning. This can be anytime from midnight to eight o’clock if young children wake early. The first thing the children find is a plate with crumbs, the end of a carrot and an empty glass. Incontrovertible evidence that Santa has been in the house!

Children opening their stockings in the morning in times past found an apple in the toe and an orange or tangerine in the heel, at a time when such fruits were considered exotic. But now the stockings are filled with chocolates, sweets and small toys.

Families with young children tend to go to an early morning mass, but get up significantly earlier to open the presents from Santa Claus and family.

In Dublin, a long standing tradition is to visit the graves of deceased relatives, on Christmas Day or over the Christmas period and to leave a wreath on the grave.

A traditional Christmas morning scene is one of young children out on the roads on their new bicycles, skateboards, roller skates or scooters.

Christmas dinner is generally served between mid-day and 3 pm. The main course is fairly standard: turkey, ham, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, potatoes and vegetables. Brussel sprouts are the traditional Christmas vegetable. The turkey is a more recent addition with Goose being the favoured bird until the middle of the last century.

For dessert the plum pudding is served with brandy and set alight, and garnished with holly. The Christmas cake is a fruit cake which is iced just before Christmas. Mince pies are also eaten. The table will usually have crackers which are pulled during the meal. Christmas cake is usually cut in the afternoon on Christmas day.

Spiced beef although another traditional Christmas dish is not as common these days. This is beef that has been spiced over several days and cooked and then pressed. It can be served hot but is usually served cold at some stage over the Christmas.

St. Stephen's Day

In Ireland both Christmas Day and St. Stephens Day are official bank holidays with most businesses giving their employees an extra day called a company day which is not considered as annual leave. Most companies operate a skeleton staff over the Christmas and New Year as this is a favoured period to take annual holidays. Christmas Eve normally sees most businesses close at around mid-day and where staff spend the morning eating mince pies and drinking hot-whiskey and Irish coffee’s.

St. Stephen's Day, the day following Christmas Day, is celebrated in Ireland in a different way to the rest of Europe. People tend to pursue or attend outdoor sporting activities, such as horse racing at Leopardstown in Dublin.

In some parts of Ireland the old Wren Boys' Procession is still enacted whereby young men in extravagant dress, sometimes wearing masks, parade noisily through the streets and carry a long pole on top of which is attached a holly bush. The bush supposedly contains a captured wren, and for whose sake the young men beg for money. Legend has it that the wren betrayed St. Stephen.

End of Festivities

Little Christmas or the Feast of the Epiphany on the 6th of January and marks the end of Christmas. This day is also called 'Nollaig na mBan', or Women's Christmas. It is also known as Little Christmas. This was traditionally a day for women to relax after all of the the hard work over the Christmas. Nowadays it is mainly marked by taking down the decorations and the Christmas Trees are taken to local municipal parks where they are recycled as mulch. It is also known as Little Christmas.

A lot of the traditional customs are based on religious underpinnings and although these are losing more of their meaning and relevance as the world becomes a more secular place it is good to realise that Christmas in Ireland still has an element of religion associated with it and refuses to be totally subsumed by commercialisation which threatens to overwhelm the feast day commemorating the birth of Christ, the Saviour.