Greece's festive season runs for the twelve days from Christmas Day, 25 December, to Epiphany (Theofania), 6 January, and 25 and 26 December, 1 January and 6 January are public holidays, when most shops are closed and state museums and archaeological sites, including the Acropolis, shut on 25 and 26 December and 1 January. The big cities start earlier: Athens lit its Christmas tree on Syntagma Square on 27 November in 2025, and Thessaloniki lit the tree on Aristotelous Square on 3 December. This guide explains the customs you will see, what happens in Athens and Thessaloniki, what is open on each holiday, and where to spend the season.
Christmas in Greece is quieter than Easter, which is the bigger religious feast, and New Year matters as much as Christmas Day. Gifts are traditionally given on 1 January, St Basil's Day, rather than on 25 December, and the season ends with the blessing of the waters on 6 January.
Greek Christmas traditions: the kalanta
On the mornings of Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and the eve of Epiphany, children go from door to door, and into shops and cafés, singing the kalanta, the traditional carols, with a small metal triangle. Each holiday has its own song. People give them a few coins or sweets. If you are in a Greek town on the morning of 24 or 31 December, you will hear them on the streets; it is fine to give something.
Decorated boats and Christmas trees
The karavaki, a small decorated boat, is the older Greek Christmas decoration, a reminder of a seafaring country waiting for its sailors to come home. Today most Greek homes and squares have a Christmas tree, but boats still appear alongside the trees in many towns, from children's school crafts to lit models on harbour fronts and squares.
The Christmas tree on the Venetian harbour front of Chania, Crete, in December 2025. Image: Fotinisamioti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Melomakarona, kourabiedes and Christmas food
Two sweets mark the season, and you will find them in every bakery and pastry shop from early December:
- Melomakarona: soft biscuits made with olive oil, orange and spices, soaked in honey syrup and topped with chopped walnuts.
- Kourabiedes: crumbly butter-and-almond shortbread buried in icing sugar.
A kourabies (left) and a melomakarono, the two Greek Christmas sweets. Image: Alpha, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On Christmas Day, families traditionally sit down to roast pork or turkey, and many households bake a decorated Christmas bread, the christopsomo. Christmas Day is a family day, so expect towns to be quiet in the afternoon.
New Year: vasilopita and the lucky coin
At midnight on New Year's Eve, or at lunch on New Year's Day, Greek families cut the vasilopita, St Basil's cake or sweet bread, with a coin baked inside. The head of the household cuts slices in a fixed order: the first for Christ, then the house, then each member of the family by age. Whoever finds the coin, the flouri, is said to have luck for the year. The custom goes well beyond the family table: workplaces, clubs, schools and associations cut their own vasilopita through January.
A vasilopita coin, wishing "many years, a good year". Image: Μυρμηγκάκι, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
St Basil (Agios Vasilis), whose feast is on 1 January, is the Greek gift-bringer, so children traditionally open their presents on New Year's Day. Many families also keep the custom of the podariko, the first person to step into the house in the new year, who should bring good luck, and some smash a pomegranate on the doorstep for prosperity.
Theofania: the blessing of the waters on 6 January
Epiphany, Theofania or Fota in Greek, closes the season on 6 January. After the morning service, priests lead processions to the sea, a river, a lake or a harbour, bless the waters and throw a cross into them. Swimmers dive in to recover it; the one who brings it back is said to be blessed for the year. Every coastal town holds a ceremony, and the big ports draw crowds.
Swimmers diving for the cross at the Epiphany blessing of the waters in Piraeus. Image: Οικονόμου Στέφανος / Oik S at Greek Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
If you are in Greece on 6 January, ask locally where the town's ceremony is held, and get there in good time: the crowds gather before the end of the church service.
Athens: the Syntagma Square tree, a market and New Year's Eve
The City of Athens opens its season with the lighting of the tree on Syntagma Square, in front of Parliament. In 2025 the tree, a fir from Chrysovitsi in Arcadia, was lit on Thursday 27 November, at a free evening event that began at 17:00 with Christmas music, a parade by the Municipal Philharmonic from the Ermou Street fountain at 18:00, and the lighting at 19:30.
The Christmas tree on Syntagma Square at night. Image: George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In 2025–26 the city also held its first large Christmas market, on Kotzia Square in front of the Town Hall, from 20 December 2025 to 6 January 2026, daily from 12:00 to 21:00, with wooden huts, a carousel, music and children's activities. The city's festive programme ran until 11 January and included a Santa Run on 21 December.
On New Year's Eve, the City of Athens holds a free party on Syntagma Square. For 2025–26 it started at 22:00 with the Municipal Philharmonic, followed by concerts, a drone show and silent fireworks at midnight.
Ermou Street, Athens's main shopping street, decorated in December. Image: George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The 2026–27 dates had not been announced by mid-October 2026. Check the City of Athens website (cityofathens.gr) from mid-November.
Thessaloniki: Aristotelous Square and the White Tower
Thessaloniki's season begins with the lighting of the tree on Aristotelous Square. In 2025 the municipality lit it on Wednesday 3 December, at a free concert that started at 20:00. The city's New Year's Eve party is held on the waterfront at the White Tower; for 2025–26 it ran from 20:00 on 31 December to 03:00, with DJs and a laser show from the top of the tower at midnight. See our guide to Thessaloniki at Christmas for the details.
What's open on 25 and 26 December, 1 January and 6 January?
All four days are public holidays in Greece. In practice:
- 25 December (Christmas Day) and 26 December (the Synaxis of the Theotokos): most shops, banks and offices are closed. State museums and archaeological sites, including the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum, are closed on both days.
- 1 January (New Year's Day and St Basil's Day): shops and offices are closed; state museums and archaeological sites are closed. Many cafés and restaurants open late in the day, after the night before.
- 6 January (Epiphany): a public holiday, but state museums and sites are listed as open. Shops are mostly closed.
- 24 and 31 December: working days, but shops and businesses may close early, and sites may keep shorter hours. Check before you go.
Cafés, restaurants and tavernas in the cities and tourist areas often stay open over the holidays, and many take bookings for Christmas and New Year's Eve meals; book ahead if you want a table. Public transport runs on holiday timetables, so check before you travel on those days.
Where to spend Christmas and New Year in Greece
Athens has the most going on: the Syntagma tree and New Year's Eve party, the Kotzia Square market if it returns, and museums open on the days in between. Winter is a good time to see the Acropolis without the summer heat and crowds, as long as you avoid the three closed days.
Thessaloniki suits travellers who want a city break with food at its centre: the Kapani and Modiano markets, Byzantine churches, the waterfront and a big New Year's Eve party.
Trikala and Meteora. Trikala, in Thessaly, holds the country's best-known Christmas park, the Mill of the Elves (Mylos ton Xotikon), in and around the old Matsopoulos mill. For 2026–27 the Municipality of Trikala gives the dates as 20 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, open daily 10:00 to 22:00, with free entry. Meteora, whose monasteries stay open in winter on shorter hours, is a short trip beyond; see our guide to Meteora in winter.
Mountain villages. For a white Christmas, Greeks head to stone villages in the mountains of Epirus, Macedonia and central Greece, many of them near ski areas. Snow is not guaranteed, but in a cold winter the villages look the part.
A Christmas tree in the snow in the mountain village of Nymfaio, Western Macedonia. Image: Vagrand, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The islands are quiet in winter. Many hotels and tavernas on smaller islands close from autumn to spring, and ferry timetables are reduced. Crete and the larger islands keep more open, and their main towns decorate for the holidays.
Tips for Christmas in Greece
- Weather: Athens is mild compared with northern Europe but can be cold and wet in December and January; northern Greece and the mountains are colder, with frost and sometimes snow. Pack a warm coat and waterproofs.
- Plan museum visits around 25 and 26 December and 1 January, when state sites are closed.
- Book early for flights and hotels around New Year, when many Greeks travel to see family.
- Join in: give the children singing the kalanta a coin, accept a piece of vasilopita if you are offered one, and go and watch the blessing of the waters on 6 January.
