Christmas in Greece: What you should taste during your holidays

No Christmas trip to Athens is complete without indulging in traditional Greek holiday treats. During the festive season, you’ll find classic flavors at nearly every shop, whether as a snack or a special treat.

In addition to these popular holiday sweets, there are also regional Christmas dishes from various parts of Greece that locals traditionally prepare on Christmas Day. Ready to embark on a culinary journey through Greece this Christmas?

The classic ones

Melomakarona: Honey-drenched cookies flavored with cinnamon and orange.

Kourabiedes: Buttery almond cookies dusted with powdered sugar.

Vasilopita: A New Year’s cake with a hidden coin for good luck.

Diples: Diples are light and airy fried dough dipped in honey, comes from Peloponese region, very popular during Christmas.

Christopsomo: Known as “Christ’s Bread,” this sweet, spiced bread is made with care and decorated with crosses or other symbolic shapes. It’s often enjoyed with cheese or honey.

Chestnut-Based Desserts: Chestnuts are often transformed into delicious Christmas treats like: Chestnut Cakes  (Rich, moist cakes made with pureed chestnuts and chocolate) and Candied Chestnuts (Chestnuts boiled in sugar syrup and glazed, perfect as a standalone dessert or accompaniment to coffee).

Stuffed Turkey: In many households, turkey stuffed with rice, chestnuts, pine nuts, raisins, and herbs takes center stage for a festive twist.

Wild Boar with Onions: A hearty, rustic dish often slow-cooked with wine, onions, and aromatic spices, offering a rich and flavorful centerpiece for Christmas feasts.

Lahanodolmades: Cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice, simmered in a lemon-egg sauce (avgolemono). This comforting dish is a holiday staple for many Greek families.

Chicken Roll Wrapped with Bacon: A succulent chicken roll filled with a savory stuffing, often made with ingredients like cheese, spinach, mushrooms, or dried fruits, then wrapped in crispy bacon. This dish is baked to perfection, offering a delightful blend of juicy chicken, smoky bacon, and a rich filling. It’s an elegant and delicious option for holiday gatherings that combines tradition with a contemporary twist.

Salad with Pomegranate, Raisins, and Walnuts: A festive salad combining fresh greens, juicy pomegranate seeds, sweet raisins, crunchy walnuts, and often a citrusy vinaigrette, adding color and brightness to the table.

Pork with Celery: A classic winter dish, pork is slow-cooked with celery and often finished with an avgolemono sauce, blending tangy and hearty flavors.

Roasted Lamb or Pork: Lamb or pork is often the centerpiece of a Christmas feast, roasted to perfection and served with potatoes seasoned with lemon, olive oil, and oregano.

Travel in Greece to live a Christmas food experience. 

Northern Greece – Thrace

Msoura is the traditional Christmas food of Melissochori in Thessaloniki. It is a trilogy of pork, beef and chicken braised with vegetables and rice in the oven.

Sarmades (Pontian cabbage rolls) is another festive dish that has a symbolic meaning as the wrapping of the cabbage leaves symbolizes the sparrows of Christ.

In the northern regions of Greece, pork is often served with sauerkraut.

No Thracian home is without the bambo (old woman’s day): pork with plenty of herbs and spices, which is simmered all night so that it is ready and warm in the morning, after the Christmas mass.

Epirus

The festive table includes cabbage dumplings, pies such as kushmeri or hosmeri, meat pie, batsaria (spanakopita), milk pie and sweet pumpkin pie.

In Ioannina, the wild boar salami and the classic baklava have their honour!

In Zagorochoria they make “spargana”, a sweet that resembles pancakes and symbolizes the spargana of Christ.

In Trikala, on Christmas Day, people used to eat “gournada” (roast pork) together.

In Evia, on Christmas Eve, they roast pieces of pork in the oven, sprinkled with plenty of salt, the so-called ‘kontosoufli’.

In Central Greece on the day of the holidays they eat pork with celery and chicken soup. Pichti and patsas are also festive delicacies, as are grilled meats.

In Peloponnese, the main dishes here are roast pork and meat pie, which is a Christmas classic, for example in Arcadia. In Sparta, housewives patiently shape the Christmas kouloura and make it cross-shaped rather than round. Each edge is decorated with almonds and walnuts.

Ionian islands: n the Ionian Islands, each region has its own unique Christmas dishes. From Kefalonia, we have ‘poutrida,’ a dish of cooked pork with seasonal vegetables, typically cabbage (mapa) or cauliflower (kavole), traditionally enjoyed on New Year’s Eve. In Zakynthos, Christmas Day features beef or chicken served with egglemono, while Christmas Eve is marked by kouloura or christopsomo, a flavorful loaf of bread made with oil, wine, aniseed, and walnuts. Lefkada is known for its rooster (cock) or beef pasta, and in Kythera, some still prepare the fasting pine cone stew, a hearty dish made with plenty of onions.

Dodecanese islands:  In Rhodes, “yaprakia” (dolmades) are served at the festive table, while on the other islands, roast pork is served alongside the turkey.

Aegean Islands – Cyclades – Other Islands

In Samos, they eat pork and pichti, which was boiled pork with lemon, which was cooked with fat and eaten on Christmas Day.

In Syros a custom is to eat cauliflower or broccoli and fish on Christmas Eve.

In Mytilene they make platseda, sweet pies with walnut. Almonds and diples sweeten the festive table on all the islands.

In Poros, pork with celery was the island version of the Christmas table.

Crete

In Lassithi, fried liver is a traditional Christmas Day dish. The holiday table is never without pork, often served as pig’s meat roasted in a wood oven with lemon leaves. The days following Christmas also feature an abundance of meat, including sausages, apakia, senglino, ‘tigari,’ and turkey, all beloved across the island. In Sfakia, along with the famous Sfakian pies filled with honey and myzithra, you’ll also find dishes like pork groups or ‘omathies,’ made with pig intestines.