Irish Christmas Traditions

An Irish Christmas runs from a lit candle on Christmas Eve to Women’s Christmas on 6 January, with a cold swim and a parade of straw-clad Wren Boys in between. Many of its customs grew up in farmhouses and parish churches, and some have travelled with every generation that left. Here is what happens on each day, where the custom comes from as far as anyone can tell, and how families abroad keep it going.

The candle in the window

When: Christmas Eve, Oíche Nollag in Irish.

What people do: A single candle is set in the front window and lit as night falls. In many homes the youngest child lights it, and it’s left to burn through the night. Today it’s often an electric candle, for safety, but the idea hasn’t changed: anyone passing in the dark can see that this house is awake and welcoming.

Where it comes from: The meaning most families give is hospitality to Mary and Joseph, who found no room at the inn in Bethlehem: a lit window says there would have been room here. The National Museum of Ireland’s account of Christmas in the past records related beliefs, such as a candle left burning on the table on Christmas night because the Blessed Virgin was thought to pass every door, and places set at the table for the Holy Family. Another explanation, often repeated, ties the candle to the Penal Laws, when it is said to have signalled a safe house to a priest travelling in secret. It’s a moving story, but we haven’t found it in a primary record, so it’s best treated as tradition rather than documented history.

The light has taken on a second meaning in modern Ireland. During her presidency, Mary Robinson placed a light in an upstairs window of Áras an Uachtaráin, the President’s residence in Phoenix Park, as a sign that emigrants and their descendants were remembered. Her successors kept it burning, and the original lamp now shines in the library of her home town, Ballina.

Our card The Thatched Cottage is built around this custom: a whitewashed cottage in the snow, with one candle flickering in the front window.

Christmas Eve: holly, the crib and Midnight Mass

When: 24 December, and the night that follows.

What people do: In the old rural Christmas the house and the yard were cleaned from top to bottom, and the rooms were decked with evergreens: holly above all, with ivy and laurel. Most families set up a crib, and children gathered moss to dress it, but the figure of the infant Jesus was traditionally placed in it only on Christmas morning. Many people went to confession and then to Midnight Mass, and the supper afterwards was a plain one: the National Museum mentions white fish, potatoes and onion sauce. Some families lit candles for relatives who had died that year.

Where it comes from: These are Catholic customs of rural Ireland, recorded in the National Folklore Collection and summarised by the National Museum. The Christmas tree came later: the museum dates its spread across Ireland to the middle of the 20th century.

Christmas Day: Mass, the dinner and the swim

When: 25 December, Lá Nollag.

What people do: Mass, presents and a long dinner, as in much of the English-speaking world. One custom is more Irish than most: the Christmas morning swim. At the Forty Foot in Sandycove, south of Dublin, crowds wade into the Irish Sea on Christmas Day, and other bathing spots along the coast see their own Christmas swimmers.

Where it comes from: People have swum at the Forty Foot for around 250 years, according to The Irish Times. The Christmas Day dip grew out of that year-round habit rather than from any old festival.

St Stephen’s Day and the Wren Boys

When: 26 December, St Stephen’s Day, also called Wren Day (Lá an Dreoilín in Irish; dreoilín means wren).

What people do: Groups of Wren Boys, and now Wren Girls too, go from house to house or pub to pub in costume, often in suits and masks made of straw, playing music and singing. They carry a wren on a decorated pole or holly bush. In the past they asked for money “to bury the wren” and spent it on a party a few days later. The custom is strongest in Munster, in parts of Cork and West Kerry. In Dingle (An Daingean) the town divides into rival “Wrens”, each led by a hobby horse and a band of fifes, drums and tin whistles.

Where it comes from: Nobody knows for certain, and the explanations compete. RTÉ describes roots that are thought to be pre-Christian. Folk legends give Christian or historical reasons instead: a wren that betrayed St Stephen by waking his guards, or one that gave away an Irish ambush to the enemy. In Irish lore the wren is rí na n-éan, the king of the birds. Long ago a real wren was hunted for the day; that has stopped, and groups carry a stuffed or imitation bird instead.

The Late Late Toy Show

When: A Friday evening in late November or early December.

What people do: Families settle in front of RTÉ One for a special edition of The Late Late Show in which children demonstrate the year’s toys, alongside music and guests.

Where it comes from: The first toy segment went out in the 1970s, as a half-hour slot at the end of the regular programme. It has since become a full evening of its own.

Little Christmas and Women’s Christmas

When: 6 January, the Feast of the Epiphany.

What people do: Traditionally this was the day the men did the cooking while the women rested, met friends and had a treat of their own, which is why it’s called Nollaig na mBan, Women’s Christmas. It’s also the end of the season: it was thought unlucky to take the decorations down before it.

Where it comes from: The Royal Irish Academy notes that in medieval Irish, Christmas Day was “Great Christmas” and the Epiphany was “Little Christmas” (Nollaig Bheag in modern spelling). Today Nollaig Bheag means the New Year in the north and west of Ireland, and still the Epiphany in the south. Our page on Women’s Christmas and 6 January tells the story in full, and our guide to how Ireland sees in the New Year covers the days in between.

Keeping the tradition far from home

The candle in the window travels well. If you’re in Boston, Sydney or Manchester this year, light one on Christmas Eve, real or electric, and tell the children why: it’s the same welcome their grandparents’ house gave. Some families send a photo of their own window home, so that the family in Ireland can see the light is lit.

A few other customs keep well abroad:

• Leave the decorations up until 6 January. It’s a quiet, easy way to keep the Irish calendar, and it gives you a reason to mark Women’s Christmas with a meal or a phone call to the women of the family.
• Take the Christmas swim with you. If there’s a beach or a lake near you, a short Christmas morning dip with friends brings the Forty Foot a little closer.
• Watch together across time zones. If the Toy Show or a Christmas Mass from home is available where you live, watching it on a video call with family in Ireland makes the evening shared.
• Write the card in Irish. Even one line of Irish at the top of a card says more than a paragraph in English.

If the distance feels long this year, our page of messages for family far away has words for it.

The Christmas greeting in Irish

The greeting that has hung over the entrance to Grafton Street in Dublin at Christmas is Nollaig Shona Duit, “Happy Christmas to you”, said to one person. To a whole household it becomes Nollaig Shona Daoibh. Our guide to writing a Christmas greeting in Irish explains the difference, adds other phrases for the family and gives examples you can copy into a card.

Cards for an Irish Christmas

Our cards from Ireland are painted scenes of home: the thatched cottage with its candle, a harbour at night, a village pub with coloured bulbs over the door. Each one moves gently, carries its greeting in Irish, and leaves room underneath for your own words. Send it by email or text, or schedule it to arrive on Christmas Eve.