10. Dezember 2025

Christmas In Jamaica

Christmas in Jamaica is a celebration unlike any other—a blend of local customs, amazing food, tropical landscapes, and reggae-infused Christmas-Music. One of the best things about Jamaican Christmas is the special, tropical inspired, cuisine. A good example of that is the well-known “Sorrel Drink”. It’s a mixture of water, pimento berries and many spices, but most importantly, what gives it the red color, are the hibiscus petals. It’s often served cold and normally there is a little rum added to the mix. Another Christmas classic is the Jamaican Christmas cake or just known as Jamaican rum cake. It is made out of dried fruits, like raisins and prunes, that were soaked in rum or red wine for weeks before baking. It has a very fruity flavor, a very moist texture and should not miss on any Jamaican Christmas party. If you want something more savory instead, I can really suggest the so called “Curried Goat”. It is served year-round but is more known as a Christmas dish. The meat is marinated in Jamaican spices and is slowly cooked until tender. A perfect addition to this dish is some rice. 

Now that we covered all the food we can talk about the music. As you might already know, Jamaica is the birthplace of reggae music, and the island’s holiday celebrations wouldn’t be complete without its influence. During Christmas time you can hear many famous Christmas songs with a little reggae twist to them. These songs are perfect for a little walk through the grand market, which is one of the biggest Christmas traditions in Jamaica next to the Jonkonnu, which we will cover later. The Grand Market happens on Christmas Eve and it unfolds across the major towns in Jamaica. It is a big Jamaican Christmas market where you can nearly get everything you can imagine to get on a Christmas market. On the second day of Christmas there is the great Jonkonnu. Its origins lie in the days of African enslavement on Jamaica. The dance known as Jonkonnu was back then performed on the only three holidays allowed to the enslaved Africans, Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years Day. It’s still performed today and counts as one of the greatest and most popular Jamaican Christmas traditions. I hope I could give you a good perspective on Christmas in a different country and I wish you a merry Christmas.

Author: Til S.