Caribbean Christmas: How Some Caribbean Islands Celebrate the Holiday Season

By Rick Martin Dec 24 2023, 21:30 PM EST

It is Christmas time once again and much like in Latin America, they also enjoy celebrating Christmas in the Caribbean, with each country having its own unique traditions. So what does a Caribbean Christmas mean exactly?

The answer is actually dependent on how each country or island in the Caribbean celebrates the holiday season, be it with a traditional Christmas Eve mass and a Noche Buena feast or something more unique that is distinct to each Caribbean nation.

5 Christmas Traditions Around the Caribbean

There are hundreds of islands in the Caribbean and each of the inhabited ones has its own ways of celebrating the Christmas season. We picked five of what we think are either unique or festive and sound like a great thing to do for the holidays.

Antigua: Carol Trees

Antigua has plenty of unique Christmas traditions as the island blends its African, European, and indigenous practices for the holidays. A good example is the so-called "Carol Trees" and they are used in one might expect from the name, and that is Caroling, Made from a stick with several cross-bars, like a telephone pole; it has some lanterns hanging from its branches. These are carried from house to house by carol singers and are accompanied by plenty of music, according to Caribbean Beat.

Cayman Islands: Sand Yards

Having a "White Christmas" is virtually impossible for tropical islands in the Caribbean. However, the Cayman Islands found a workaround and they used their famous white sand beaches to get that "White Christmas" effect. Residents gather white sand from the beaches and place them in their yards as a replacement of sorts for snow. According to Enchanted Honeymoons, this usually happens every December 24, which is, of course, Christmas Eve.

St. Lucia: Festival of Lights

The island of St. Lucia is named after its patron saint, which is, well... Saint Lucia. Her feast is celebrated as part of the Christmas holidays and it is known as the Festival of Lights and is filled with lantern-making and Christmas lights being placed all over the house.

Trinidad & Tobago: Paranging

Paranging is Trinidad & Tobago's own version of Christmas Caroling where they sing a traditional Christmas music known as Parang.

According to Day Translations, these parangs are used to serenade people around various communities in the islands, using horns, steel drums, pots and pans, and various everyday objects as make-shift musical instruments. These parangs are usually sung in Spanish too!

Jamaica: Jamaican Christmas Feast

While Christmas feasts are not unique, Jamaica's version has plenty of unique and traditional foods being served for the holiday, with plenty of merrymaking along the way.

Foods traditionally being served on this Caribbean island include their famous sorrel drink, a Jamaican black fruitcake, gungu peas, and many more. They are served with the usual Jamaican favorites, such as oxtail and curry goat. And that black fruit cake of theirs? It's usually soaked in rum so never give those to kids.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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