Sri Lanka is a tropical island, but even with its sweltering year-long summers and coconut-lined oceanscapes, it doesn’t shy away from wintery Christmas celebrations. Think: doorways adorned with tropical mistletoes; pocket-sized rich cakes meticulously wrapped in brightly colored paper; and the cheerful hum of Christmas carols and kapirinna (a popular Sri Lankan music and dance) songs. So when December rolls in, it’s no secret that our island home buzzes with new life.

Growing up in this predominantly Buddhist country, I saw how Christmas naturally became a season in which many Sri Lankans joyfully participated, regardless of their faith. To us, Christmas is a time to rediscover our roots and reconnect with those we love, all wrapped in our own traditions and customs. This year, while London becomes the very embodiment of a traditional Western Christmas, the familiar warmth of our faraway home still lingers with us here at Kolamba, our Sri Lankan restaurant in London. So, join us as we explore the true spirit of a tropical Christmas in Sri Lanka.

Holiday preparations

In coastal cities and towns such as Negombo, Colombo, and Chilaw, where there is a large Christian population, Christmas preparations begin months in advance for the holiday season. 

If you step out into some of Sri Lanka’s major cities during this time, you will – quite truly – notice the vibrancy Christmas brings with massive Christmas trees, extravagant decor, and twinkling lights in every corner. Like Avurudu, Christmas is a time of celebration: locals crowd the malls and marketplaces for shopping, and others frequent beloved local bakeries for holiday treats like love cake, bibikkan (a dark, moist coconut cake), and chocolate fudge.

At home, everyone pitches in to clean, tidy, repair, and paint the walls. It’s also during this time that the Christmas decor box, stored away all year as it’s left collecting dust, finds its way back to the store-bought fir tree, which slowly begins to take centre stage in the living room. Families, friends, and neighbours gather hand in hand for this occasion with baubles, golden tinsel, and fairy lights.

Homemade wine and baked goodies

During the festive season, our homes are the smell of spices, wine, and a whole lot of baked goodness – warm, sweet, and inviting. It’s also when we unravel our tightly guarded family recipes and spend time brewing and baking, usually months or weeks before Christmas. Among these recipes are the tangy wines and decadent cakes like bibikkan and love cake that trace their origins to Sri Lanka’s Burgher (descendants of Europeans who intermarried with Tamils and Sinhalese) community.

Apart from king coconut wine, which is made by fermenting coconut water with spices like cloves and cardamom, we also brew a seasonal specialty called milk wine, perfect for leisurely evenings at home. A fusion beverage from the Dutch Burgher community in Sri Lanka, this milk and arrack drink is fermented for weeks with citrusy orange and pineapple juice, and a medley of spices. Wines aside, homemade ciders such as ginger beer are ubiquitous.

Baking cakes is a holiday ritual, especially the nutty, rich Christmas cake and the dense and buttery breudher cake, both with their origins tied to the European colonial days. Bibikkan, a uniquely Sri Lankan coconut cake, has also become a Christmas essential. Made with coconut, jaggery, spices, and a whole lot of love, bibikkan is the kind of sweet you slowly nibble on during get-togethers.

Sri Lankan Christmas Traditions

Christmas is a time of goodwill and sharing. While there are many traditions, nothing is as symbolic as the Christmas carols. Families, friends, and relatives gather around twinkling lights at home, and in churches, schools, malls, and sometimes at elders ' homes, and hospitals to harmoniously hum songs of love, hope, and compassion.

On Christmas Eve, parents and children attend Mass. And as Christmas arrives, thousands of firecrackers crackle in the air, celebrating the birth of Jesus in a uniquely Sri Lankan way. At home, gifts and snacks are shared, and families build nativity scenes using hay and porcelain figures of Baby Jesus and Mother Mary, to truly celebrate the birth of Christ.

On the day of Christmas,  friends and neighbours visit each other with generous hampers of Christmas goodies. It is also a time when people celebrate devotion, gratitude, and togetherness as they share feasts. Lunch often resembles the Sri Lankan New Year table, but it’s usually more elaborate, with additions such as roasted turkey, crab curry, or the Sri Lankan wild boar stew, often enjoyed as a seasonal delicacy. The stew is slow-cooked with spices like black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, and curry powder (a powdered spice mix), and savoured with rice or a glass of arrack, a distilled alcoholic drink made from the sap of coconut flour. 

Post lunch, the high spirit of Christmas comes alive as children and adults sing, dance and make merry. In those moments, you can hear the rhythmic tunes of kapirinna in the coastal regions – a type of baila (a music genre unique to Sri Lanka with its history threaded to the island’s Afro-Portuguese traditions) that tells light-hearted stories of the peace and harmony Christmas brings to our tiny island.