Christmas in Dubai

Christmas Day, which falls on 25th December, is a holiday, in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity. Among the various aspects of celebration are gift-giving, Christmas trees, display of Nativity sets, the Santa Claus myth, church attendance, and family gatherings. Users of Gregorian calendar observe the holiday on 25th December. In Western countries, and over the past few years, Christmas is a significant holiday of the year, and is celebrated even by non-Christians.

Christmas is celebrated with great enthusiasm in Dubai, particularly over the past few years, due to increasing expatriate population here. The emirate celebrates by importing Christmas trees and decorating it, pouring artificial snow, and hosting special events at various places within the City. People go about visiting relatives and friends. Kubbeh, a special preparation made of crushed boiled wheat mixed with meat, accompanied with chicken, rice, onion, salt and pepper, is usually served for lunch.

Christmas Parties

Dubai is well-known for its lavish hotels and parties. Even the hotels in the city make an extra effort to offer unforgettable holiday memories to their customers, by decorating the hotel with lights and Christmas trees. They organize exquisite parties for guests, apart from other special mouth-watering delicacies, accompanied by Christmas carols. Majority of the hotels offer special Christmas lunch too.

Christmas Shopping

Although Dubai is a Shoppers paradise all through the year, there are special festive discounts offered at the malls for Christmas shopping. Nearly every mall and shopping centre displays some of their finest collections of the season and irresistible festive discounts. Wafi Mall is surely not to be missed during the festive season, as the celebrations here also include a Santa’s grotto, Christmas songs and various other discounts. Kids pose with Santa at the malls each year. In fact, Christmas in Dubai may be a wonderful chance to bring home holiday souvenirs for a steal, and visitors get to pick the finest collections of the season.

Other religious, entertaining activities

Although generally people associate Christmas celebrations with endless entertainment, glamour and vanity there are numerous fun things to do. Dubai also offers enough options for those who are religiously inclined. People are invited to attend the mass prayers on the Christmas eve at St. Frances of Assisi Church, located at Jebel Ali. Carols are sung in numerous parishes and devotees attend masses throughout the day. Everyone is permitted to walk into the church for attending the Mass. On Christmas day, the church serves lunch to the poor. Several other churches in Dubai also perform morning and evening prayers.

Posted on 23/12/2011

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