Spending Christmas in Costa Rica!

In Costa Rica as almost anywhere in the region, Christmas still represents a huge Catholic festivity, but without missing fiestas, parades, rodeos, street parties, bull runs, choral and dance festivals, and of course abundant presence of fireworks; specially if you are in the country side or the coast. In December a lot of Costa Ricans are on vacation or just living on holidays mood. You definitely experience an even bigger feeling of happiness and Pura Vida vibes in the air during this month.

You’ll find quite a lot of foreigners choose to spend their holidays in here. Looking for warmer climates, while winter season is over back home. Even though in Costa Rica’s North Pacific Coast weather is great all year long, starting in December the weather gets especially nice, the dry season starts, magazine sunsets appear, and cool breezy evenings delight anyone after a sunny day.

We can agree “there is no place like home for the holidays”, with all our friends, family and traditions, but for those that have been some time living here or just come regularly for the season, they discover a great way of experiencing special dates like Christmas.

For some it will be enjoying the different traditions of Costa Rican Christmas. From trying out special meals of the season to getting involved in all the decorations and preparations for Christmas Eve. Depending on the region people like to decorate their houses with red or beautiful tropical flowers. El Pasito or Portal, a model of the nativity scene, is the center of every Costa Rican traditional house in December. On Christmas Eve, everyone puts on their best clothes, most religious people go to Midnight mass, and friends and family get together celebrate and enjoy dinner, followed by gift exchange. Christmas Eve meals vary from house to house and in recent years it has been changing looking more like a Thanks Given one with big turkeys and salads on the tables than a traditional Costa Rican Christmas meal. However, the traditional Cena de Navidad includes chicken, pork or veggie tamales wrapped in plantain leaves, dried fruits and nuts Christmas cake and lots of egg nog and rum punch!

For others it might be spent celebrating with friends and family in a hotel, restaurant or a home but enjoying international traditions, and meals. In Guanacaste hotels, restaurants and every customer service oriented business is running for this important date. Depend on your style and preferences you can choose from a variety of options.

No matter how you decide to spend your Christmas, in Costa Rica is always great to explore different cultures and witness how things are done in other places different than the traditional way at home. Enjoying at the same time awesome weather, exuberant fine sand beaches, and great people!