Planning to spend a white Christmas in Switzerland and you’re curious about all their different Christmas traditions? Then you are definitely in the right place because this detailed guide covers all the most important Swiss Christmas traditions!
Advent markets, popular foods, and typical celebrations are all covered in this detailed guide. Keep reading to learn more about all the most common Christmas traditions in Switzerland and decide which ones seem like the most fun for you!
Table of Contents
Christmas Markets
The Swiss love a good Christmas market. If you visit any city or bigger town in Switzerland in December, you will immediately notice that everyone is in Christmas spirit. The towns get adorned with Christmas lights and all sorts of other decorations, and the Christmas market is usually set up in multiple locations throughout the town.
The Christmas market in Basel is the largest in Switzerland, and many consider it the best one in the country. It lasts for about a month from late November until Christmas Eve, and it boasts countless wooden stalls, decorations, and a variety of Advent events.
The Christmas season is in full swing even in the smaller towns throughout Switzerland, with St. Gallen and Chur hosting some of the best smaller Christmas markets in the country. The Christmas period is truly magical in these cities when their lovely old towns are adorned with all sorts of decorations and the locals swarm the streets to drink traditional mulled wine, eat Christmas foods, and celebrate Christmas with their closest friends.
Swiss Christmas Cookies
Go out for a walk in any Swiss town during Christmas time and you’ll notice that the wooden stalls at the main Christmas market locations all sell a variety of delicious cookies. Cinnamon stars, Basler brunsli, and Spitzbuben are just some of the popular varieties of Christmas cookies that you can try at any Christmas market in Switzerland, and there are many more.
Christmas cookie baking is also a long-standing family tradition in Switzerland. During the holiday season, families will come together and whip out their old recipes to create all sorts of delicious treats together.
It’s worth noting that many of these cookies are popular throughout the year in Switzerland, and you can often find them on sale at supermarkets. However, they never taste as good as when you’re eating them fresh from a wooden Christmas market stall, so be sure to try as many cookies as you can while you’re celebrating Christmas in Switzerland!
Swiss Santa (Samichlaus)
The Swiss even have their own version of Father Christmas – Samichlaus. Based on Saint Nicholas, a historical Christian saint known for secret gift-giving who served as Santa Claus’ model, the Swiss Santa Claus was born.
In many ways, Samichlaus is similar to Santa, but rather than wearing a red velvet outfit, he wears robes similar to those worn by Catholic saints. As for the Swiss Santa, he doesn’t give away presents on Christmas day – that’s Christkind’s job, while Samichlaus gives out tasty (and healthy) gifts to good children.
Advent Wreath
The Advent wreath (or Adventskranz) is another popular Christmas tradition in Switzerland and a way of counting the days left until Christmas. An Advent wreath is traditionally made from twigs and leaves, and it can be created in any shape or form you want. It’s usually round but it doesn’t have to be.
Advent wreaths can also be purchased in grocery stores, Christmas markets, and florist shops throughout the country. They’re usually on sale in late November, because in December it’s time to adorn them with four candles and start counting the weeks left until Christmas Eve.
The first of the four candles is lit on a Sunday that’s four weeks away from Christmas Eve. A new candle is lit every next Sunday until Christmas Eve finally arrives. This tradition is commonly observed by churches, but also by families.
Advent Window
The Advent window is a popular Swiss tradition of decorating windows with Christmas-themed images. This tradition can be done in a couple of different ways, whether it’s being observed by a community or a single household.
Want To Save This For Later?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
A single household who wishes to create an Advent window in their home will usually just decorate a window (or more) with Christmas-inspired images. It could be Santa, a Christmas tree, fairy lights, or pretty much whatever they want to display on their window.
It’s a bit different with communities and town buildings. Advent windows on municipal buildings or just bigger residential buildings will usually get adorned in the style of an Advent calendar. Each window will display an assigned number and a Christmas-related image. The windows are usually numbered 1-24, as is the standard or traditional Advent calendar.
Advents Calendar
Advent calendars are extremely popular in Switzerland, and there are many iterations of them. They’re usually on sale at stores starting in late November, and it’s hard to find a brand that doesn’t sell one of these. An Advent calendar can contain anything from delicious chocolates to luxury makeup products, so there are all sorts of Christmas calendars you can buy in Switzerland.
On top of that, some cities will decorate their municipal buildings to resemble a Christmas calendar. The windows of the buildings are numbered 1-24, and each is supposed to represent a certain image or theme relevant to Christmas. And there’s more.
Swiss tourist offices will often do an Advent-calendar-style prize draw throughout the month of December. The prize-draws start on December 1st and end on Christmas Eve, for 24 days of fun and gifts!
It has also become something of a tradition lately to give an Advent Calendar to your godchild as well. We have made some special forms of Advent Calendar in the last few years for our godchildren as a result.
Candle Dipping
Making dipped candles by hand is a very popular pastime during the Christmas season in Switzerland. This tradition is particularly popular in Zurich, and the city’s Christmas market normally features tents at every location where you can make your own candles.
The candles are usually made with beeswax and paraffin, and most places donate their proceedings from candle dipping to charities. This Christmas tradition is often observed by families, so most places where you can make your own dipped candles will include taller and shorter stations, for both adults and kids.
You can start to make whatever kind of candle you want, and when you’re done with the main part, you can give your candles to a professional who will add the final touches and make the candles look absolutely amazing!
Short Poems for Santa
The children in Swiss families are encouraged to write short poems for the Swiss Santa Claus. They can then recite these poems when Santa comes to visit their household on the 6th of December.
If they write and recite a poem that Santa particularly likes, it helps the kids get more treats even if they hadn’t behaved like a saint the entire year. This is a popular tradition observed by most families in Switzerland, and it’s common for kids to recite all sorts of short poems for Samichlaus.
Räbeliechtli
Making Räbeliechtli is another Christmas tradition that is most popular with Swiss children. But what is Räbeliechtli in the first place? They’re lanterns made from turnips – Räbe is German for turnip and liechtli are small lights.
This tradition is very similar to the carving of the pumpkin that happens on the days leading up to Halloween. The kids will take their turnips, cut off the tops and cut out a certain pattern inside. The main difference between carving turnips and pumpkins is that not all the flesh inside the turnip should be taken out. It turns translucent when it’s lit up with a candle inside, so you only need to carve out the amount of flesh that’s necessary to create a pattern.
Candles or LED lights are then placed inside the turnips. This is usually done earlier in the Christmas season because the Räbelichtli parade traditionally takes place close to St. Martin’s day that falls on November 10th. The exact day depends on the town or village, and during the parade, all the city lights are turned off, the local roads are blocked, and countless excited children illuminate the streets with their Räbeliechtli.
Christmas Eve Celebration
All the decorations, sparkly lights, and countless Christmas-themed events lead are a prelude to the Christmas Eve celebration. Most Swiss families celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and not on Christmas day, so December 24th is truly a special day in the country.
It’s the culmination of all the other events and traditions observed until that point. The Swiss like to decorate their Christmas tree on this day, and it’s usually a family event. Many families will also use this day to bake more cookies, dip more candles, sing Christmas carols, put up even more decorations, and devour all the different Christmas-themed treats. The more religious Swiss will also attend midnight mass at their local church, which traditionally takes place at 11 PM on Christmas Eve.
It’s interesting that the Swiss don’t have a traditional Christmas meal. Instead, they’ll just munch on their favorite local delicacies, and it is not uncommon for fondue to be the centerpiece of a family Christmas meal.
