Expert Explains | Beyond Santas and holly: how Christmas is celebrated in homes across India

Tinsel and glittery Christmas ornaments do adorn Christmas trees, but so do more indigenous decorations: papier maché stars, bells, crescent moons and balls; tinselled fabric elephants and camels; painted wooden bells; and more. Christmas-themed kolams and rangolis are made with rice flour, flowers and coloured powder in front of front doors, akashkandeels (traditional bamboo and paper lanterns) are hung in windows and balconies. Torans in red and green and gold are strung up above doorways.

Urban and suburban homes may have an artificial Christmas tree, but where these are unavailable (or where the home has an eager gardener), a small potted tree, often a morpankhi or an araucaria, may be decorated instead. Little cribs, depicting the nativity, decorate homes as well as churches.

Gifts are given, carols are sung. The rather more commercial Christmas carols—of the Jingle bells or Santa Claus is coming to town type, with little or no connection to the Christian basis of Christmas—have their place, but mostly more popular among Christians are the songs that talk of the birth of Jesus Christ. Silent night, Joy to the world, Hark the herald angels sing, and O come all ye faithful are among the most-loved, but they are not often sung just in English, but in regional languages, ranging from Mizo to Malayalam, Bhojpuri to Telugu (and dozens of other languages and dialects).

A church in Lucknow lit up ahead of Christmas. (Express photo: Vishal Srivastav)

An even larger range of Christmas songs are completely indigenous, their words and compositions, even the idioms and references they use, homegrown. There are Punjabi boliyaan and Dogri tappe celebrating Christmas.

Nativity plays are held, choral concerts and competitions feature everything from Christmas lavanis in Maharashtra to a cappella renderings of Hindi carols like Kya din khushi ka aaya. In Kerala, the unique religious drama form known as chavittunaatakam recounts the Christmas story in a Latin Christian style dating back to the late 16th century.

Amidst the carolling and the church services, the joy and the worship, there is also food. Feasting, such an intrinsic part of festivities across India, is also big at Christmastime. And the food that loads Christmas tables here reflects the mind-boggling regional diversity of India. While most non-Christians associate ‘Christmas feasting’ with the roast turkey, ham, Christmas pudding and mulled wine of the West, the truth is that almost all Christian homes in India in fact celebrate with their own regional specialties.

Thus, roast duck, stew, appams and beef fry may appear on Christmas menus in Kerala; in Goa there may be pork vindaloo, sorpotel, and xacuti, with a baath cake—rich in coconut and based on semolina—to follow. While close-knit communities in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur may gather together to celebrate with grand feasts of pork and rice, similar communities in the Chota Nagpur plateau may share chicken curries, dhuska (a fried dumpling of rice and dal) and aairsa, a rice flour sweet akin to the anarsa popular across north and central India. In much of North India, biryanis, curries, kababs and pulaos are de rigueur at Christmas, along with halwas and perhaps gulab jamun.

A baath cake, a Goan Christmas delicacy. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Of course, Christmas cake is a must, but even in the realm of cakes, regional variations are common. Cakes in peninsular India may include local ingredients like cashew nuts and coconut milk (the Pondicherry Christmas cake, known as vivikam, is typically made with both these ingredients). In several areas, ghee replaces the butter; in Maharashtra, chironji (aka Cuddapah almond) may be included in addition to the usual nuts and dry fruit. In my family—we are from Uttar Pradesh, with some links in Bengal—the very sugary candied ash gourd locally known as petha is added, though in judicious quantities.

And then there are the sweets, the savouries, the platters of delicacies offered to friends, family and neighbours to share in the joy of Christmas. In areas once colonised by the Portuguese—Goa, Mangalore, and Mumbai (where the East Indians are a prominent Christian community)—these spreads, known as kuswar or kuswad, can include marzipan, milk creams, kulkuls, and a range of other sweets made from coconut, cashew nuts, rice flour and lentils.

In Maharashtra, just as the faral—the array of snacks—at Diwali may contain laddoos, namakparas, and shankarpali (syrup-dipped fried dough), so these snacks may appear on Christmas faral as well. In Bengal, delicate stuffed pancakes called pithe may be made for Christmas with as much love and care as they are at Durga Puja. In North India, namakparas, samosas, and gujiyas may be among the snacks prepared for Christmas: again an echo of the feasts at major Hindu festivals like Diwali and Holi.

Christianity arrived in India as early as the 1st century CE; St Thomas (‘doubting Thomas’, one of Jesus’s disciples) is believed to have come to India as early as 52 CE. The Western elements that colour Christmas celebrations in the common perception are a new thing; for much of the Indian Christian community, ways of celebrating this festival pre-date these newer, more commercial trends. Christmas celebrations, whether it’s in food, art and décor, or music, tend to echo the regional diversity of the country, not really mirror Western ways of celebration.

Madhulika Liddle is a novelist, and has co-edited the anthology ‘Indian Christmas’