Christmas in South Korea

The biggest difference between western and South Korean Christmas celebrations is their focus. While Americans and Europeans consider Christmas a family holiday, South Koreans spend it with their significant other or friends.

Locals don’t typically spend the holidays at home, and that’s understandable. South Korea offers a variety of entertainment for every preference, including shopping, ice skating, caroling, and amusement parks.

However, South Koreans remember the real meaning of the holiday and, like most Christians, attend church services to celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Decorations

Starting in early December, South Korean towns decorate the streets and public places for Christmas.

Every American is used to seeing Christmas lights everywhere throughout December, but in South Korea, it’s an entirely different experience.

Frankly, South Korea deserves a place on your must-visit list only for the decorations.

Shopping malls, restaurants, cafes, museums, and town squares set up huge fairy light displays depicting holiday characters and symbols like Santa, Christmas trees, snowmen, and gift boxes.

The largest Christmas tree in Seoul stands near the Seoul City Hall, decorated with thousands of fairy lights and colorful baubles.

Coex Mall Starfield Byeol Madang Library traditionally puts up a two-story-tall Christmas tree with white lights and crystals.

South Korea is known for its technological advancements, so some places take decoration to a whole new level, implementing holograms and other unconventional solutions.

However, South Koreans rarely decorate their house exteriors, focusing on the interior. They hang Christmas wreaths on doors, adorn windows with garlands, and decorate Christmas trees with tinsel, baubles, and lights.

Interestingly, not every South Korean household has a Christmas tree. Even if they put up one, it’s usually small and artificial.

Shopping

There’s nothing quite like Christmas shopping in South Korea. Creative store windows create a festive atmosphere, and famous holiday songs like Jingle Bells embrace the cheer.

However, more often than traditional Christmas hymns, South Korean stores play popular K-pop songs released around Christmas time, even if they have no relation to the holiday.

As such, Christmas in South Korea isn’t a family holiday. Locals prefer to spend it outdoors with friends, wandering city streets in search of new clothes or gifts for their loved ones.

South Korean Christmas markets take place in every major town, and they are nothing like holiday fairs in Europe.

Instead of a few dozen wooden stalls situated on the town’s central square, some South Korean markets take up entire districts.

The Dongdaemun shopping district is a go-to for Christmas decorations, and if you’re looking for gifts, visit the Namdaemun market.

Handmade Market Korea is an organization that has been organizing Christmas markets selling crafts in Seoul since 2019.

The Vineworks Holiday Market in the Sangsu area of Seoul is a perfect place not only to shop but to eat, drink, and witness holiday events. Seoul’s Christmas Bazaar, held near Seoul Foreign High School, sells a variety of arts and crafts.

Department stores at Myeongdong shopping street present beautiful Christmas displays that amaze with the amount of illumination. Even if you don’t plan on wasting money, Seoul shopping districts are worth visiting at least to take pictures.

The IFC Mall in Yeouido hosts the Seoul Lighting Festival every year, allowing all visitors to take Instagram-worthy pictures and feel the holiday atmosphere.

Amusement Parks & Festivals

If you want to see a real winter wonderland, head to one of South Korea’s numerous amusement parks. Lotte World is the only indoor theme park in Seoul. Every year, it holds the Miracle Winter: Lights Up event.

The rides are available year-round, but at Christmas time, park visitors can witness performances with Christmas characters and miraculous displays, such as a life-sized castle sparkling in neon lights.

Kids (and their parents, no discrimination here) can take pictures with Santa.

Everland is the most famous amusement park in the country. Starting early December and until March, it hosts the Winter Wishes event, presenting fantastic golden light displays and firework shows.

Additionally, park visitors can shop at the Christmas market and watch parades. Garden of Morning Calm Lighting Festival boasts a huge collection of herbs adorned with over 30,000 fairy lights for Christmas.

Nature lovers will also appreciate the Pocheon Herb Island Lighting Fantasia event, where they can see hundreds of herb varieties and walk through a 300-meter-long tunnel in Santa’s Village.

Ice Skating & Sledding

South Koreans don’t spend the entire Christmas season shopping and visiting amusement parks. They also love to skate on ice rinks that are plentiful in every city.

Central ice-skating rinks in Seoul are always swamped, but those wishing to avoid queues can head to one of the temporary sledding slopes around the city. They won’t amaze professionals but are perfect for kids and beginners.

Locals and tourists preferring more extreme sledding can head to South Korean mountains rich with ski resorts. Even if there’s no snow in Seoul, ski resort visitors are guaranteed to experience a white Christmas.

Christmas Food

South Korea is known for its vast selection of food. Naturally, Christmas celebrations involve a lot of eating, but Koreans don’t like to spend time cooking. Instead, they prefer to eat out.

South Koreans adopted many traditions from the U.S., and Christmas food isn’t an exception. The traditional main course at the South Korean Christmas feast is turkey or glazed ham served with sweet potato noodles and kimchi.

Galbi, short ribs seasoned with brown sugar, pepper, ginger, garlic, and other spices, are a must-have at the festive table. South Korean cuisine staples like stir-fried noodles with meat and vegetables, dumpling soup, and rice dishes are also popular.

South Koreans don’t typically eat candy canes and Christmas pudding for dessert. Instead, they prefer light sponge cakes with cream and strawberry filling.

This South Korean Christmas dessert is inspired by the Japanese Christmas cake, decorated with whipped cream and fresh berries.

Some locals eat traditional desserts like candied sweet potato, rice cakes, ginger dumplings, and walnuts wrapped in persimmons.

Because winters in South Korea are cold, locals have come up with delicious street foods to keep themselves warm during long walks. For example, hotteok, sweet pancakes with syrup filling, are served at every Christmas market in South Korea.

Another Christmas street food is bungeobbang, fish-shaped bread filled with warm red bean paste. Fish cake skewers and rice cake dumpling soup are popular sweet snacks.

Gift Exchange

Gift exchange traditions in South Korea are peculiar to the region. Unlike Europeans and Americans who exchange gifts with their family and closest friends, South Koreans only exchange gifts with their significant other.

Christmas in South Korea is more of a romantic holiday than a family celebration. For this reason, you’re guaranteed to see a myriad of couples sitting in cafes and skiing on ice rinks, but almost no families walking with kids.

You won’t see a Christmas tree with a stack of gifts wrapped in colorful paper underneath it in a South Korean home. Even if Koreans exchange gifts with family, they are usually monetary.

Still, kids always get gifts from South Korean Santa Claus, who looks almost the same as American Santa. He also wears a red suit with fur trims and a black buckled belt and rides a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

But unlike American Santa, who can’t resist cookies and milk, South Korean Santa prefers sponge cake covered in cream from a local bakery.

In some regions, South Korean Santa Claus wears a blue or green folk attire and a native flat-topped hat worn by men in the times of the Joseon Dynasty reign.

Christmas Cards

Although South Koreans rarely exchange gifts with friends and family, they send their loved ones Christmas cards. Christmas cards are sold on every corner in South Korea – in grocery stores, kiosks, cafes, and post offices.

Most South Korean Christmas cards are nature-inspired, depicting picturesque Korean mountains, snowy trees, and native animals.

Some cards feature holiday characters and symbols. There’s also a wide selection of fun Christmas cards with K-pop singers and animation movie characters.

Church Services

Despite the commercialization of the holiday, South Koreans don’t forget about the religious aspects of Christmas. The country has a high church attendance rate at Christmas time.

Midnight Masses and Christmas Day services are held all over the country, so locals and tourists have no issue finding one close to home. The most attended Midnight Mass in South Korea takes place in Myeongdong Cathedral.

Like everything in South Korea, cathedrals are decorated with neon signs and fairy lights and have creative displays with angels, stars, and other Christmas symbols set up near the entrance.

Christmas Movies

South Koreans prefer to spend Christmas outdoors, but this doesn’t mean that they will miss a chance to watch Christmas movies while drinking hot chocolate with their significant other.

Most Christmas movies South Koreans watch for Christmas are American, like Home Alone, The Santa Clauses, and A Christmas Story. Many locals favor Mug Travel, a story about a small girl and her animal friends’ adventures.

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