Christmas is the biggest and most-hyped festival of Indian Christians. The festivities for Christmas continue for ten days from December 24 th to January 1, the New Year day. Prayers, plays, parties, carols and fun filled get togethers are a part of Christmas festivities. Also, associated with the celebrations are cakes, Christmas trees, gifts and Santa Claus. Christians and even the non-Christian community participate with great enthusiasm in the various festivities associated with it. People decorate their homes with mango or banana trees instead of traditional pine trees at Christmas time. Candles, small oil-burning lamps made of clay known as ‘diyas’ that are placed on the tops of walls that give an ethereal feel and look quite beautiful.

Churches often have an Evening Service on Christmas and are fabulously decorated with poinsettias and candles. X-mas trees can be seen in the urban trees adorned with familiar stars and tinsels, toys and colorful streamers. Nativity plays in schools and churches on Christmas mornings showcase the Jesus’s birth and the scenes from Jesus’s lives that usually end with singing hymns and carols and the visit of Santa to distribute candies to kids. In the metros, one can see Santa entertaining the children at departmental stores with a familiar plump belly, a big smile and small toys as gifts. Caroling processions on streets and thoroughfares can also be seen during Christmas.