Christmas Chocolate Traditions Around the World

Chocolate appears at Christmas in all sorts of forms around the world. In some countries, it marks the countdown to Christmas; in others, it is shaped into gifts, wrapped around secret messages, hung from the tree or served hot alongside festive food.

There is no single Christmas chocolate tradition. Instead, different countries have found their own ways to make chocolate part of the celebrations - and that variety is part of what makes the subject so interesting.

As Harry Specters founder and Head Chocolatier Mona Shah explains: chocolate is particularly well suited to Christmas because it can be moulded into festive shapes, paired with seasonal flavours such as orange, cinnamon and nuts, and enjoyed in everything from everyday Advent traditions to special Christmas gifts.

Germany: counting down with Advent calendars

Germany has a particularly strong connection with the Advent calendar. By 1 December, calendars with 24 small doors, pouches or packages are ready to begin the countdown to Christmas Eve, with a small surprise revealed each day. Today, those surprises can be anything from pictures to little gifts or sweet treats.

Chocolate suits the ritual rather neatly: it turns waiting into something tangible, with one small treat marking each passing day. Advent calendars may now come in countless different designs, but the pleasure of counting down one day at a time remains. Our history of Advent calendars looks more closely at how the tradition developed.

The Netherlands: chocolate letters for Sinterklaas

Christmas is not the only December celebration where chocolate takes centre stage. In the Netherlands, chocolate letters are an integral part of Sinterklaas celebrations in the weeks before 5 December. The letters are given as gifts and usually represent the first letter of the recipient’s name.

It is a simple idea, but one that makes chocolate immediately personal - a present that quite literally has someone’s name on it.

France: papillotes with a message inside

Around Lyon, Christmas brings papillotes: individually wrapped chocolates or confectionery with a small message tucked inside the wrapper. Depending on the papillote, that might be a quotation, joke, riddle or piece of trivia, giving the sweet an extra element of surprise.

Their exact origin is wrapped in legend. One popular Lyonnais story places their beginnings around 1790, when a confectioner’s apprentice supposedly wrapped chocolates with love notes for his sweetheart. Whatever the truth of the tale, papillotes became closely associated with Lyon and the Christmas period.

They are a good example of chocolate becoming part of the conversation around the table rather than simply something to eat after it.

Switzerland: chocolates on the Christmas tree

In Switzerland, chocolate can even become part of the decorations themselves. Swissinfo describes a Christmas tradition of hanging colourful, foil-wrapped chocolates on the tree, ready to be taken down and eaten from Christmas Eve onwards.

It is difficult to think of a more literal meeting of decoration and dessert. The bright wrappers add colour to the tree, while everyone knows the decorations are gradually going to disappear.

The Philippines: Christmas chocolate served hot

Not every Christmas chocolate tradition involves something wrapped or moulded. In the Philippines, tsokolate is a traditional hot chocolate drink made using tablea, which is produced from fermented cacao beans that are roasted, ground and moulded into tablets or discs.

During Simbang Gabi, the series of nine Masses leading up to Christmas, seasonal rice cakes such as bibingka and puto bumbong are often enjoyed afterwards with hot tsokolate or salabat, a ginger drink.

Here, chocolate is less about opening a present and more about warmth, food and gathering together.

Why does chocolate fit Christmas so well?

Look across these traditions and chocolate keeps changing its job. It can count down the days in Germany, spell out a name in the Netherlands, hide a message in France, decorate a tree in Switzerland or warm a cup in the Philippines.

That flexibility is perhaps the real Christmas chocolate tradition shared across borders. Different cultures have made chocolate part of their own celebrations in very different ways, but the ideas behind them feel familiar: anticipation, giving, sharing and creating small moments people look forward to each year.

At Harry Specters, the same flexibility can be seen across our Christmas chocolate collection, from smaller seasonal treats to gift boxes and Advent calendars.

And perhaps that is why chocolate keeps finding a place at Christmas. It is not tied to one ritual. It can become whatever the occasion needs it to be.