Christmas in Costa Rica: The Ideal Family Vacation

Costa Rica’s Christmas season is filled with lights, music, mirth, and religious customs. As a predominantly Roman Catholic country, Costa Rica avoids much of the season’s commercialism in favor of more holy themes. While they may take midnight mass a little more seriously than other regions of the world.

Christmas is an excellent time to visit Costa Rica. There are light parades, family beach getaways, and lots of fireworks! Costa Ric-ans do not even wait until New Year’s Eve to light up the sky with fireworks; instead, they enjoy a light show on the beach at any time during the Christmas season. Their Christmas ritual includes the lighting of the night.

Luminous Parades In Costa Rica

Every major city has its own light parade, beginning with the ultimate light parade, held in San Jose every year during the second week of December to kick off the Christmas season. Playas del Coco also hosts a big light procession, with musicians arriving from all over the country to participate in the Festival Navideo.

Most houses and businesses will be decorated for Christmas as well. Costa Ric-ans light up their porches, called ranchos, and have a decorated Christmas tree inside.

The Nativity Scene

While a Christmas tree is a common way to adorn a Costa Ric-an home, the nativity scene, known as a gateway or pasito, is the focal point of any Costa Ric an Christmas decorating. These magnificent displays, embellished with local foliage, colorful sand, and lights, can be found under the Christmas tree or on a table. However, the Baby Jesus is not uploaded to the site until Christmas Day.

Life-sized portals are frequently displayed in churches and cities for everyone to admire.

On Christmas Eve,

While Christmas Day is traditionally the most important holiday in North America, this is not always the case in Costa Rica. Christmas Eve is when the family gathers for a large sit-down feast, usually over a well-marinated hog roast, or pierna de cerdo. This is also the time to serve the tamales, which are painstakingly made in the weeks running up to Christmas, frequently in large quantities!

The Christmas Eve lunch is traditionally served late in the evening, either before or after the Midnight Mass, known as Misa de Gallo (Mass of the Rooster) in Costa Rica.

Costa Ric-an children used to leave their shoes out for Nino Dios (Baby Jesus) to fill with gifts, but this Costa Ric an tradition has mostly been supplanted by stockings and Santa Claus, whom they name San Nicolas or Colacho.

Christmas Day is usually spent at the beach with relatives, where they cook carne asada on homemade barbecues and camping stoves. The holiday season is a busy time for the beach, but the atmosphere is celebratory, and people are in good spirits as they enjoy their most important Costa Rica family vacation of the year.

On New Year’s Eve

If the family does not gather on Christmas Eve for the traditional hog roast, they would most certainly convene on New Year’s Eve, which is another popular day for family gatherings in Costa Rica. After dusk, there are large fireworks displays, including an exceptionally large spectacular held each year at Tamarind Beach.

Family Vacations in Costa Rica

Why should you take a Christmas vacation to Costa Rica with your family? The holiday season is an excellent time to visit Costa Rica with your family! During this period, there are festivals, parades, and often fiestas. Fiestas are similar to rodeos, with plenty of food and entertainment for the entire family. This is also the season for tops (horse parades), with the largest event, with 3,000 horses, taking place in downtown San Jose on December 26. The rest of the country quickly follows with its own fiestas and horse parades.

Costa Rica is an excellent destination to escape the commercialism and commercialization that pervades much of North America over the Christmas season. Consider yourself and your family in a luxury rental villa, enjoying everything a Costa Rica vacation villa has to offer!

During your time at our Costa Rica luxury property, there is much to keep the kids engaged and you comfortable. A Variety of Resorts  is a four or six-bedroom villa with a private pool, covered outdoor dining area, a private chef, cleaning and laundry services, golf carts, mountain bikes, and stunning and private outdoor baths.

Our Costa Rica luxury villas are located within the private residences of Hacienda Pinilla Resort, where you and your family will have full access to all of the amenities, including an Mountain biking routes, tennis and pickle-ball facilities, surfing lessons, equestrian tours, and the Beach Club are all available.

Wrapping Up

The Beach Club has a tiki bar, a restaurant, an ocean-view gym, yoga lessons, and a big infinity pool that overlooks the beach. The resort also provides convenient access to three lovely Costa Ric-an beaches for you and your family.