Who celebrates christmas in Alanya?

The obvious answer to the question is "everyone that lives here does"...

For most people Christmas is more of an event than a religious thing meaning that it is  - but of course in its own way - celebrated by everyone even in a Muslim country like Turkey.

Also no shop in Turkey is blind to the commercial aspect of Christmas so currently all shopping is accompanied by Christmas decorations and jingle bells.

Some even claim that Santa actually comes from Turkey and not the North pole, Finland, Greenland or anywhere else.

With that said celebrating Christmas in Alanya is of course very different than celebrating it at home. The special Christmas mood that you find in your home country can not be replicated anywhere, no matter how hard you try.

People who choose to travel to Alanya during the holidays do so because they want to get away from all the Christmas activities at home, so they surely do not mind.

And all of us living permanently here in Alanya do not have same expectations to Christmas as we would normally have.
Instead we make Christmas our own way and try to mix some of the traditions we know from home with the opportunities that are available in Alanya.




Most of the Christmas food you can actually cook more or less like you would do it at home. Some ingredients might not exactly be the same, but it is more or less possible to cook at full Christmas meal just like the one your mother would have cooked for you.

Unless you want to drive to the mountains and cut down a tree, you might have to settle for a plastic one and you for sure wont get any snow.

It might get cold, windy and rainy but snow is definitely never going to happen in Alanya.

Plenty of restaurants offer Christmas dinners and entertainment, but we recommend staying at home since we believe that Christmas is best celebrated at home.

In the end it is all about what works for you but our best recommendation is to take the best of your home Christmas, adjust it to living abroad and then spice it up with what Alanya has to offer.

One of our favorite traditions is to follow Santa deliver his presents all over the world via the googlofficial Santa Tracker: https://santatracker.google.com/intl/en/village.html

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays no matter how you choose to celebrate.