Christmas in Belize isn’t about expensive gifts and toys, it’s about spending time with family and friends. All the government offices, banks and most non-tourist oriented business shut down for the week surrounding Christmas Day.

One important Christmas tradition is to spiff up the interior of your home. This is a Belizan way of inviting the Christmas spirit into your home. You can not judge a locals home by the exterior this time of year, as everyone brings out their gold, red and green curtains, tablecloths, etc. In preparation for all the family and friends visiting, Belizeans don’t just decorate the inside of their homes this time of year, they give them a facelift too. They repaint the walls, hang new drapes and even replace the flooring. This is the Belizean version of spring cleaning, and the entire family pitches in. As we drove through the towns and villages we could see many people out cleaning up their yards and putting a fresh coat of paint on their homes.

Many Belizeans put up Christmas trees, but typically they are the synthetic version. Those who can afford it decorate with lights and other decorations. We did notice that a lot of houses put up a decorated tree either on their porch or up on their roof top. I assume there is either not room in their home or more than likely they just want to put it outside to share the holiday spirit with their friends and neighbors.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day feasts will usually include traditional local foods  such as rice and beans, potato salad, white relent (soup with pork stuffed chicken and raisins), pebre (roast pork) or ham with pickled onions and jalapeños, tamales and of course rum cake. These dishes are usually modified for the holidays to include unusual meats and fowl. As we were sitting at a restaurant enjoying a bucket of Belikin, a local came in and was gathering up all the empty liquor bottles. He explained that he was going home to make Rumpopo, a Belizan version of eggnog for the holidays. We can’t wait to someday try Rumpopo……. Rumpopo, Rumpopo, such a fun word to say it has to be good. We did buy a small chocolate rum fruitcake from someone who said that when we eat it we will feel 16 again. It was a very good cake and I suppose if we would have ate the whole thing we might have felt 16, but who really wants to be 16 again.

Since Belize is a melting pot of many different cultures, there are many different types of celebrations happening around the holidays. Some of the different traditions are…Christmas Bram, Mayan Deer Dance, La Posada and Garifuna Jankudu Dance. With a large portion of the country belonging to the Christian faith, midnight mass is a very important tradition. It doesn’t matter how Christmas is celebrated in Belize there is always lots of food, dance, music and celebration happening.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE