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In Korea, Christmas wears a very different sweater than it does in the West. December 25 is an official public holiday, but it is not a family gathering or a religious centerpiece for most Koreans. Instead, it is the country's biggest unofficial couples' holiday, a glittering night defined by pre-ordered bakery cakes, fried chicken dinners, dazzling Seoul illuminations, and a steady stream of K-pop holiday songs.
Why Christmas in Korea Is a Couples' Holiday, Not a Family One
While Lunar New Year (Seollal) and Chuseok are the family holidays in Korea, Christmas belongs to couples. The reason is partly historical and partly demographic. Korea is religiously diverse, with roughly 25 percent of the population identifying as Protestant and about 10 percent as Catholic, while most Koreans practice no religion or follow Buddhism. Christmas became an official public holiday in 1949, but for the non-religious majority, December 25 evolved into a romantic occasion similar to Valentine's Day. Couples plan dinners weeks in advance, dress up for evening walks under glowing trees, exchange small gifts, and post photo dumps the next day. Single friends often joke about "Christmas loneliness" and band together for parties instead.
The Christmas Cake Tradition: Paris Baguette and Tous les Jours
If there is one universal Korean Christmas ritual, it is the cake. Almost every Korean household, couple, or office buys a Christmas cake from a major bakery chain, and the two giants are Paris Baguette and Tous les Jours. Both release elaborate seasonal lineups months in advance, with names like Santa is Back, Wishing Tree, Strawberry Santa, Mocha Village, and Choco Santa House. Pre-orders open in early November, and the most popular designs sell out weeks before December 25. Apps and phone memberships routinely offer discounts of up to 28 percent on Christmas cakes, which makes pre-ordering the smart move. The cakes themselves lean light and airy, fresh whipped cream with strawberries, rather than the heavy fruitcake found elsewhere.
KFC, Fried Chicken, and Convenience Store Christmas Eve
Forget roast turkey. The Korean Christmas Eve dinner of choice is fried chicken, usually delivered. KFC runs heavy holiday marketing, but local chains like BHC, BBQ, Kyochon, and Goobne see massive Christmas Eve order surges, often with one to two hour wait times in major cities. For couples on a budget or working late shifts, the convenience store route is equally beloved. CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, and Emart24 stock Christmas-themed lunchboxes (dosirak), reservable cakes, hot soju cocktails, and limited-edition snacks. Picking up chicken, beer, and a small cake from the convenience store, then heading to a couple's apartment or a love hotel, is a quintessentially Korean Christmas Eve scene that shows up constantly in K-dramas and variety shows.
Seoul Christmas Illuminations: Cheonggyecheon, Sinsegae, and Lotte World Tower
Seoul transforms into a winter wonderland from late November. Cheonggyecheon Stream hosts the annual Seoul Christmas Festival around Cheonggye Plaza, with light installations stretching along the water. Gwanghwamun Square runs the Seoul Light Gwanghwamun media art festival, projecting large-scale animations directly onto the historic gate. The Shinsegae Department Store flagship in Myeongdong is the city's single most iconic spot, wrapping its facade in a 63 by 18 meter LED display powered by 3.75 million chips that draws crowds every December. Lotte World Tower in Jamsil lights up its 18-meter Wish Tree with 5,000 bulbs, and the Han River Winter Festival adds Christmas markets at Ttukseom and Banpo. The city deploys safety personnel because the crowds on Christmas Eve are enormous.
K-pop Christmas Songs: BTS V, SHINee, Red Velvet, Twice, and More
K-pop has built a sizeable holiday catalog. BTS's V released "Christmas Tree" for the K-drama Our Beloved Summer in 2021, and it set records as the longest-charting Korean OST on Spotify's Global 200 and surpassed 500 million streams. Billboard named it one of the best Christmas songs of the 21st century. SHINee's "Winter Wonderland" is a fan favorite, BoA's holiday remakes are evergreen, Twice's "Merry & Happy" is a karaoke staple, and Red Velvet teamed with aespa for "Beautiful Christmas." Girls' Generation's Taeyeon has an entire Christmas album. THE BOYZ, Stray Kids, Apink, and Weeekly all have seasonal tracks, and V's jazzy "Winter Ahead" with Park Hyo Shin has become a winter standard. Korean radio and cafe playlists rotate these constantly through December.
K-Drama Christmas Episodes and Hongdae Markets
K-dramas almost always squeeze in a Christmas episode, usually featuring a first kiss under falling snow, a thoughtful handwritten letter, or a cake-and-chicken dinner that crystallizes a romance. Reply 1988, Goblin, Crash Landing on You, and Our Beloved Summer all have iconic December scenes that fans rewatch every winter. Off screen, neighborhoods like Hongdae, Yeouido, Garosugil, and Seongsu-dong run pop-up Christmas markets with handmade ornaments, hot wine, ddeok-bokki, and roasted chestnuts. The Han River Romantic Christmas Market at Ttukseom Hangang Park hosts more than 40 vendors selling decorations and gifts. Indoor cafes lean even harder, transforming themselves into fairy-tale Christmas forests with sparkling trees and seasonal lattes that drive Instagram traffic.
Gift-Giving Culture: Handmade Letters and Small Tokens
Korean Christmas gift-giving is intimate and modest compared to Western piles of presents. The most prized item is often a handwritten letter, sometimes paired with a small wrapped gift like a skincare set, a perfume, a photocard binder, or a designer keychain. Couples exchange matching items, friend groups do small Secret Santa swaps called Manitto, and offices skip Christmas exchanges almost entirely because the bigger gift season is Lunar New Year. Stationery brands like Artbox, Daiso, and 10x10 see a Christmas boom in cards, wrapping paper, and themed stickers. The emphasis is on sentiment, not scale.
New Year's Eve Overshadows Christmas
For all the fanfare, Christmas in Korea is a one-night event. By December 26, the holiday is essentially over, and attention shifts immediately to New Year's Eve and the bigger countdown moment. Seoul holds large-scale New Year's countdowns at Gwanghwamun Square, the Bosingak Bell-Ringing Ceremony in Jongno, and the Han River fireworks at Banpo. Many Koreans travel to the east coast, especially Gangneung and Pohang, to watch the first sunrise of the new year (haedoji). Lunar New Year in late January or February then becomes the major family holiday, with multiday travel, tteokguk, and ancestral rites. Christmas, by contrast, is fun, romantic, and brief, a single sparkling night in a packed end-of-year calendar.
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