Unlike the rest of the world, Christmas in Africa does not include snow. It also does not involve a “traditional” Christmas dinner with turkey and cranberry sauce and the last thing a South African will do is chop down a real tree to decorate.

In fact, when it comes to Christmas, many South Africans do just the opposite to the rest of the world. In the southern hemisphere, Christmas brings with it glorious days of sunshine that carry an irresistible invitation to the beach, the rivers and the shaded mountain slopes.

This is the peak of the South African holiday season and schools close, camping is the order of the day and instead of snow, flowers appear to invade every field, garden and roadside as far as the eye can see.

In the larger cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg, traditional carollers do make their rounds on Christmas Eve and church services are held both at the stroke of midnight on December 24, and on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve celebrations in larger centres include “Carols by Candlelight” and special screen and floor shows, but it’s mostly school children who provide the festive entertainment and it’s an opportunity for parents to dig their video recorders out of storage and proudly record every second of their sons and daughters dressed in costume and representing the nativity scene.

Many homes are decorated with pine branches, and all have the decorated Christmas fir trees in a corner, with presents for the children around. But as with most countries, South Africans prefer the artificial Christmas tree as opposed to literally chopping down a living three.

What is the one thing South African children have in common with others across the globe? They also love to sneak downstairs on Christmas Eve in the hopes of catching Father Christmas delivering their gifts. As for the gastronomic delights of the Christmas feast, in South Africa this takes the form of a open-air lunch, usually a barbecue with family and friends.

But for the more traditional, English-speaking families, it takes the form of a traditional dinner of either turkey, roast beef, mince pies, or suckling pig, yellow rice with raisins, vegetables, and plum pudding, crackers, paper hats, and all.

In the afternoon, families go out into the countryside and enjoy games or bathing in the warm sunshine, and then return home in the cool of the evening. Boxing Day is also a proclaimed public holiday usually spent in the open air and should you be lucky enough to live along South Africa’s beautiful coastline, a day at the beach is in order with Christmas leftovers served for lunch.

In Ghana, on Africa’s west coast, most churches herald the coming of Christmas by decorating the church and homes beginning with the first week in Advent, four weeks before Christmas. This season happens to coincide with the cocoa harvest, so it is a time of wealth and those working far from home, like on farms or the mines, return to their families.

On Christmas Eve, children march up and down the streets singing Christmas carols and shouting, “Christ is coming, Christ is coming! He is near!” in the various languages.

In the evening, people flock to churches which have been decorated with Christmas evergreens or palm trees massed with candles and hymns are sung and Nativity plays are presented.

On Christmas Day, children and older people, representing the angels in the fields outside Bethlehem, go from house to house singing.

Another church service is held where they dress in their native attire or Western costumes and this is followed later with a feast of rice and yam paste called fufu, with stew or okra soup, porridge and meats during which families eat together and invite close neighbours to join in the festivities.

This is also when gifts are presented and while these might have been handmade in the past, western-type gifts are now becoming more common.

On the west coast of Africa, in Liberia, most homes have an oil palm for a Christmas tree which is decorated with bells and on Christmas morning, people are woken by carols. Presents such as cotton cloth, soap, sweets, pencils, and books are exchanged and families make their way to their churches for a morning service.

During this time a Christmas scene is enacted and hymns and carols are sung. Dinner is eaten outdoors with everyone sitting in a circle to share the meal of rice, beef and biscuits, while later games are played until fireworks light up the sky to mark the end of this special holiday.