Do French people celebrate their ‘main’ Christmas on December 24 or 25?

French families generally open presents at the foot of the Christmas tree on December 24 around dinner time, according to the French people to whom The Connexion spoke.

Few wait until December 25 to open them in the morning or around lunch time which is traditional in the United Kingdom.

No survey exists on how many French families open presents on December 24 or how many have kept to December 25.

Those families who favour December 24 often extend Christmas to December 25. 

What happens on December 24

French families who organise Christmas on December 24 use the dinner as a decoy to lure and distract children from Santa Claus’ arrival when presents are placed under the tree. 

Those spending Christmas at countryside houses often use the garden to encourage children to watch out for Santa Claus coming. They sometimes see him on his way to neighbouring houses. 

Children open gifts after ‘their’ dinner, the signal that the Christmas dinner of parents starts.

One respondent’s suggestion was that some families do this to let the excitement go down and gain extra hours of sleep the next day.

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What happens on December 25

French families who celebrate on December 25 are, for religious or family traditions reasons, closer to how Christmas was intended to be spent. 

“In the early 20th century gifts were offered on December 25, in the early morning,” said sociologist Martyne Perrot to Ouest-France.

Parents would wait until the end of the evening, when children had gone to bed, to place gifts at the Christmas tree with children discovering with awe that Santa Claus had visited in the middle of the night.

Historically, the Catholic church organises three masses for Christmas.

The messe de la nuit, also known as the messe de Minuit, is organised on December 24 at midnight. The ‘messe de l'Aurore’ and the ‘messe du jour de Noël’ (Christmas day mass) are organised the next day.

Children were technically allowed to open gifts past the first mass but because it was so late they would traditionally already be sleeping, hence the gift opening being delayed to December 25 in the morning.

This also allowed Santa Claus to visit during the night, with some parents saying that he cannot come if children are not asleep.

Where families opening presents on December 24 extend the celebrations to December 25 extra gifts are not given on the 25th.

Are stores open on December 24 and 25?

With very rare exceptions all stores are closed on December 25. 

Action, Auchan, Carrefour Hyper and Market, Aldi, E. Leclerc and Cora are all closed on December 25. 

Retail stores have different strategies for December 24. Several E. Leclerc, for instance, or Intermarchés are open on December 24 on reduced opening hours. Paris’ big department stores such as Galeries Lafayette or Samaritaine are also open.

Read more: Car fuel sold at cost price at many Intermarché supermarkets today and tomorrow

Museums, public swimming-pools, tennis courts and libraries etc are closed on December 25. Public parks and cemeteries are open.