Countdown
Counting to the 25th
is wrong in 31 countries.
Presents arrive on 8 different dates across the 55 countries here. Pick yours and count down to the night that actually matters.
Why the date moves
The gift day is tied to the figure, not to Christmas. Where the gift-bringer is Saint Nicholas, the date is his feast — 5 or 6 December. Where it is the Christ Child, it is Christmas Eve. Where it is the Three Kings, it is Epiphany on 6 January. Where the tradition was secularised into a New Year figure, it is 31 December or 1 January.
Some countries have several. Slovenia has three separate nights — Miklavž in early December, Božiček at Christmas and Dedek Mraz at New Year — and a child there may be visited by all three.
These dates also change. Ukraine’s St Nicholas Day moved from 19 to 6 December when the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Greek Catholic Church adopted the Revised Julian calendar in September 2023.
See all 8 gift days