Christmas in Grenada is warm, loud, and delicious. Forget snow. Here the season smells of sorrel and black cake, sounds like parang and soca, and ends with fireworks over the harbour on New Year's night. It is also the start of the island's high season, when the diaspora comes home and the weather is at its best, so it is the busiest and one of the finest times to be here.
This guide is your map to the season, whether you are coming home, visiting for the first time, or living here and planning your December.
What the season tastes like
Grenadian Christmas has its own table. Sorrel, the deep-red drink brewed from the sorrel flower with ginger and spice, is everywhere. So is black cake, rich and rum-soaked, and a proper baked ham. Pepperpot and the usual local dishes carry through. Much of this you make at home, but the restaurants lean into it too, and our guide to things to do over Christmas points you to where.
What the season sounds like
The music of a Grenadian Christmas is parang, a string-band tradition with roots in the region, updated locally into soca parang. The heart of it is the Carriacou Parang Festival on the sister island, a highlight of the December calendar.
Seeing in the New Year
New Year's Eve, Old Year's Night as it is known here, runs from church watch-night services to parties on the coast and fireworks over the Carenage. See where to celebrate New Year's Eve in Grenada.
Shopping for the season
Skip the generic and buy local. From the market to the boutiques, here is how to do your Christmas shopping in Grenada.
Plan it on the app
The high season is busy, and the good tables and rooms go early. Save what you like as you read, and use the Island Link app to check what is open over the holidays. It is free on iPhone and Android.