For millions of people around the globe, sharing a delicious meal with loved ones is the best part of Christmas – but the festive season looks (and tastes) very different depending on where you are. From a fast food feast of KFC chicken in Japan to the seven courses of fish and seafood enjoyed by America’s Italian community, here we explore Christmas culinary traditions around the world, and reveal the most delicious holiday dishes of them all.

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the tastiest festive foods the world has to offer.

In Spain, Christmas is a time for lavish meals with family and friends – and on 24 December, an almost never-ending feast is enjoyed. Delicacies vary from region to region, but the meal will usually start with assorted tapas, followed by a soup or stew such as Catalan sopa de galets (a hearty soup bobbing with pasta shells). The main course could include pavo trufado de Navidad (turkey stuffed with truffles), roast lamb, suckling pig or baked whole fish. Dessert will almost always be turrón, a delicious nougat made with honey and toasted almonds.

Like many other Europeans, Austrians enjoy their main festive meal on Christmas Eve. Gebackener karpfen (fried carp) is often served as the main course; Christmas Eve was traditionally considered a fasting day for many Catholics, and meat was avoided. That said, roast goose and turkey are becoming more popular on Christmas dinner tables throughout the country. Austria is also famous for its sweet seasonal treats, including vanilla-flavoured, crescent-shaped biscuits called vanillekipferl, and Linzer cookies (pictured), which consist of jam sandwiched between almond shortbread.

Christmas dinner in Ireland is similar to the one enjoyed in Britain, with turkey and/or a joint of ham taking centre stage alongside classic trimmings like Brussels sprouts and stuffing. Potatoes in various forms – mashed, roasted or boiled, with plenty of Irish butter – usually feature heavily too. In Cork, a local delicacy is spiced beef, a tradition that goes back centuries and involves marinating a prime cut of beef in a spice cure for up to two months. Historically, Irish families would also bake a cake full of caraway seeds, but these days a Christmas cake covered with marzipan and icing is more common.

Traditionally, the French have their festive spread, known as le Réveillon de Noël, on Christmas Eve – but nowadays, more and more people are starting to celebrate on Christmas Day (or both days). Either way, there's always plenty of decadent seafood, such as fresh oysters or coquilles Saint-Jacques (grilled scallops served with a creamy cheese sauce) to kick off proceedings. This tends to be followed by roasted meat, with a classic bûche de Noël (chocolate log) to finish.

Festive food in Mexico can vary greatly from region to region, featuring everything from mole to enchiladas and tamales, as well as an array of desserts. Seasonal celebrations continue until Epiphany, known as Día de Los Reyes, on 6 January. On this day, families eat rosca de reyes, or ‘king's cake’: a wreath-shaped sweet bread decorated with candied fruit. Usually there's a small toy hidden inside, and it’s said that whoever finds it will have good luck for the coming year.

With Christmas falling at the peak of summer, Australians often opt for a festive banquet cooked on the barbecue. The table is spread with fresh salads and sides to accompany turkey and glazed ham (usually served cold), as well as barbecued meat and seafood. One of the most popular and quintessential dishes for Christmas Day is prawns, which are presented either freshly grilled or chilled, and come accompanied by cocktail sauce. A pavlova piled high with fresh fruit is the dessert of choice for many.

A classic Danish Christmas dinner usually showcases roast pork, duck or goose served with boiled potatoes, red cabbage and gravy. For dessert, the day wouldn’t be complete without risalamande, a popular Christmas dish that dates back to the 19th century. This rice pudding (made with milk, chopped almonds and whipped cream) is usually enjoyed cold with a warm cherry sauce. Traditionally, the sweet treat has a whole almond hidden inside – and whoever finds it gets a present.

Sweets feature heavily on Christmas menus in Greece. Two of the country's festive specialities are kourabiedes (pictured) and melomakarona, both types of biscuits. The former is a buttery, almondy biscuit dusted in icing sugar, and the latter is a syrup-soaked cookie with a cake-like texture. Another sweet treat is a rustic sweetbread called Christopsomo (meaning ‘Christ's bread’), which is usually prepared by families on Christmas Eve. The dough is filled with raisins, apricots, nuts and cardamom, and the top is often decorated with a cross.

Central to a traditional South African Christmas meal is a dessert called malva pudding, which is best described as comfort food at its very finest. Warming and hearty, this toffee-like sponge dessert is drenched in a sweet cream syrup, and served warm with custard or ice cream.

Famed for its magical winter markets, warming glühwein and delicious lebkuchen biscuits, Germany transforms into a winter wonderland over Christmas. Stollen, an enriched bread packed with dry fruit and marzipan, is probably the country’s most famous festive confection – the dish dates back to the 15th century, and is now enjoyed all over the world. Throughout the Christmas period it becomes known as Weihnachtsstollen, or Christstollen.

Many Americans add a sweet touch to the savoury part of their festive feast with candied yams (mashed yams glazed with a brown sugar and cinnamon sauce, and topped with marshmallows). The dish is closely associated with Thanksgiving, but many people serve it at Christmas too. Another custom that’s unique to the USA is the Feast of the Seven Fishes: an Italian-American celebration that involves a grand meal of seven or more fish dishes. Held on Christmas Eve, the tradition has its roots in the Roman Catholic convention of abstaining from eating meat on the eve of a feast day.

The principal festive meal in Portugal is eaten on Christmas Eve night. The classic centrepiece is salt cod, which is served with green vegetables, boiled potatoes and boiled eggs, though roast turkey and other meat dishes are popular too. There are also plenty of unique festive sweet treats to enjoy, including massa de filhós – doughnuts that are left to rise while families attend Midnight Mass, ready to be fried upon their return.

On Christmas Eve, Swedes enjoy an elaborate feast called julbord: a buffet of pickled herring, gravadlax, hard-boiled eggs topped with fish roe, plus cured meats, cheese, pickles, and all kinds of salads. The focal point of the meal is the Christmas ham, or julskinka, which is made by boiling the meat and roasting it in the oven until crisp. It's then left to cool, and served cold with the rest of the dishes.

Come December, the weather in Kenya is very warm with lots of sunshine, so it makes sense that the festive meal centres around the grill. The main Christmas dinner usually includes barbecued lamb, beef, chicken or goat, served with rice, chapatis and ugali (a popular type of cornmeal porridge).

Christmas for Norwegians means lots of cakes and sweet treats. One of the most popular bakes is julekake (pictured), a sweet bread filled with raisins, candied peel and cardamom. Other traditional dishes include rice pudding and krumkake (delicate waffle cookies). On the savoury side of things, surkål – white or red cabbage, finely chopped and cooked with caraway seeds and vinegar – often appears on the Christmas table, too.

Christmas Day in Britain traditionally involves plates piled high with turkey, glazed ham and pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon). Brussels sprouts are a must-have, as are roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and both cranberry and bread sauce. Christmas pudding and mince pies filled with boozy dried fruit are a staple too – as is the ubiquitous Boxing Day buffet the following day, where families feast on cold cuts, cheese and leftovers.

Each Canadian province has its own special Christmas traditions. In The Maritimes on the East Coast, an unusual type of candy called Chicken Bones has been a Christmas staple since the 19th century. This unique pink sweet tastes like cinnamon, and has a bittersweet chocolate filling. Meanwhile in New Brunswick and Quebec, residents celebrate the French-Canadian tradition of Réveillon: a grand feast held on Christmas Eve that usually involves dishes like tourtière (a traditional meat pie) and ragoût de pattes de porc, a rich stew made with pigs' feet.

The festive feasts enjoyed in Poland are renowned all over the world – and for good reason. On Christmas Eve, families sit down to a huge meal called wigilia, where 12 meat-free dishes are served to represent the 12 apostles. Fish, often carp, is usually the main course, and sides include borscht, creamed herring salad and uszka (dumplings).

KFC is synonymous with Christmas in Japan. The fast food chain ran a very successful Christmas marketing campaign here back in the 1970s – and ever since, its fried chicken has been a must-have for families during the festive season. People can reserve their buckets of deep-fried drumsticks from early November onwards, and massive queues form outside KFC outlets across the country on Christmas Day.

During the Christmas season, Italy’s world-famous cuisine shines even brighter. Christmas Eve dinner tends to be a light but delicious affair with fish, seafood and vegetable dishes taking a starring role. The lengthy and extravagant Christmas Day dinner includes lavish antipasti platters followed by pasta and multiple meat dishes, such as roasted veal, sausages and braised beef. One of the country’s most iconic festive staples is, of course, the sweet, fluffy, candied fruit–filled bread, panettone.

Every Caribbean family has its own recipe for black cake, a much-loved treat that’s eaten across the region at Christmas. This rich, dark, rum-drenched cake is packed with dried fruits and warm spices – and it should have a chewy crust, while being soft and moist on the inside. It’s usually decorated with glacé cherries, but some people opt to ice the cake once it's cooled.

Historically, Maltese housewives would keep the fattest rooster, the hasi, especially for Christmas dinner, and the plump bird would be roasted at the local bakery in a casserole along with potatoes and vegetables. On the sweet side, treacle rings, known as qaghaq tal-ghasel, are enjoyed, as is imbuljuta tal-qastan, a hot chestnut and cocoa drink served after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

In Russia you can expect the festive table to be laden with specialities like the classic potato dish Olivier salad, as well as meat in aspic, pelmeni (meat dumplings) and kulebyaka (pictured), a grand pie layered with salmon, rice, boiled eggs and various other ingredients. Some Orthodox Russians abstain from food throughout the day on Christmas Eve, then break their fast with an evening meal of sochivo (also called kutia): a porridge made from wheat grains and served with honey, fruit, nuts and seeds.

The main celebration takes place on Christmas Eve in Venezuela, where families attend Midnight Mass before coming home to feast on a selection of traditional delicacies. At the centre of it all is usually hallacas, a Christmas dish that consists of a mixture of beef, pork, chicken, capers, raisins and olives wrapped in maize and plantain leaves. The ingredients are tied up with string to form a parcel, then boiled or steamed. It’s served with pan de jamón, a type of bread that's rolled and filled with ham, raisins, olives and bacon.

Baked ham is a must-have for the Finnish festive dinner table, where it's accompanied by mustard and a side of kaalilaatikko: a hearty cabbage casserole made with minced meat and onions. Amongst the dishes in the Christmas Eve spread, you’ll also find gravadlax, pickled herring, rutabaga (swede) casserole and plenty of glögi (mulled wine).

Cozonac, a sweet leavened bread, is eaten at Christmas in Romania, as well as on other major religious holidays like Easter. Echoing the tradition of sacrificing a pig before a religious celebration, plenty of pork dishes are on the menu around the festive season. Sarmales (sour cabbage leaves stuffed with smoked meat) are especially popular.

Several types of tamales are eaten during the Guatemalan festive period, including tamales colorados (red tamales) and tamales negros (black tamales). Tamales colorados are stuffed with a thick, flavoursome tomato sauce, roasted red pepper strips, capers, green olives, and chicken, beef or pork. Tamales negros, meanwhile, are darker and sweeter than their red counterparts, due to the addition of chocolate, raisins, prunes and almonds. 

The major Christmas meal in Hungary takes place on Christmas Eve, and usually kicks off with halászlé, a rich fish soup made with carp and paprika. This is often followed by cabbage leaves stuffed with a hearty mix of meat and rice. Another festive essential on every family's table is a rolled pastry called beigli, which is traditionally filled with poppy seeds or walnuts, though chestnut cream and Nutella fillings are becoming more common.

One of the most beloved Christmas dishes in Argentina is vitel toné – sliced veal covered in a creamy tuna sauce – which was brought to the country by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. It tends to be accompanied by a cold buffet featuring Russian potato salad, stuffed tomatoes and empanadas. In Argentina, Christmas is celebrated at the beginning of summer, so an asado (barbecue) featuring roasted pork, beef, chorizo and blood sausage is essential.

Although Christmas isn't traditionally celebrated in China, it's becoming popular as a light-hearted Western import – more as a novelty event like Valentine’s Day, rather than a religious celebration. An unusual new tradition is to give apples as gifts on Christmas Eve. The apples are sold wrapped in cellophane or colourful paper, and are decorated with gold ribbons or pictures of Santa Claus. The idea came about because the Chinese word for Christmas Eve sounds similar to the word for apple.

Occupying pride of place at the Christmas dinner table in Madagascar is akoho sy voanio, a chicken and coconut stew served over rice. Fresh lychees are also considered a special festive treat – shop displays and street stalls are resplendent with the distinctive pink fruits at this time of year.

Christmas is a huge deal in the Philippines, and no event is more anticipated than the Noche Buena feast, which is eaten on Christmas Eve after Midnight Mass. On the table there's likely to be ham encrusted in brown sugar (or covered with a syrupy glaze), keso de bola (a ball of Edam cheese), and ensaymada: a sweet bread pastry covered with butter, sugar and lots of grated cheese. One of the most popular festive breakfast dishes is bibingka, a moist rice cake.

The night of Christmas Eve is when Ukrainians enjoy their main festive feast. Traditionally, 12 dishes are served, representing Jesus’ 12 disciples, as well as the months of the year. Amongst the tasty array you might find pickled mushrooms, sauerkraut, borscht, dumplings (known as varenyky), grilled stuffed fish, and a smoked meat and cabbage stew known as bigos. 

Christmas in Iceland is celebrated on Christmas Eve – and when it comes to the main meal, smoked lamb, potatoes and red cabbage are the focus of everyone’s attention. Another common dish is laufabrauð, or leaf bread: a wafer-thin crispy flatbread with cut-out geometric patterns.

Now discover what the British royal family will eat this Christmas