Orthodox Christmas and New Year in Georgia: a traveller's guide

Two new years and a Christmas nobody rushes

Georgia’s festive calendar operates on a logic that surprises first-time visitors. New Year’s Eve on 31 December is the major family celebration — bigger than Christmas, bigger than any birthday, bigger than Easter for most households. Orthodox Christmas arrives a week later, on 7 January, and is marked with the Alilo procession and a long lunch. Old New Year on 14 January closes the cycle with a quieter celebration. The whole arc, running from late December to mid-January, is the moment in the Georgian year when the country is most itself.

For the traveller, this is an extraordinary window. Tbilisi is decorated with an intensity that rivals any European capital. The mountains are under snow. The food becomes specifically seasonal. And the supra — the long ritualised Georgian feast — expands to fill entire days.

Tbilisi in December

The decorations go up in early December along Rustaveli Avenue and around the Rike Park Christmas market. By mid-December, Freedom Square holds the main tree; the Presidential Palace lights up in white; and the whole route from Marjanishvili across the bridges to Rike becomes a walking circuit of illumination.

The Rike Park market is competent rather than exceptional — mulled wine, churchkhela strung on every stall, knitted goods, hot khachapuri. The better atmosphere is in the side streets of Sololaki and around Erekle II Square, where the wine bars decorate their own courtyards and local families come out in the evenings for churchkhela and hot wine.

Temperatures in Tbilisi through the holiday season run between -2 and 8 degrees. Snow falls two or three times a year in the city centre, usually melting within 24 hours. Pack for cold damp rather than deep winter; proper layers and waterproof boots are enough.

What to eat specifically

Georgian Christmas food is not a reinvented version of the standard supra menu — it is a distinct cuisine with its own dishes. Gozinaki (honey and walnut brittle) is the single most characteristic sweet of the season, made in every household in the final days of December. Satsivi (turkey or chicken in a cold walnut, garlic and spice sauce) is the New Year centrepiece, eaten cold after the midnight toasts. Churchkhela (walnuts threaded on a string and dipped in grape must) hangs in every market stall and doubles as decoration. Khachapuri acquires regional seasonal variations — the Megruli (double-cheese) version is the household standard through the cold weeks.

The Alilo procession on 7 January

Orthodox Christmas morning is marked by the Alilo — a procession through central Tbilisi led by the Patriarch, with thousands of participants dressed in white, red, and traditional robes, and children carrying gifts for charity. It departs from Sioni Cathedral and moves along Rustaveli, collecting donations for orphanages and care homes.

The Alilo is the most photogenic and culturally specific event of the entire Georgian year. The procession takes two to three hours and draws a cross-section of Tbilisi society: church-goers and atheists, old families and recent arrivals. For the traveller, being on Rustaveli at 11am on 7 January is a masterclass in Georgian public culture.

Church visits

The major churches — Sioni, Anchiskhati, Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta — are packed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Midnight liturgy on 6 January is open to visitors but serious: no photography, quiet behaviour, and modest dress (women cover hair, men remove hats). Attending a small rural church — the 6th-century Jvari above Mtskheta, for instance — is a quieter and arguably more affecting experience than the Patriarchate.

Kazbegi in snow

The Georgian Military Highway is kept open through winter by a dedicated clearing operation, but conditions vary week to week. A normal sedan with winter tyres will reach Stepantsminda in good conditions; when the road closes (typically once or twice a winter during heavy storms), it closes completely for 24 to 48 hours.

Kazbegi in January is a different mountain from the one travellers know from summer photographs. Gergeti Trinity Church against the white peak of Mount Kazbek is one of the great winter photographs of the Caucasus. The walk up to the church (three hours round trip from Stepantsminda) is the reason most travellers come; in winter the path is icy and proper grips or microspikes are non-negotiable.

For the comfortable version, Rooms Hotel Kazbegi has the single best terrace view in Georgian hospitality and keeps the outdoor jacuzzi running through the winter. It is expensive by Georgian standards and justified by what you look at from your bedroom window.

New Year’s Eve as cultural immersion

If you are invited to a Georgian family New Year dinner, accept. This is the most specific cultural experience the country offers, and it operates by rules worth understanding in advance.

Dinner starts late — 10pm at the earliest, midnight often. The table is laid with twenty or more dishes at once; plates are not cleared and replaced. The tamada (toastmaster) guides the evening through a sequence of formal toasts — to ancestors, to parents, to children, to Georgia, to peace, to guests — each raised and drunk in turn. Between toasts, eat, talk, refill glasses. The evening ends when it ends; 4am is normal.

If you are in a restaurant rather than a family home, the programme is similar but compressed. Reservations are essential from mid-December for 31 December; most good restaurants sell fixed menus with live music. Expect to spend from 120 GEL per person in a casual restaurant to 400 GEL in a premium venue, wine usually included.

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The supra in winter

The Georgian supra is a year-round institution, but the winter supra has its own character. The wines on the table are from the autumn harvest, three months old and drinking at their most energetic. The food is heavier — stews, slow-roasted meats, hot khachapuri — in response to the cold. The toasts are longer, partly because the evenings are longer.

If you cannot arrange a family invitation, the restaurants that do a proper supra well include Shavi Lomi, Azarphesha, and Pasanauri in Tbilisi; in Kakheti, Pheasant’s Tears in Sighnaghi runs extraordinary long lunches in winter, with fewer tourists than in summer.

The weather and what to pack

Tbilisi: -2 to 8 degrees, occasionally rainy, occasionally sunny, rarely deeply cold. A good jacket, one warm layer, waterproof shoes.

Kakheti and lowland regions: similar to Tbilisi, slightly colder at night.

Kazbegi: -15 to 2 degrees, deep snow, significant wind chill on the mountain. Proper winter gear, microspikes for the Gergeti hike, sunglasses for glacier reflection.

Svaneti: -20 to 0 degrees, spectacular snow, dry cold, road access variable. Full winter kit; Vanilla Sky flights to Mestia continue but are weather-contingent.

Black Sea coast and Batumi: 5 to 12 degrees, rainy, mild by inland standards. Not a beach destination in winter but surprisingly liveable; the botanical garden and the architecture make a worthwhile three-day break.

A suggested itinerary, 28 December to 8 January

Days 1–3 (28–30 December): Tbilisi. Decorations, wine bars, sulphur baths, a cooking class, a supra. See the 3-day Tbilisi itinerary for a fuller framework.

Days 4–5 (31 December–1 January): Kakheti. New Year in Sighnaghi. Winery visits on 1 January morning, a long lunch, return to Tbilisi late afternoon.

Days 6–8 (2–4 January): Kazbegi or Gudauri. Snow, mountains, the Gergeti walk, an afternoon of skiing if you are so inclined.

Days 9–10 (5–6 January): Back to Tbilisi. Rest, Christmas Eve church service, the Marjanishvili Christmas market.

Day 11 (7 January): Alilo procession. Stay central in Tbilisi. A long Christmas lunch in a family restaurant.

Day 12 (8 January): Return home.

Why this is the right time to come

Summer is the obvious season in Georgia, but winter — specifically the December–January holiday window — is when the country is most ceremonial, most warmly hospitable, and most visibly itself. Prices are lower than peak; the cultural programme is the richest of the year; and the conjunction of Tbilisi’s Soviet-era festive traditions with the deep liturgical calendar of the Georgian Orthodox Church produces an atmosphere that has no direct equivalent anywhere in Europe.

For further seasonal context, the Georgia in December and Georgia in January guides cover the practical details of winter travel in more depth.