A Jubilee Christmas in Malta: The gift of hope

Christmas is a season of wonder. It is a time when the world pauses to celebrate a birth that changed history. In 2025, this sacred holiday takes on even deeper significance as it unfolds within the Jubilee Year — a time of renewal, grace, and spiritual pilgrimage. The Nativity story, with its message of divine love breaking into the world through a child in a manger, perfectly embodies the Jubilee theme of Pilgrims of Hope.

Since the very early days of Christianity, Malta has embraced this message, making Christmas a living tradition that weaves faith, art, and celebration into everyday life.

One of Malta’s most cherished Christmas customs is the crafting of Nativity cribs (presepji). This devotion to the Holy Family dates back to at least 1617, when the Dominican friars of Rabat created the island’s first documented crib. Since then, Maltese artisans have poured their faith and craftsmanship into these displays, some incorporating the island’s limestone landscape, others filling their scenes with local shepherds and fishermen.

This tradition has gained international recognition. A 2021 Christmas in Malta exhibition at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, showcased exquisite cribs crafted by Maltese and Gozitan artists, celebrating the islands’ rich Catholic heritage.

Last year, in 2025, Maltese presepji were also featured in Rome, where six cribs took pride of place in a prestigious international nativity exhibition at the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle. This participation highlighted how Malta’s crib tradition stands alongside some of the most renowned presepi in Europe.

In recent years, Maltese artistry has reached Bethlehem itself, when an outdoor crib by Gozitan artist Manwel Grech — previously displayed at St Peter’s Square — was installed in the Holy Land. These cribs, with their delicate figurines and intricate details, depict a scene that proclaims a deep truth: that God’s presence is found in the ordinary, and hope shines brightest in humble places.

Saint George Preca, Dun Ġorġ or San Ġorġ as know by the Maltese, is the first Maltese Saint. He was born in Valletta, on 12 February 1880. Around 1905-1906, San Ġorġ met a group of young people in Ħamrun and invited them to start attending his spiritual meetings. This marked the beginning of the Society of Christian Doctrine. It is practically a group of lay people who dedicate themselves to the apostolate of catechesis. 

In 1910, Dun Ġorġ had a very powerful mystical experience. He called it “The extraordinary vision of the child Jesus”. One morning, he was walking close to a place called the Marsa Cross (Is-Salib tal-Marsa), when he suddenly noticed a boy pushing a cart holding a bag of manure. The boy fixed his gaze on George and imperiously ordered, “Lend me a hand!” The instant Fr. Ġorġ held the handles of the cart he felt an extraordinary spiritual sweetness. However, after the experience Dun Ġorġ could never recall where they went or what happened to the young boy. But he later realized that the boy was Jesus, and that he was asking him, and his followers, for help to keep the Lord’s field and vineyard fertile with sound doctrine and formation.

On Christmas Eve 1921 the Society organized the first “Demonstration in honor of the Baby Jesus” in towns and villages around Malta and Gozo. This event has since become an integral part of Christmas tradition and celebrations. Fr. Ġorġ wanted that during the Christmas season every child, who attended catechism classes, took home a small crib or statue of Baby Jesus – in the Maltese islands known as il-Bambin. 

Maltese Christmas traditions extend beyond art to the very heart of the home—the kitchen. The island’s festive foods are steeped in spiritual significance, mirroring the rhythms of the Church’s liturgical calendar. One of the most beloved holiday treats is Qaghaq tal-Ghasel, or honey rings. These pastries, made from golden dough filled with treacle, aniseed, cinnamon, and cloves, symbolize the overflowing sweetness of Christ’s birth. Their ring shape speaks of eternity, while the oozing filling evokes the abundance of grace poured out in the Incarnation.

Before Christmas arrives, another seasonal delicacy appears on Maltese tables: Torta ta’ San Martin, a nut-covered fruitcake rich with dates, figs, and spices. Served on November 11, the feast of St. Martin, this treat marks the beginning of the festive season, reminding families that the joys of Christmas are just around the corner.

As the days draw closer to Christmas Eve, homes are filled with the scent of roasted chestnuts, spiced wines, and hearty stews, all reflecting Malta’s unique blend of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences. Just as the archipelago’s location made it a crossroads of civilizations, its cuisine tells a story of faith woven into daily life.

Across Malta and Gozo, the Jubilee spirit unfolds in streets, squares and villages that come alive with music, light and community. Valletta begins celebrating early, drawing families into the capital with the illumination of Republic Street and the towering Christmas tree at Freedom Square. Choirs gather on the steps of Pjazza Teatru Rjal to offer Maltese carols that echo through the city’s limestone arcades, setting a tone of warmth before the weeks of festivities that follow. Musicians such as Klinsmann, Riona and Kevin Paul fill the season with distinctive local artistry, while children wander the old streets with Santa’s elves, clutching freshly written letters full of hope.

The month also brings moments of quiet devotion: the candle-lit Baby Jesus Procession moves from Our Lady of Victory Church through Valletta’s historic core, accompanied by hymns drifting from the St John’s Co-Cathedral balcony. As Christmas approaches, the Jesuit Church Oratory hosts an evening of sacred music, and on Christmas Eve The New Victorians offer a program of Maltese and English carols before the capital closes the year with its national New Year’s Eve celebrations, a jubilant gathering marked by orchestral collaborations, fireworks over the Grand Harbor and an atmosphere of shared anticipation.

Visitors can also look toward Mosta, where the renowned Rotunda becomes a place of both musical splendor and cultural memory. On 20 and 21 December, the Libera boys’ choir from London will perform a Christmas concert beneath the great dome—one of the world’s largest unsupported cupolas—filling the basilica with the clarity and warmth of their choral sound. In the days that follow, the Mosta Rotunda Foundation offers guided tours exploring Maltese Christmas traditions, led by local guide Rozario D’Amato. His storytelling brings to life how families once prepared for the season: the rituals of decorating homes, the sweets baked in kitchens, and the spiritual customs that shaped village life. The tour includes visits to crib exhibitions around Mosta and concludes with a tasting of traditional Maltese treats, offering visitors a glimpse of Christmas as it has been cherished for generations.

Gozo’s celebrations unfold at a gentler rhythm yet with no less joy. In Victoria, Villa Rundle Gardens become the island’s festive heart, filling with artisans, music and the soft glow of the illuminated trail that winds beneath the trees. Families wander through wooden stalls scented with spices and mulled wine, while children delight in Dinja tat-Tfal, a day dedicated entirely to play and creativity. The island’s most beloved tradition, Bethlehem f’Għajnsielem, returns as a life-size Nativity village animated by shepherds, bakers and craftsmen who recreate daily life in the era of Jesus’ birth. The annual Christmas Parade threads through Victoria with dancers, marching bands and the joyful arrival of Santa, while New Year’s Eve gathers locals and visitors in Independence Square for music, fireworks and a sense that Gozo becomes a place of pilgrimage and new beginnings.

As the islands celebrate in streets and squares, the heart of the season returns to the Church’s own rhythm. Beginning on Christmas Eve, Archbishop Charles Jude Scicluna leads the faithful through the solemn beauty of First Vespers and the Vigil Mass at St John’s Co-Cathedral, followed by the traditional Office of Readings, carols and the child’s sermon in Mdina before Midnight Mass. Christmas morning continues at St Paul’s Cathedral, where the Archbishop celebrates the Nativity with the local community. The year closes with a Thanksgiving Mass and the singing of the Te Deum in Valletta, and the Jubilee comes to its liturgical conclusion on 28 December in Mdina. New Year’s Day brings a Mass at Dar tal-Providenza in Siġġiewi, while the season culminates on 4 January with the Epiphany celebration at St John’s—moments that invite both visitors and locals to enter the mystery of Christmas through worship at the some of the Maltese Church’s most treasured sites.

At its heart, Christmas is not about feasts, decorations, or even the Nativity displays that grace Maltese homes and churches. It is about hope—the hope found in a newborn child lying in a manger, the hope that has carried countless generations of Maltese families through trials and triumphs.

In this Jubilee Year, the call to rediscover this hope is more urgent than ever. Like the shepherds who journeyed to Bethlehem, we are invited to seek Christ in unexpected places: in acts of kindness, in the simplicity of faith, and in the quiet moments of prayer. As Pope Benedict XVI once reminded the Maltese, “Of all the gifts brought to these shores, the gift brought by Paul was the greatest of all.” This gift—the Gospel—remains the ultimate source of hope, a light shining in the darkness.

May this Christmas, set against the backdrop of the Jubilee, be a time of renewal, grace, and joyful pilgrimage toward the One who is Emmanuel—God with us. And as the islands fill with music, lights, cribs and community, may each of us take one intentional step—however small—to share that hope with another. In doing so, we allow the message of the manger to move beyond celebration and become a lived invitation, carrying Christ’s light into the year ahead. For those seeking a place where faith, tradition and Mediterranean warmth come together, Malta opens its doors—inviting all to celebrate Christmas on these islands, where the story of hope has been cherished for centuries.