Christmas in Hawaiʻi: whale season, the winter surf and a festive table by the sea

By the ULTIMATE Hawaiʻi Editorial Team

Whales and winter surf

From November through April humpback whales gather in Hawaiian waters, and you can watch them from shore and at sea (NOAA). Winter also brings the great surf to Oʻahu’s North Shore: watch it from the beach, and swim only where the lifeguards say it is safe.

A festive stay

The Ritz-Carlton Oʻahu, Turtle Bay, celebrates the festive season on the North Shore, and the Grand Wailea on Maui its “Season of Aloha” (their sites). In Waikīkī, the Royal Hawaiian and Halekulani put the beach at your door for Christmas morning. Book early: the holidays are the islands’ busiest weeks.

Thanksgiving: the season opens on Thursday 26 November

America’s Christmas season begins at the Thanksgiving table. The holiday falls on the fourth Thursday of November, Thursday 26 November in 2026, and it belongs to family, gratitude and a long afternoon feast. Its roots are in the harvest celebration of 1621 at Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, when the English settlers and some ninety Wampanoag men shared three days of feasting.

The feast is served family-style or as a buffet. At its centre is a roast turkey, often filled with a seasoned bread stuffing, or dressing, with gravy and a bowl of tart cranberry sauce. Around it come mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (sometimes crowned with toasted marshmallows), green bean casserole, macaroni cheese and cornbread. Pudding is pie: pumpkin, pecan and apple, and in many homes all three.

The day starts early. Towns across the country hold a Turkey Trot, a charity fun run, usually a 5K and often in fancy dress. In New York the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade sets off through Manhattan at 8.30am, with giant character balloons, marching bands and performers; 2026 is its 100th parade, broadcast live on NBC. In the afternoon the NFL plays three games on Thanksgiving Day, with the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys at home by tradition, and many families play their own backyard “Turkey Bowl”.

At the table, many families go round in turn, each saying what they are thankful for, and two people pull the dried wishbone: whoever keeps the larger piece makes a wish. It is a day for giving, too, with food drives, soup kitchens and volunteering. Friends far from home hold a Friendsgiving, a relaxed potluck, and the next morning Black Friday opens the Christmas shopping season.

Our advice: Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel periods of the year in the United States, so book flights and hotels early. Restaurants that open serve set Thanksgiving menus, and they fill well ahead.

Christmas at home, the American way

From the day after Thanksgiving to the end of December, America throws itself into Christmas. Families send photo Christmas cards, friends throw Ugly Christmas Sweater parties, holiday films fill the television schedules, and whole streets compete with their lights, the more extravagant the better.

On Christmas Eve children hang their stockings and leave out milk and cookies for Santa, with carrots for his reindeer; on Christmas morning the presents come out from under the tree, often opened in matching family pyjamas. Boxing Day is not a holiday in the United States: on 26 December many people go back to work, or to the post-Christmas sales.

The American Christmas table

Christmas dinner often echoes Thanksgiving: roast turkey again, or a glazed Christmas ham or a standing prime rib of beef, with mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and sweet potato casserole. To drink there is eggnog, a rich, creamy punch of milk, cream, sugar and eggs, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and, for the grown-ups, laced with rum or bourbon.

Our advice: if you are visiting, book Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tables early. The restaurants that stay open publish their festive menus on their own websites, and the best go weeks ahead.

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