Signs of Christmas in Egypt

There were more signs of Christmas in Egypt than I expected. From gingerbread houses in some hotels, to Santa Claus and a few nativity scenes.

Talking with our guide it seems like even some Muslims in Egypt are giving gifts at Christmas.

About 15% of the population in Egypt is Christian. The Coptic Christians are Orthodox Christians, they celebrate Christmas on Jan 7. So we were not there for their Christmas.

The boat manager was Coptic, and shared some Coptic Christmas traditions, including fasting from certain meats for 42 days. He mentioned that they end up fasting between 5-6 months of the year.

At our first hotel, we saw this gingerbread house.

At the Cairo museum gift shop we saw this life-size Santa playing a saxophone.

The saxophone Santa theme continued at the airports and some hotels. It was fairly popular, here are a couple more from airports.

At the Seti Abu Simbel resort where we had lunch, they had a Nativity scene.

They also had a Nubian Santa and reindeer. It makes sense, since Abu Simbel is in ancient Nubia.

Walking down the street along the Nile in Luxor we saw someone dressed up as Santa offering to take pictures with the local kids.