The most festive time is "nochebuena" or Christmas Eve. A traditional meal consisting of roast pork, black beans is served over rice, fried mashed plantains and yucca. Large families usually dig a pit in the ground and roast an entire pig over coals, covered with banana leaves. For desert, a type of nougat candy from Spain called turron and the traditional Cuban flan - a very sweet custard - are served with Cuban coffee, remarkably strong!

Christmas dinner is usually a big feast including rice and gungo peas (a Christmas specialty), chicken, oxtail and curried goat. From early December until sometime in January, sorrel is all the rage in Jamaica. Sorrel drink can be found in just about every single home during the Christmas season, made from dried sorrel sepals (a meadow plant), cinnamon, cloves, sugar, orange peel and rum.