christmas at a Croatian table: salt cod on Christmas Eve, turkey with mlinci and fritule
What Croatians eat on 24 and 25 December, how the menu changes from Zagreb to Istria and Split, and why the gingerbread heart is on the UNESCO list.
Spending the holidays in Croatia, with your hosts or in a rented apartment? It helps to know that the menu on 24 and 25 December is completely different. Christmas Eve is about fish, Christmas Day about roasts and cakes, and every region from Zagreb to Istria and Dalmatia does it its own way.
christmas eve (badnjak): fish, not meat
On Badnjak (Christmas Eve, 24 December) many families skip meat, so fish takes centre stage. According to the Zagreb Tourist Board, people in Zagreb eat Adriatic or river fish, and traditionally bakalar (salt cod), which can take several days to prepare.
On the coast, salt cod is the main dish of the pre-Christmas fast. The Split Tourist Board says locals usually cook it as brudet (a fish stew) or as bakalar na bijelo ("white" salt cod). In Istria, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner is white salt cod with pasutice (homemade pasta), salted sardines and chickpea maneštra (a thick soup), after which families head to midnight Mass. In Split, free salt cod is handed out on Christmas Eve at Prokurative square, mainly to people in need.
For a feel of the season further south, see our guide to Advent in Dubrovnik 2026.
christmas day: turkey with mlinci and cakes
On Christmas Day (25 December) the fast is over. In Zagreb, the city tourist board says the tradition is roast turkey with mlinci (a side dish made of thin dried flatbread), followed by orahnjača and makovnjača (walnut and poppy seed rolls) and small pastries, with wines from the Zagreb area and other Croatian regions. If you tasted the new wine at Martinje (St Martin''s Day) in November, this is the next chapter.
fritule, kroštule and licitar hearts
Fritule are small fried dough balls, often with raisins. In Split they are sold all year, but eating them fresh and warm on Christmas Eve is a special treat. In Istria the holiday table also has kroštule (fried pastry ribbons), cukerančići and povetice, and you will find cakes at Advent markets across the peninsula.
In the north, the symbol of the season is the licitar. The gingerbread craft of Northern Croatia was inscribed on UNESCO''s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. According to the Croatian Ministry of Culture, the dough is made of flour, sugar, water, baking soda and spices, shaped in moulds, baked, dried and painted with edible colours. The most common motif is a heart, decorated with a small mirror or verses.
what to do
- If your hosts invite you to Christmas Eve dinner, don''t expect meat. In many homes that day is for fish.
- Eat fritule warm, straight after frying.
- A licitar heart makes a good keepsake that says something about where you stayed.
- In Split, people play picigin (a local beach ball game) in the cold sea at Bačvice beach on Christmas Day and New Year''s Day. Join in or watch from the shore.
- Check restaurant and shop opening hours around the holidays in advance, directly with them.
If you are spending Christmas in the capital, our Advent in Zagreb 2026 guide has the dates and locations.