The Croatian President passed on her warms greetings to Croatia’s throughout the world on Christmas with the traditional Christmas message to the nation.

“Every year we joyously await Christmas, a feast of love for mankind, of charity and solidarity towards our neighbour, and also towards all people as a distinct expression of veneration for the Word of God. The meaning of the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the feast of light, kindness and peace is to see, understand, respect and help others in need.

May Christmas inspire us to be extravagant in giving the gifts of affection, friendship and communion since we have learned, time and again, just how much good we can bring to our people and our Homeland if we act in unison.

Let us lavishly give the gifts of kindness and joy, respect and tolerance, and excessively promote the positive values that empower us. Let us celebrate Christmas through the rich variety of our Christmas traditions, songs and greetings, surrounded by the warmth of family and friends.

To all the Christian faithful in the Homeland and abroad, I wish a merry Christmas and an abundance of all the best in the new year 2019!”

President of Croatia - Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic

Organized by the Association of Agrotourism Konavle and as part of the 11th annual manifestation “The Scents of Christmas in Konavle” a Christmas concert will be held today, the 26th of December 26th at 6.00pm.

The special festive Christmas concert, entitled "Silent Night, Holy Night" will be held in the parish church of St. Srda and Baha in Pridvorje.

The mixed vocal group (klapa) "Dubrovnik Airport", the mixed vocal choir "Vežilice", the men's "Atlant" vocal group, the women's vocal group "Cavtajke" and KUD "Stjepan Radić" from Pridvorje will all perform in this bumper Christmas concert.

"Scents of Christmas" in Konavle has been the best event in Croatian rural tourism, the bearer of the Golden Charter Award "Sunflower of Croatian Rural Tourism". "Scents of Christmas" in Konavle run from 2008 as the most popular Christmas carols in Croatia. In a very short period this happening became recognizable as a tourist product, and the organizer is the "Agritourism of Konavle".

Come to Pridvorje tonight and enjoy the Christmas songs!

For the stores and shopping centres of Croatia this festive season was indeed a very merry Christmas. From the period from the 19th to the 24th of December Christmas shopping in Croatia reached new highs as last minute gifts and goodies for the Christmas table were scooped up.

Over the six days from the 19th to Christmas Eve the height of expenditure for December occurred and it is estimated that this December will be a record breaking month in terms of consumer expenditure with 13.5 billion Kuna spent.

According to the Tax Office on Friday the 21st of December 706 million Kuna was spent whilst Saturday was the peak day when 7.9 million receipts were issued. In just three days of last weekend around 1.82 billion Kuna was spent.

Dubrovnik saw a crisp and fresh start to Christmas day as a northerly wind brought clear skies but also freezing temperatures.

A handful of locals and a splattering of tourists enjoyed a stroll through the Old City of Dubrovnik on Christmas morning and soaked up the festive decorations.

Check out our Christmas morning photo gallery

The end of the year in the five-star Hotel Rixos Libertas will end with a bang when the world famous DJ Mahmut Orhan will perform on the 30th of December.

The leading Dubrovnik hotel was prepared a special program for the last week of the year and the highlight is the 30th of December when the mega DJ Mahmut Orhan will perform in the hotel. The master ballroom of the hotel will be transformed into an exclusive nightclub for the ultimate audio and visual experience.

Mahmut Orhan is a 25-year-old DJ and music producer from Bursa, Turkey. After many performances at Istanbul clubs, he achieved international success in 2015 with the song "Age of Emotions", and in the following year, the song "Feel" climbed into the first place of the iTunes music platform. His symbolic link with Dubrovnik was created in 2017 when he made a remix of the well-known "Game of Thrones" song "Save me".

This respected DJ has performed at all of the world's leading electronic music festivals, and in several interviews he mentioned how much he likes Dubrovnik and is always happy to be back here.

Concert tickets can be purchased at the reception of the hotel every day from 0-24h, and for reservations of tables you can send an inquiry to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Merry Christmas to you and your families from all of the team at The Dubrovnik Times

The nativity scene in Cilipi, Konavle this festive season has somewhat of a tongue in cheek political twist this year with the Peljesac Bridge the centre of attention.

The theme of this year’s nativity scene in the Church of St. Nicholas is “Magnificent Bridge” with reference to the long awaited investment into the infrastructure system of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County the bridge that will connect Dubrovnik to the rest of Croatia.

But at the end of the Peljesac Bridge in the Cilipi Church is the stables and the new-born baby Jesus with the Three Kings crossing the bridge.

It wasn’t only the ladies that shone today on Christmas Eve in Dubrovnik the guys were suited and booted as well.

Electric blue suits were the hit this festive season with bowties and brown Brogue shoes as the must have accessories.

Our resident style guru had her head turned on a few occasions this morning as the stream of handsome young men flowed down the Stradun.

Check out our male only gallery