Christmas with Emirates

Are you flying with Emirates this month? The airline is inviting customers to experience a touch of Christmas for the whole month of December, with traditional treats and festive fare available across international lounges and a host of delights served inflight, ensuring the 1 million Emirates customers travelling this December fly better throughout the festive season.

Festive feasts across Emirates Lounges

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Emirates Lounges in Dubai, where passengers jetting off to greet family and friends for the holiday season can pause to indulge in some festive fare before boarding. First and Business Class lounges will be serving roasted turkey breast doused in jus and cranberry sauce with glazed chestnuts, brussel sprouts and delicious new potatoes. First Class lounges will have an array of winter desserts – traditional stollen, scrumptious mince pies dashed with vanilla sauce, red currant cheesecake, and melt in the mouth cinnamon profiteroles. In Business Class lounges, Christmas dinner will also be served, alongside tempting desserts of sour cherry confit, Christmas fruit cake, ginger-spiced pear and chocolate praline cake, spiced citrus mandarin confit cake, and a tart and refreshing cranberry sorbet.

Visitors to the lounges can warm up with some apple pie and gingerbread ice cream or get cosy with gingerbread lattes or a toffee nut mocha. Customers can also relax with Dilmah’s Christmas iced tea, cocktails and mocktails, or Emirates own mixology with Holly Jolly Christmas, Red Nosed Rudolph and Jack Frost, alongside festive flavoured waters from Evian and Perrier. Customers can also choose to get the holidays off to a sparkling start with Moet ice Imperial and Moet ice imperial Rose. Around the globe, Emirates Lounges will be offering festive treats too, with local favourites taking centre stage.

Tis the season to be jolly onboard Emirates

For the entire month of December, Emirates will serve festive meals and snacks in all cabins on select routes. First, Business and Premium Economy Class customers can indulge in classic Christmas dishes, from lemon and herb marinated king prawns in marie rose sauce, to cured salmon gravadlax with ginger, candied orange and Sevruga caviar. A full festive main course with all the trimmings will be available in all four classes– roasted turkey with classic jus, glazed chestnuts, braised red cabbage, roasted pumpkin, steamed brussel sprouts and creamy potato gratin. Desserts include a variety of delectable dishes – Christmas pudding with a generous dollop of crème anglaise, white chocolate cake with raspberry curd, or a spiced cranberry cake in the shape of Santa’s belt. Economy Class passengers will also have a moreish Christmas meal featuring roasted turkey or chicken roulade with chestnut stuffing, roasted potatoes with parsley, a medley of seasonal vegetables, followed by a sumptuous fruit cake and orange sauce.

For the month of December, customers in First and Business Class will be offered the Emirates spiced strawberry welcome drink, and First Class customers will also get a miniature Santa Claus creatively crafted from strawberries and white chocolate cream. From 17-26 December, customers in all classes will be offered a festive hot chocolate heaped with melting marshmallows and First Class customers can opt for aromatic mulled wine. From the 24-26 December, Emirates will be offering mini gifts of pistachio and raspberry profiteroles, dark chocolate truffles and gingerbread cookies, across the various cabin classes.

In the A380 onboard lounge, customers departing Dubai can relax with some fragrantly spiced mulled wine or hot chocolate and munch on some mince pies, stollen, panettone, Christmas pastries, as well as traditional mandarins and chestnuts, biscotti and candy canes. This year, customers visiting the onboard lounge can also grab a Christmas sandwich stuffed with turkey, roast beef, cheddar cheese, cranberry sauce and chilli tomato relish.

Happy Orthodox Christmas from Emirates

From 20 Dec – 8 January, Emirates will also celebrate Orthodox Christmas on flights from Russia, Egypt and Ethiopia to Dubai and back. Customers in First Class will be treated to salmon gravadlax with ginger and candied orange or King prawn cocktail, followed by roasted duck with orange thyme jus, fondant potatoes and steamed broccolini, and a dessert of classic Christmas pudding with crème anglaise or traditional bread and butter pudding. Business Class customers will also enjoy a roasted duck main course, with starters of Olivier salad, and desserts of white chocolate and cranberry cake or spiced cranberry cheesecake. Economy Class customers will enjoy starters of Russian potato salad followed by a turkey roulade or beef stroganoff, finished off with a dessert of moist fruit cake soaked in zesty orange sauce. On 1 January, customers will also be offered creamy hot chocolate or mulled wine, along with some Emirates festive treats.

Get the festive feels with ice

This Christmas, Emirates customers have a choice of 39 holiday season movies onboard the award-winning inflight entertainment ice, with new movies such as How to Ruin the Holidays, Christmas with the Campbells and Mistletoe Ranch, alongside all-time favourites Last Christmas, The Holiday, Elf, The Polar Express and even Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer from 1964. There is an array of 19 Christmas TV shows and holiday specials, including The Office Christmas Special, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!, Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas and The Great Christmas Bake Off. Kids can enjoy How To Train Your Dragon: Homecoming, Merry Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda Holiday and The Doc McStuffins Christmas Special. For those who wish to get into the holly jolly rhythm, there are 26 albums of Christmas music from artists such as Ariana Grande, Andrew Bocelli, Micheal Bublé, Sia, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald and more.

The season of giving

Grab some last-minute gifts as EmiratesRED launches a 4-day sale from 15-18 December, offering customers 15% off when they spend a minimum of USD 150. New luxury products launched on EmiratesRED include; Creed Carmina, Loewe Esencia, the Seiko Sport Automatic Watch and the Luminox Leatherback Watch, iconic La Mer The Moisturizing Cream and Dr Levy – Contour Pro Sculpting Set, or the new Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 Earbuds. The EmiratesRED pre-order service is  available on most flights, allowing customers to shop from 21 days up to 40 hours before their flight, provide flight details during checkout, and then receive the order delivered by cabin crew directly to their seat while in the air.

A range of Christmas keepsakes are for sale at Emirates Official Store, where the 2023 Christmas collection features Emirates branded bags, mugs, Camel Milk soaps with a mulberry red fruit scent, Emirates Christmas jumpers and matching family pyjamas, Christmas décor and greeting cards. Passengers can also use Skywards Miles to make purchases at the online store.

Customers can also celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and give back with Emirates Airline Foundation, dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged children. Emirates customers can donate in any currency on any flight by using the envelope in the seat pocket, or via credit card, cheque, or bank transfer, inflight or from home. The foundation also accepts Skywards Miles with 95% of donations going directly to assisting children in need.

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.