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The Serbs celebrate Christmas for three consecutive days, beginning with Christmas Day. The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the traditional Julian Calendar, as per which Christmas Day (December 25) falls currently on January 7 of the Gregorian Calendar. This day is called by Serbs the first day of Christmas, and the following two are accordingly called the second, and the third day of Christmas. During this festive time, one is to greet another person with "Christ is Born," which should be responded to with "Truly He is Born."The Serbian name for Christmas is Božić , which is the diminutive form of the word bog, meaning 'god'.

This holiday surpasses all the other celebrated by Serbs, with respect to the diversity of applied folk customs and rituals. These may vary from region to region, some of them having modern versions adapted to the contemporary way of living. The ideal environment to carry them out fully is the traditional multi-generation country household. In the morning of Christmas Eve an oak tree is felled, and a log cut from it is in the evening ceremoniously put on the domestic fire. A bundle of straw is taken into the house and spread over the floor. The dinner on this day is festive, copious and diverse in foods, although it is prepared in accordance with the rules of fasting. Groups of young people go from house to house of their village or neighborhood, congratulating the holiday, singing, and making performances; this continues through the next three days.

On Christmas Day, the celebration is announced at dawn by church bells and by shooting. A big importance is given to the first visit a family receives that day. People expect that it will summon prosperity and well-being for their household in the ensuing year; this visit is often pre-arranged. Christmas dinner is the most celebratory meal a family has during a year. A special, festive loaf of bread is baked for this occasion. The main course is roast pork which they cook whole by rotating it impaled on a wooden spit close to an open fire. It is not a part of Serbian traditions to exchange gifts during Christmas. Gift giving is, nevertheless, connected with the holiday, being traditionally done on the three consecutive Sundays that immediately precede it. Children, women, and men, respectively, are the set gift-givers on these three days. Closely related to Christmas is New Year's Day by the Julian calendar (January 14 on the Gregorian calendar), whose traditional folk name is Little Christmas.
Christmas Eve
The Serbian name for Christmas Eve during the daylight is Badnji dan, and after the sunset it is called Badnje veče.Since the Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian, Christmas Eve (December 24) coincides with January 6 on the Gregorian calendar. On this day members of a household make preparations for the oncoming celebration.
The head of household goes into a forest preferably before the sunrise, or at least before noon, to select a young and strait oak tree and fell it. A log cut from this tree will have a central role in the celebration; the log is called badnjak. Generally, one badnjak is prepared for a household, but regionally that number may be greater than one. In the latter case, for each of the logs a separate tree is felled. The head is usually accompanied by several male members of the family. When they set off from home to get the badnjak, they announce it by shooting their guns or small celebratory mortars called prangija.When the head of household finds a tree that he regards as suitable for the badnjak, he stands in front of it facing east. He throws grain at it, greets it, "Good morning and happy Christmas Eve to you," makes the Sign of the Cross, says a prayer, and kisses the tree. He then cuts it slantwise on its eastern side, using his axe; some men put gloves on before they start to cut the tree. It should fall to the east, without being stopped in its fall by surrounding trees. The first splinter is picked up and kept; it is believed to possess a beneficial power for the material well-being of household. In some regions, if the tree is not cut down after the third blow of the axe, it must not be cut further, but pulled and twisted until it breaks off. The top and the branches of the felled tree are lopped off. A badnjak should be of such a length that allows it to be carried on a shoulder, up to about 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) long. Brought home, each badnjak is leaned vertically against the house beside the entrance door.

In the night a man of the family brings their badnjak into the house. If there is more than one badnjak, the thickest of them is regarded as the main, and it is brought in before the others by the head of household. Stepping across the threshold with his right foot first, the man greets the gathered family, "Good evening and happy Christmas Eve to you." The woman of the house greets him back, "May God give you well-being, and may you have good luck." She throws grain from a sieve at both the man and the badnjak he carries. Having entered, he approaches the house's fireplace called ognjište. The hearth of an ognjište is without a vertical surround, so it is similar to a campfire. He lays down the log, putting its thicker side on the fire. He does it in such a way that a short length of the log at its thicker end, which has been nearest to the tree's roots, is left outside the fire. The other logs, if any, are brought in by males and laid on the fire parallel or perpendicular to the first badnjak.
The head of household takes a jug of wine and pours some on the badnjak; in some regions, he may strew wheat grains over the logs. He then proposes a toast, "Grant, O God, that there be health and joy in this home, that our grain and grapevines yield well, that children be born healthy to us, that our property increase in the field, pen, and barn!" or similar. The head drinks a draught of wine from the jug, after which the members of household pass it one to another and drink. At the side of ognjište where the thicker end of badnjak is situated, the family puts a plowshare and a sieve containing grain, honey, cakes, wine, salt, prunes, walnuts, and apples. The badnjak ought not to be jumped over or trodden upon.
A very festive moment is when the badnjak burns through, whereby the length at its thicker end which has been left outside the fire gets separated from the rest of the log. Wine is poured over it again, and toasts are proposed. In the past, men would go out and shoot their guns with joy when this happened in their home. There is a custom that the head of household gives a reward to one who has been the first to notice this event. Following this, some families let the fire go out; in others men keep watch in shifts by the ognjište during the night to keep the badnjak burning. The thicker end of the log is, however, left at the side of ognjište where it has fallen after the burning through, and is not put on the fire.
Badnjak sales at Kalenić Market, Belgrade

These ancient traditions have modern, reduced versions, since houses today usually have no ognjište on which to burn a badnjak. It is symbolically represented by several leaved oak twigs, some of which are burnt in a wood-burning kitchen stove, the others being placed beside the stove. In a home where no wood-burning stove is used, these twigs can be set at an appropriate place in the home as an ornament. For the convenience of people who live in towns and cities, they can be bought at marketplaces or received in churches.

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