Many of those non-Irish nationals braving the city centre last night were planning to mark Christmas regardless of whether they would have in their home countries. Several were even planning to include turkey in their main meal on Monday.
Software workers Santosh Reddy and Suresh Naidu, from southern India, were strolling, without shopping bags, on Henry Street, Dublin. They explained they were Hindu and so would not have celebrated Christmas were they at home.
"Christmas is a government holiday in India, because it was under the British, but it is only actually celebrated by the Catholics and Protestants," said Mr Naidu.
"Christmas here is for us the most boring day of the year. There are no shops open, no pubs, nothing. So we will all meet up and cook a dinner. We will have turkey, and a special biryani rice, some salad, a few drinks."
They had been in Dublin for two years, they said, and in Donegal for a year prior to that.
Byambasuren Batochir, a Buddhist from Mongolia, was looking after his four-month-old son, Javkha, outside a women's clothes shop, waiting for his wife. He explained that, for him, the New Year was a bigger celebration than Christmas.
"In Mongolia we don't celebrate Christmas at all, but here, well, yes we do because we are here." The student has been in the State for three years and said he had had "no idea what Christmas was" when he first arrived.
"So on Monday we will have drinks in our flat and some traditional food. We will have some turkey, yes, but also a thing called 'buuz'. It's like a Cornish pasty, like pastry filled with meat. It's not spicy, just kind of plain, but tasty."
Also from Mongolia, though only here six months, were students Odno Odochinea and Goyo Gotsetseg.
They were about to join a long queue into FX Buckley's butchers on Moore Street to get some chicken. Ms Odochinea said they were both Buddhist and would not be celebrating Christmas, but friends would meet up in her flat. "We will have chicken and salad. It will be a normal day but with no studying or shopping - nice."
Also on Moore Street, Adeyinka Sofola was looking at yams and wondering whether she would buy any.
A Pentecostal Christian, she and her family will celebrate Christmas with fried turkey and "jollof" rice made with chillies, onion, red peppers and chicken stock - and perhaps some yams. "We don't have to go to church on Christmas - we go on the day after. Oh, everyone is looking forward to it. We love Christmas."
