How many days until Christmas?

Christmas Day falls on 25 December, and the wait counted here runs to the midnight that opens it. In the United Arab Emirates it is not a public holiday and not a day off: the country is Muslim, 25 December is an ordinary working day on the federal calendar, and offices, schools and government counters keep their normal hours unless an employer decides otherwise.

That does not make it invisible. Close to nine in ten residents are expatriates, and December here is unmistakably decorated — trees in the hotel lobbies and shopping centres, carol concerts, seasonal menus, and services at the church compounds in Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi that run several times over to fit everyone in. Schools following international curricula break for a winter holiday that covers the date, so for many families the day itself is free even though the country is working.

The weather is part of why it feels unlike Christmas anywhere in northern Europe. Late December in the Emirates is the pleasant end of the year: daytime temperatures in the mid-twenties, the beaches and terraces at their fullest, and sunset a little before six in the evening. Anyone counting down from a colder country tends to be counting towards a flight rather than towards a fire.

The countdown recalculates continuously from your own device's clock, so it stays correct wherever you are reading it, and it rolls over to next year's date the moment this one passes.