The Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, said yesterday that the restored Christmas holiday had brought joy to the country's people, and urged them to preserve the day as one of faith and family love free from commercialisation.
Cardinal Ortega, the leader of Cuba's Catholics, made the plea in a special 15-minute Christmas message broadcast on a minor state radio station.
Christmas was wiped off the official calendar in 1970, when President Fidel Castro declared it interfered with Cuba's sugar harvest. It was restored this year to the national public holiday calendar.
Cuba's communist authorities, which control the media, had given special authorisation for the broadcast on Radio Musical Nacional, one of the island's less popular stations which normally plays classical music.
"This is a great joy for the church and for the Cuban people," Cardinal Ortega said in his broadcast. "Now let us hope that it won't be the commercial tinkling of an imported Santa Claus that announces Christmas in Cuba."
"Happy Christmas," Cardinal Ortega wished listeners, exhorting them to cherish the true meaning of Christmas as a day of peace and love associated with the birth of Jesus Christ.
His message, which gave a basic lesson in Catholic teaching and included passages about the Nativity from the Gospel of St Luke, rounded off a day in which Cubans enjoyed their first real Christmas holiday in nearly 30 years.
It was not immediately clear how many Cubans actually heard the Cardinal's message, or even knew about it. Much of Cuba's state mass media appeared largely to ignore the holiday.
The Communist Party newspaper Gramma carried a frontpage article hailing the rapid growth of the island's tourism sector, and a piece headlined "Communist youth celebrates 40 Januaries" in reference to the coming 40th anniversary of Cuba's 1959 revolution.
Even if all Cubans did not grasp the religious or historical significance of the day, most took advantage of the holiday to spend time with family and friends. The streets of Havana were generally quiet.
On Christmas Eve many Cubans revived the old tradition of a family meal, usually pork, rice, beans and vegetables. Some went to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and other services on Christmas Day.
Cardinal Ortega told local people and foreign tourists who filled Havana's San Cristobal Cathedral for midnight Mass: "You must go out and wish people, your neighbours on the streets, `Happy Christmas'."