To ask where you’d spend Christmas Day in europe

[Drpeppered]

Posting in aibu for traffic.

If you were going to spend Christmas away from home, which city in Europe would you want to spend it in?

Me and DP are tired of the family drama, and are considering going away over the Christmas period and flying back on Boxing Day. Current front runner is Iceland, but concerned everything will be closed from Christmas Eve onwards. Would love to hear more suggestions and your reasons why.

Istanbul, would be fabulous.

I spent Xmas 2018 in Budapest and it was amazing; Christmas Day morning we watched The Nutcracker performed at the Hungarian Opera House - it was magical!

Vienna or Disneyland.

Another vote for Switzerland - I'm a huge fan of Zurich, Christmas day in the spa sounds amazing.

Or Oslo which is one of my favourite cities on earth.

Clearly I have a big preference for snow.

Just be aware that Christmas is not the big deal it is in the UK everywhere else. It's just another fiesta where I live in Spain. Ok if that's what you want, but don t expect the whole 9 yards but with sun.

Removing my parents home city from the equation which would be the obvious choice, I’d choose either Reykjavik, Helsinki, Grindewald or Stockholm

We are going skiing this year. (Italian Alps)

Barcelona. Plenty of places open and the climate was warm enough for us to sit outside on a terrace to eat paella on Christmas Day.

I’ve spent Christmas in Iceland, it was perfect.

Watched the sunrise on Christmas Day at the blue lagoon, as pp have said not until 11am so a nice relaxing start! We then went back to our rented AirBnB apartment for food & presents before heading out to see the northern lights on a tour that evening. Most magical Christmas Day ever.

They celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so we ate a traditional Icelandic Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve in a restaurant.

The tours (Northern lights, golden circle, horse riding, city walks etc.) run throughout the Christmas period. There’s a list of which restaurants are open on which days here: visitreykjavik.is/opening-hours

Eilat. Sick of ersatz Christmas in Christian Europe (and I’m a Christian)> If this counts as Europe?

Vienna for me. Such a beautiful city and I bet it would be gorgeous at Christmas.

Up a (probably Swiss) mountain

But those Icelandic tours sound lovely

If your budget is limited I’d avoid the Scandi countries, especially Norway. Grindelwald is gorgeous, we arrived by train, so magical! But again - expensive.

I would suggest if you are in a European city you go self catering. I know in Munich and Vienna everything is shut on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Christmas markets aren't open after 23rd.
I would go for somewhere with lovely scenery so you can at least go for a walk. Also accommodation with TV etc.

Venice! We went for Christmas two years ago and are going again this year. It's not crowded in winter, and everything about it was absolutely perfect.

Amsterdam. I've done it several times. All the public transport runs and I had a great 3 course pub Christmas lunch for just over €20.

In Germany shops are closed but lots of restaurants are open as it is the day people go for lunch with family as Christmas Eve is the main day for us.

Saying that, restaurants will be fully booked by end of October and most will close for dinner.

Christmas markets will be gone as well.

Agree with PP that Christmas Eve is often the bigger food celebration if you want to eat out in Europe.

Grindelwald looks gorgeous, I want to go myself now!

I think maybe Florence. Iceland would be absolutely magical too.

In Britain. Hopefully.

Yes latebreakfast yes a million times over.