Iceland over Christmas?

[orangie]

I know the daylight hours aren't great; but has anyone been over the Christmas period? We are thinking 22-27th dec!

There is a poster on here who lives in Iceland (PuffinShop I think) and she tends to recommend not going in the deep of winter as the weather can be so bitter there are times when you can't really do much. Not sure which months though.

Yes I did. It was pitch black until lunchtime. Then hazy until night time again I loved it. It was atmospheric. Nye is amazing in rejavik

I've been in October, November and January. By far my favourite was January when exploring the natural highlights of the country albeit we were of course subject to the weather delaying a few trips but I loved the snow, the extremes of weather and seeing the Northern Lights. I loved the other months, too (we went for the Airwaves festival as well as the natural wonders) but it was incredibly magical and romantic to be in the thermal pools as it snowed. I loved the cosy evenings in bars, cafes and restaurants and the country is so well geared for the extremes I don't feel like I missed out on anything due to the short days. If you do go for Christmas plan your actual Christmas Day when it comes to food! I understand (happy to be corrected) everything closes down for family time.

As I'm sure you know, that is the absolute darkest time of year (solstice on 21st or 22nd). It can be sort of fun for a holiday to experience that even if it's hard to live with for weeks on end, but it limits what you can do and how much you can see. Bad weather is also not unlikely to cause problems with accessibility and cancellations. Storms are common in December. A storm in Iceland is considered to be when the wind reaches about 45mph and there are many, many storms each winter. Even when it is not technically a storm, 30+ mph winds are standard (not every day of course!).

Having said that, it can be cosy in town and the lights are pretty and I agree the pools are very cool when it is snowing. There are some unique Icelandic Christmas traditions that are fun to learn about and you can see the Christmas cat downtown.

Although we had a very snowy Christmas last year, a white Christmas is actually far from guaranteed in Reykjavík as it often doesn't snow until January. No snow is better for travelling, but snow is pretty, so I suppose it's swings and roundabouts.

There are just fewer things that you can do and fewer places you can get to in the dead of winter, even in the best circumstances. In the summer you can hike into the mountains, get into the highlands, go further and see more, access the more remote jewels of the country beyond the golden circle. There's so much more!

All in all, if you want a short break mainly sticking to the city then I think Christmas time is OK if you're prepared for what it will be like (dark, cold, windy). If you want to get out and see the country, it's honestly not ideal and it limits your options considerably. But if it does snow, it's very beautiful. And of course you can always come back again another time to get out into the wild landscape properly.

We went one year between 26th and 30th December.

As others have said be mindful of the weather and what's open.

Remember they celebrate Christmas on 24th December. Everything is generally closed 24 - 26th.

So I'd personally shift your dates to the 26th - 30th, otherwise you are going to find yourself very much stuck not able to do much for a chunk of your holiday.

You can do 3 or 4 days in Reykjavik itself, but ideally you WILL want to live the city - if the weather allows. Unless the weather is exceptionally bad the city itself is fine as hot water runs under all the streets in the city helping to keep them passable.

I have to say the daylight hours do mess with your head though. Getting light at 10.30 - 11.00am and then dark again at 2pm makes you feel tired and it's hard.