How Icelanders Celebrate Christmas and New Year’s

How Icelanders Celebrate Christmas and New Year’s
A Cozy, Festive, Firework-Filled Look at Iceland’s Holiday Traditions

In Iceland, the holiday season is all about family — close family, extended family, and generations coming together. Christmas (Jól) is the biggest and most beloved holiday of the year, and by November you’ll already see lights, decorations, and hear Christmas music.

If you’re curious how Icelanders celebrate, here’s a guide to the traditions, customs, quirks, and magic of an Icelandic holiday season.

Christmas in Iceland: Family, Food & Folklore
The Yule Lads — Iceland’s 13 Santa-Like Mischief Makers
Instead of a single Santa Claus, Iceland has the 13 Yule Lads (Jólasveinar).
In modern tradition, they bring children a small gift each night for the 13 nights leading up to Christmas — but their folklore origins are much stranger, and much funnier.

Come visit and we’ll happily tell you the full story of these mischievous brothers and their troll parents.

December 24th — The Main Celebration
For Icelanders, the real Christmas celebration happens on Christmas Eve.

The Christmas Dinner
Families gather for a festive meal, which is often deeply traditional. In some households, the menu is the same every year; in others, people like to experiment — sometimes with exotic meats that normally never appear on Icelandic tables, such as ostrich or crocodile.

Most common dishes include:

Hamborgarahryggur (glazed ham)

Ptarmigan (if there is a hunter in the family)

Wild goose

Gift Opening
After dinner, the gift-opening begins. Icelanders tend to go all-in here — children often receive 30+ gifts from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more.

Board Games
Many families end the night with a board game, making the whole evening warm, relaxed, and full of laughter.

Traveling in Iceland During Christmas
December 24th and 25th are very quiet in Iceland. Most of the country shuts down.

We recommend:

Spending the 24th relaxing at a nice hotel,

Enjoying a peaceful morning walk before everything closes,

Starting a bit later on the 25th and sticking to classic sightseeing areas like:

The South Coast

The Golden Circle

These routes recover faster with services and food options.

New Year’s in Iceland — Fireworks Like You’ve Never Seen
New Year’s Eve (Gamlárskvöld) has two defining traditions:

1. The Annual Comedy TV Show
At 10:30 PM, the entire nation sits down to watch a famous comedy and satire program reviewing the year — like a national, Icelandic version of “Saturday Night Live,” summarizing the last 12 months.

Families gather around the TV, rating whether this year’s show was a hit or a flop.
It ends at 11:30 PM.

2. The Most Insane Fireworks You Will Ever See
By 11:45 PM, everyone rushes outside. For the next full hour, the sky erupts.

Icelanders LOVE fireworks, and private firework sales fund our national search & rescue teams — so people buy a lot. The result:

Constant explosions

A rumbling sky

Entire neighborhoods glowing

An unforgettable chaos of light and sound

It can be overwhelming for animals, so many pets are given sedatives for the night.

Experiencing New Year’s as a Visitor
If you’re visiting Iceland over New Year’s, Reykjavík or another larger town is the place to be.

What to expect:
9 PM bonfires where locals gather, sing, and celebrate

Eerily empty streets during the TV show

The chance to wander through town without crowds

Finding your perfect fireworks viewpoint before midnight

A celebration unlike anywhere else in the world

New Year’s is a popular time to travel to Iceland, so get in touch early to secure:

Quality hotels

Restaurant reservations