Iceland at Christmas and New Year: what tours run
Most day tours still run over Christmas and New Year, but fewer departures. 24 and 31 December are the thinnest days. Book the New Year's Eve boats early.
The short version
- In our current calendars, about four in five of a normal December day's tours still show departures on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January.
- Northern lights tours thin out most: roughly half the usual number show departures on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
- New Year's Eve boat cruises leave Reykjavík's Old Harbour at 22:30 or 23:00 and come back about half past midnight.
- Christmas Eve from about 18:00 is the big family evening in Iceland. Expect closed shops, quiet streets and early last orders.
- Daylight in Reykjavík around Christmas is only about four hours, so day tours start and finish in the dark.
Most things still run. Iceland doesn’t shut for Christmas the way people fear, but it thins out, and the two evenings that matter to Icelanders, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, are the thinnest. Book your tours for 25 and 26 December and 1 January with a bit of flexibility, book the New Year’s Eve boats early, and don’t plan anything ambitious for the evening of 24 December.
What the calendars actually show
We hold the booking calendars for every tour we sell, so we checked. On an ordinary mid-December day, around 1,300 of our tours show departures. On 24 December it’s about 1,020. On Christmas Day about 1,040, on New Year’s Eve about 1,060 and on New Year’s Day about 1,010. Boxing Day (26 December) and 2 January are close to normal.
Some things drop more than others. Northern lights tours fall from around 140 on a normal night to roughly 70 on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, then recover to about 105 on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Horse riding falls hardest, to about a third of normal on the 25th. Glacier hikes, ice caves and lagoons hold up well.
Two cautions. A calendar showing a date as open is not the same as a confirmed departure: some operators close holiday dates late in the year, or cancel if too few people book. And weather cancels plenty of December tours anyway. Build in a spare day.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Christmas Eve is the main event in Iceland. Families sit down together at six in the evening, and the country goes quiet. Shops close early in the afternoon. Many restaurants close for the evening, and those that open, often in hotels, book up well ahead. If you want Christmas Eve dinner out, book it before you book your flights.
Daytime on the 24th is fine for tours that finish by mid-afternoon. Evening tours are where it bites. Northern Lights Bus Tour From Reykjavík, from €73, is a good example: its calendar runs every night around Christmas except the 24th and the 31st. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are both open.
Others do run on Christmas Eve. Northern lights in a minibus, from €110, shows departures on all five holiday dates as the calendar stands today. Check again nearer the time.
For a daytime option over Christmas, Golden Circle & Secret Lagoon, from €117, shows departures on all the holiday dates, with a morning start and the lagoon included. Around the solstice you’ll see Gullfoss in low, short daylight. That’s the trade.
Funky Christmas Myths and Traditions, from €30, is a 90-minute afternoon walk in Reykjavík about the thirteen Yule Lads, the Christmas cat and the food. Its calendar shows departures on only some days in December, including the 25th and 26th, so check your date.
New Year’s Eve
This is Reykjavík’s big night, and you don’t need a tour for most of it. In the evening, bonfires are lit in several neighbourhoods. At about half past ten, most of the country goes indoors to watch the annual comedy review on television. Then, towards midnight, the whole city lets off fireworks. Private fireworks, sold by rescue teams, in every street, for well over an hour. It’s loud, smoky and very much the point.
The boats are the one tour worth booking for it. From the water you see the fireworks going up all around the bay at once.
- Reykjavík New Year’s Eve Celebration at Sea, from €189, two hours from 22:30, with an open bar of selected drinks, party hats and warm overalls.
- New Years Firework Cruise, from €179, leaves at 23:00 and is back about half an hour after midnight, with a glass of champagne at midnight.
Both run on one night a year and both sell out. Dress for a cold deck. And don’t book them expecting the northern lights: the smoke and city glow make it unlikely, and the operators say “if conditions are right” for a reason.
New Year’s Day
1 January is the slowest day of the holiday, and many people in Reykjavík are asleep until noon. Tours still run, around a thousand in our calendars, but early starts are rarer. It’s a good day for a lagoon or a gentle afternoon.
Northern lights at Christmas
Long nights help. Clouds decide. Late December has as much darkness as you’ll ever get in Iceland, but it’s also a stormy, cloudy time of year. Nobody can promise the lights on any date. If you book a hunt, book it early in your stay, so a free retry fits before you fly home. More in northern lights season: months, moon and cloud.
Our honest take
Come. Christmas in Iceland is quiet and cosy, and New Year’s Eve in Reykjavík is worth the trip on its own.
Plan around two evenings. On 24 December, book dinner early and expect nothing else to be open. On 31 December, take the boat or just stand on a hill in town. Leave 25 and 26 December and 1 January for day tours, but keep a spare day, because December weather cancels more tours than the holidays do.
And if a particular tour matters, check its calendar for your exact date before you book flights. The gaps are real, and they vary by operator.
