Ireland lives for Christmas. Here are five ways to spend the festive season in Ireland.
1. Rock around the Christmas markets
There’s no better time than December for mixing mulled wine, mince pies, fairy lights, and shopping. Ireland’s Christmas markets provide a magic atmosphere, with carol singing and general merriness and cheer. One of the prettiest is Belfast’s Christmas Market, located in front of a festive and perennially handsome City Hall.
2. Meet Santa – and his reindeer
Did you know the Mourne Mountains is Santa’s official home in Ireland? You can bring the kids along and meet him in this secluded cottage and even see the elves working away in the workshop. In Mount Stewart, Santa (or Santy, as we sometimes call him) has kindly put together a woodland trail for excited children to burn off some energy.
What of Santa’s helpers? Dublin’s Phoenix Park is a playground of deer, and each Christmastime in Ireland, the park offers the chance to meet some members of Bambi’s herd and hear a talk given by the park’s keepers.
3. Get crafty for shopping
The Christmas lights on Dublin’s Grafton Street shines like so many Christmas wishes, and shopping underneath them is a treat. For crafts and design in the city, steer your deer to Powerscourt Townhouse Centre’s loft market and design centre. The centre is also home to a magical Father Christmas Work Room, where you can meet Santa in an 18th-century style den.
4. Race through the outdoors
After dinner is done and presents are presented, horseracing is the next tradition to try at Christmastime in Ireland. The St Stephen’s Day/Boxing Day fixtures are an event themselves, and the ideal spot for post-Christmas get-togethers. Don a glamorous (and warm) outfit and join the crowds trying their luck. Leopardstown and Limerick declare festivals for the occasion, while Down Royal’s Boxing Day Races is a tradition.
5. Try something traditionally Irish
Families in Dublin make sure to get a peek at the Christmas windows of Dublin’s prestigious Brown Thomas department store.
On the evening of Christmas Eve, the pub is pretty much the centre of small villages, towns and even cities, and is usually bursting with reuniting friends and families wrapping hands around hot whiskeys and cosying up beside the fire. It’s off the charts for Christmas spirit.
The 26th is known as Stephen’s Day in the Republic (Boxing Day in the north), and it’s traditionally the time to get outside. If it’s not a lengthy walk, people are jumping into the Atlantic or the Irish Sea for a shivering but refreshing swim (also a big tradition on Christmas Day).
