Dublin in December: Weather, Christmas, New Year & Full Travel Guide

December is the month Dublin turns the lights up and the daylight off. You get seven and a half hours of it at the solstice, sunset before ten past four, and a city that responds by lighting every shop front, filling every pub and behaving as though the dark were a design choice rather than a fact of latitude. It works. Dublin at Christmas is genuinely one of the better versions of the city, provided you understand that it is also expensive, crowded on the shopping streets, and shut completely for one day in a way that catches out an astonishing number of visitors every year.

This guide covers Dublin in December with the details that decide a trip: the Met Éireann numbers, the exact daylight, when the Christmas markets open and close, what happens on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day, why there is no public transport at all on 25 December, what the New Year’s Festival actually is, and where the money goes. It is written for people choosing dates and for people who have already booked and want to plan around the closures rather than into them.

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Quick Answer: Is Dublin in December Worth It?

Yes, with one large caveat about the dates you choose. The first three weeks are excellent: the markets are running, the lights are up, the pubs are full in the good way, and the city has a genuine seasonal warmth that its grey November self does not. Christmas Day itself is the caveat — Dublin closes more completely than most European capitals, with no buses, no trams, no trains, no pubs and almost nothing open. If your flights land you in the city for 25 December without a plan, you will spend it in your hotel.

Choose the middle of the month if you want the atmosphere with functioning infrastructure. Choose the last week if you want the New Year’s Festival and the Leopardstown races and do not mind the prices. Avoid building a sightseeing itinerary across 24–26 December, because it will not survive contact with the actual opening hours. Set against the rest of the year, December is the most atmospheric month and close to the most expensive.

Average high / low	8.5 °C / 2.6 °C (47 °F / 37 °F)
Rainfall	75 mm across about 13 wet days
Sunshine	About 1.5 hours a day — the darkest month
Daylight at the solstice	7h 30m on 21 December
Christmas markets	Late November to 24 December; Smithfield runs to 4 Jan 2027
Christmas Day	Friday 25 December — no transport, no pubs, city closed
St Stephen’s Day	Saturday 26 December; substitute bank holiday Monday 28th
New Year’s Festival	30 December to 1 January
Prices	High, and highest around New Year
Verdict	The best atmosphere of the year, if you plan around three specific days

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Dublin Weather in December: The Real Numbers

Met Éireann’s 1991–2020 normals for Dublin Airport give December an average high of 8.5 °C and an average low of 2.6 °C, with 75 mm of rain over about thirteen days. Sunshine averages roughly 1.5 hours a day, which is the lowest figure of the year by a clear margin. The city centre runs about half a degree warmer than the airport where the official readings are taken.

What those numbers do not convey is that Dublin in December is rarely cold in the way northern Europe is cold. It is damp, windy and dark rather than freezing. Frost happens; deep cold mostly does not. Snow averages around six days across an entire winter and rarely settles in the city at all, so if a white Christmas is what you are picturing, Dublin will not supply one and never has. Our full Dublin weather guide has the year month by month.

Month	High °C	Low °C	Rain mm	Wet days	Sun hrs/day
November	10.4	4.3	75	12	2.5
December	8.5	2.6	75	13	1.5
January	8.2	2.3	65	13	2.0

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Daylight in December, and the Thing Nobody Expects

Dublin sits at 53.3° north, so the shortest day gives you seven and a half hours of light. Sunset is before 16:15 for the entire month. Plan one outdoor block from about nine to four, and put everything else — museums, pubs, theatres, the lit streets themselves — after it.

Date	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight
1 December	08:17	16:11	7h 54m
15 December	08:33	16:06	7h 32m
21 December (solstice)	08:38	16:07	7h 30m
25 December	08:39	16:10	7h 30m
31 December	08:40	16:15	7h 35m

Here is the counter-intuitive part. The earliest sunset of the year is not on the solstice — it falls around the middle of December, near 16:06 on the 15th, and by the solstice the evenings are already getting fractionally longer. Mornings keep getting darker until early January. So if you are visiting Dublin in December and want the longest useful evening, the back half of the month is marginally better than the front.

The solstice itself is worth a mention because of Newgrange, an hour north in the Boyne Valley, where the rising sun enters the 5,000-year-old passage tomb on the mornings around 21 December. Places inside the chamber are allocated by public lottery and the odds are long, but the site is open all winter and the solstice period is a compelling time to see it.

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The Christmas Markets

Dublin’s Christmas market scene is smaller than Vienna’s or Manchester’s and nobody should pretend otherwise. What it has is a decent waterfront market, a couple of genuinely charming smaller ones, and a city that does the rest of Christmas — lights, windows, pubs, carols — considerably better than it does wooden chalets.

• TwinkleTown at St Patrick’s Park opens on 27 November and closes on 23 December, so it is the first of the two TwinkleTown markets to finish.
• TwinkleTown in Smithfield is the family one, and importantly it runs on past Christmas — through to 31 December — which makes it one of the few festive things still going in the dead week. It opens in Smithfield Square on 20 November.
• Henry Street and the northside markets are more traditional and less curated, and better for actual shopping than for atmosphere.
• There is no Dublin Castle Christmas market in 2026. The castle is closed to visitors for Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU. Older guides list this market every single year; ignore them.

The city-centre markets run from late November through to 24 December, and this is the single most common scheduling mistake people make about Dublin in December. Arrive on the 27th expecting markets and you will find an empty quayside. Check the current dates before you book, because they shift by a few days year to year. Our Christmas in Dublin guide tracks them, and Dublin’s markets covers the year-round ones.

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The Lights, the Windows and the Shopping

The Grafton Street chandeliers go up in mid-November and stay lit through the season, and the walk from St Stephen’s Green down Grafton Street, across to Henry Street and back along the quays is the best free hour in the city in December. The Brown Thomas Christmas windows are a genuine Dublin institution and draw a queue of their own.

The shopping itself is a warning as much as a recommendation. Grafton Street and Henry Street on the Saturdays before Christmas are among the busiest places in Ireland, and a leisurely browse is not on offer. Go on a weekday morning, or go for the lights in the evening and shop somewhere else entirely. Our Grafton Street guide, Dublin shopping and Irish souvenirs cover where to actually buy things.

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What Is Open and What Is Closed

This is the section that matters most, and it is where visiting Dublin in December differs sharply from visiting most European capitals. Ireland closes hard for Christmas.

Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December

A full day, and then the best night of the year in the pubs. Shops close early, typically mid-afternoon. The markets have their last day. And from about six o’clock every pub in Dublin fills with people who have come home for Christmas — it is the single most sociable night in the Irish calendar and the reason a lot of expatriates time their flights around it. Go out. Do not expect a table.

Christmas Day, Friday 25 December

Dublin shuts. Completely.

• No public transport at all. No Dublin Bus, no Luas, no DART, no Irish Rail. Not a reduced service — none.
• Pubs are closed by law. Hotel bars may serve residents; that is your only option.
• Almost every shop, restaurant, museum and attraction is closed. Hotel restaurants serve, usually on a fixed and pre-booked Christmas menu.
• Taxis run but are scarce and priced accordingly. Book anything you need well in advance.

What does happen: the churches are open and the carol services are worth attending whatever your beliefs, and the Christmas Day swim at the Forty Foot in Sandycove is a real and very Dublin spectacle, with hundreds of people going into the Irish Sea for charity. If you are in the city on the 25th, those two things plus a long walk are your day. Plan the food in advance or you will not eat.

St Stephen’s Day, Saturday 26 December

The city reopens, gently. Public transport resumes on a Sunday timetable from around nine in the morning. Pubs open. The sales start and the shopping streets are immediately busy. The Leopardstown Christmas Festival begins on St Stephen’s Day and runs for four days at the racecourse on the southern edge of the city, which is one of the great Dublin days out and an easy DART-and-shuttle trip. Because the 26th falls on a Saturday in 2026, the substitute bank holiday lands on Monday 28 December.

The week between Christmas and New Year

Quieter than you would think and rather pleasant. Museums and the big attractions reopen from the 27th or 28th on reduced hours, the markets are gone, the sales are on, and the city has a becalmed, slightly hungover quality. The national museums are free and warm. It is a good few days for the things you skipped.

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New Year’s Eve and the New Year’s Festival

Dublin’s New Year’s Festival runs from 30 December to 1 January, developed by Fáilte Ireland with the Office of Public Works. It opens on the 30th with concerts and a music trail across the city, and builds to the night itself. It is a ticketed festival wrapped around a city that would be busy anyway, and it does mean New Year in Dublin is more organised than the free-for-all you get in some capitals.

New Year’s Eve falls on a Thursday in 2026. Restaurants run set menus and book out weeks ahead, pubs charge door prices, and hotels are at their annual peak — this is the most expensive night of the Dublin year, ahead even of St Patrick’s. If you want the night without the price, the pubs a few streets back from the centre run normally and cost normally. Our New Year’s Eve in Dublin guide covers where to go and what things cost.

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Things to Do in Dublin in December

Indoors first, outdoors when it is dry, and lean into the fact that everything looks better after dark this month.

• The free museums. The National Museum sites and the National Gallery cost nothing and are open through most of the month; the Chester Beatty is closed until the end of December. See Dublin museums and the best free things to do.
• Carol services. Christ Church, St Patrick’s and the smaller city churches run them through Advent, most of them free.
• The pub with a fire. December is when the traditional pubs justify their reputation, and when the best pint of Guinness in Dublin is easiest to appreciate.
• Theatre and pantomime. The Gaiety panto is a Dublin fixture and the Abbey and Gate run Christmas programmes.
• A dry-morning walk. Phoenix Park in low winter light, or the coast on the DART to Howth, both of which need to happen before three.
• Rainy-day fallbacks. What to do when it rains is effectively a December itinerary.

What is closed all month: Dublin Castle, to visitors, until January 2027. The Chester Beatty is closed on the same grounds until the end of December 2026. Check the current display state of the Book of Kells at Trinity before building an afternoon around it, and pre-book Kilmainham Gaol, which sells out in every month of the year.

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Prices: December Is Not the Month to Save

November is cheap and January is cheap. December is neither. Hotel rates climb from the moment the lights go on and peak across New Year, restaurants move to set menus at set prices, and flights in the week before Christmas are priced for people who have to travel rather than people who want to. If budget is the deciding factor, Dublin in November gives you a real share of the festive atmosphere at a fraction of the cost, and our cheapest time to visit guide has the full curve.

Where December is still good value: the lights, the windows, the carol services, the museums and the walking are all free, and the city is small enough to see on foot. Dublin on a budget and what a Dublin trip costs set out a realistic daily figure.

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Where to Stay, and Why It Matters More This Month

Location does more work in December than in any other month. It is dark by half four, wet on average every second day, and on 25 December your hotel is effectively your whole world — no transport, no pubs, nothing open within walking distance unless you chose walking distance carefully. Staying between Trinity, Grafton Street and St Stephen’s Green, or in the Georgian streets around Merrion Square, means the lights, the markets, the museums and dinner are all on foot.

Two December-specific points. If you are in the city over Christmas itself, check what your hotel actually serves on the 25th and book it when you book the room — not in December, when it will be gone. And if you are here for New Year, book early and expect the year’s highest rates; the difference between booking in September and booking in December is substantial. See the best area to stay in Dublin and our full where to stay guide, or how to save money on Dublin hotels if the rates are the problem.

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Getting Around, and What to Pack

Transport runs normally all month with the single, total exception of 25 December. Get a Leap Card and check current fares before you travel. Expect the city centre to gridlock on the December Saturdays — walk, because central Dublin is genuinely small, and see getting around Dublin for everything else.

Pack a hooded waterproof rather than an umbrella, because the wind off the Liffey destroys umbrellas and you will see the evidence in every bin. Waterproof shoes with grip for wet cobbles. Layers, because 8 °C outside and a heated pub is a swing you will make several times a day. And book dinner earlier than feels natural, because it is dark by half four and everywhere good is full in December.

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Gotchas

• No public transport whatsoever on 25 December. No bus, tram, DART or train. Plan the day on foot or book a taxi far ahead.
• Pubs are closed by law on Christmas Day. Hotel bars serving residents are the only option.
• The St Patrick’s Park market ends on 23 December. TwinkleTown in Smithfield runs to 31 December, but arriving in the first week of January for the markets is the classic mistake.
• There is no Dublin Castle Christmas market in 2026, and the castle is closed to visitors until January 2027.
• Christmas Day food must be pre-booked. Hotel restaurants only, on set menus, reserved weeks ahead.
• New Year’s Eve is the year’s most expensive night. Set menus, door charges and peak hotel rates.
• The substitute bank holiday is Monday 28 December, because St Stephen’s Day falls on a Saturday.
• Sunset is before 16:15 all month. Outdoor plans need to finish by four.
• Grafton and Henry Streets on December Saturdays are close to impassable. Shop on a weekday morning.
• Do not expect snow. Around six snow days across a whole winter, rarely settling.

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Dublin in December FAQ

Is Dublin nice in December?

Very, for the first three weeks. The lights are up from mid-November, the Christmas markets open from late November, the pubs are at their best and the city has a warmth its November self lacks. The trade-offs are seven and a half hours of daylight, thirteen wet days on average and high prices. The one thing to plan around is Christmas Day, when Dublin closes almost completely.

Is it too cold to visit Dublin in December?

No. The average high is 8.5 °C and the average low 2.6 °C, which is mild for the latitude. Dublin in December is damp, windy and dark rather than genuinely cold, and deep frost is uncommon in the city centre. Layers and a windproof hooded jacket handle it comfortably.

What is open in Dublin between Christmas and New Year?

Most things, from the 27th or 28th, on reduced hours. The national museums and the National Gallery reopen and are free; the big ticketed attractions reopen; the sales are in full swing; and TwinkleTown in Smithfield runs through to 31 December. The St Patrick’s Park market has finished by then. It is a quiet, pleasant few days in the city.

Is there public transport in Dublin on Christmas Day?

None at all. Dublin Bus, the Luas, the DART and Irish Rail all stop completely on 25 December — this is a full shutdown rather than a reduced timetable. Services resume on 26 December on a Sunday timetable from around 09:00. Taxis operate but are scarce and expensive, so book ahead if you need one.

Are the pubs open on Christmas Day in Dublin?

No. Irish licensing law closes pubs on Christmas Day. The only place you will get a drink is a hotel bar serving its own residents. Christmas Eve, by contrast, is the busiest and most sociable pub night of the entire Irish year, so plan your night out for the 24th.

When do the Dublin Christmas markets open and close?

TwinkleTown runs two markets in 2026: Smithfield Square from 20 November to 31 December, and St Patrick’s Park from 27 November to 23 December. There is no Dublin Castle market in 2026 because the castle is closed for Ireland’s EU Council presidency. Dates shift slightly year to year, so confirm before booking.

How many hours of daylight does Dublin get in December?

Between 7 hours 30 minutes at the solstice on 21 December and about 7 hours 54 minutes on the 1st. Sunset is before 16:15 for the whole month. Oddly, the earliest sunset falls around 15 December rather than on the solstice, so evenings are already lengthening slightly by Christmas while mornings keep getting darker into January.

Is Dublin expensive in December?

Yes, and New Year’s Eve is the most expensive night of the Dublin year. Hotel rates rise as soon as the lights go on, restaurants switch to set menus, and flights in the week before Christmas are priced for necessity. If you want the festive feel for less, November’s second half gives you the lights and markets at far lower rates.

What happens in Dublin on St Stephen’s Day?

The city reopens. Public transport restarts on a Sunday timetable from about 09:00, pubs open, and the sales begin. The Leopardstown Christmas Festival starts at the racecourse on the southern edge of the city and runs for four days, which is one of the best Dublin days out of the whole season. In 2026 the 26th is a Saturday, so the substitute bank holiday falls on Monday 28 December.

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Keep Planning

• Christmas in Dublin — the markets, lights and carol services in full.
• New Year’s Eve in Dublin — where to go and what it costs.
• Dublin in winter — how the three winter months compare.
• Dublin in November — the cheaper way to get the same lights.
• Dublin weather month by month — the Met Éireann figures for the year.
• Things to do in Dublin — the master list, indoors and out.
• Things to know before visiting Dublin — the practical briefing.

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Keep Reading

• Christmas in Dublin: Markets, Lights & Festive Events
• New Year’s Eve in Dublin
• Dublin in Winter: The Complete Season Guide
• Dublin in November: The Cheaper Festive Month