Christmas in Ireland has always carried in it something of a contradiction.
There is feasting and celebration aplenty but often the revelry is followed by the urge to exercise and come up with healthy New Year’s resolutions. Luckily, Ireland is a place where these dueling impulses happily meet.
So after the excesses of Christmas Day, there would be a brisk walk in the hills, along a beach, through a quiet woodland.
Unlike some countries of the same or similar latitude, Ireland boasts a winter climate where it’s cold enough so that your cozy indoor get-together is well deserved, but not so cold that you don’t earn it by way of outdoor activity.
There is a reason why the island is visited by an array of wildfowl and wader bird species from Siberia, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Greenland. Welcome to Hibernia. The Romans gave the island its Latin name. It denoted an endless winter but they were being a bit harsh.
As the song goes, “Christmas in Killarney.”
They never lingered to enjoy the delights of an Irish day in December, or January. And of course, they would never experience an Irish Christmas. Their loss. Christmas in Ireland falls just a few days after the Winter Solstice, a celestial standout that may well have spurred the marking of Christ’s birth at a time of year when the old gives way to the new.
A Christmas sojourn in Ireland is a more complete one if the arrival is in time for the shortest day of the year, and a dawn when the sun is at its lowest point in the northern sky and, assuming a cloudless morning, sends its shafts of light into the passage grave in Newgrange, County Meath, a gift from the past that predates the Egyptian pyramids by five centuries. Not quite reaching back that far, but if you like Christmas to be of the old-fashioned kind then Ireland is your spot on the map.
The island boasts many splendid outdoor Christmas markets that carry an air of the medieval. As anyone who has set foot in Ireland well knows, it is not hard to imagine being in former times. And the existence of not a few outdoor Christmas markets in these times is a reminder that Christmas in Ireland has had a long time to mature.
A stop along the Traditional Music Trail in Belfast.
One market well worth the look is the Belfast Christmas Market, a splendid affair that occupies the ground fronting the impressive City Hall.
Though this be Belfast, the visitor would be forgiven for thinking that this was Yuletide central in, well central Europe, and Germany in particular.
The market is styled on a continental assemblage of chalets and stands and indeed traders from European neighbors such as Germany, Italy, France, and Spain do join Irish sellers in setting up their stalls in the shadow of the City Hall’s majestic dome.
The Belfast market is a perfect extension of the city’s inner heart in that the streets surrounding it are very pedestrian friendly. This, then, is a seamless blending of the old and the new. A similar blending can be found in Galway where a number of outdoor markets are strategically placed during the holiday season in locations from Eyre Square to Spanish Arch. Galway is a fun city to visit any time of year, but even this old/young town, home to not a few overseas college students, exemplifies the Irish version of a rollicking good time.
Cork, of course, is not to be left behind in the markets stakes and the city boasts two Christmas markets, one on Grand Parade, and the other at Bishop Lucey Park. And of course, there is the city’s famed English Market which exudes a Christmas-like feel all year round.
Yulefest in Kilkenny.
Kilkenny City boasts a Christmas Market in a setting that seems a match for said market and time spent here will deliver many good memories.
Dublin, too, has a permanent year-round street market in the George's Street Arcade, but it seems to have been created with the year’s final month especially in mind. The Irish capital, like Belfast and other cities, is increasingly pedestrian friendly and this of course presents one of the contradictions of the holiday – all that hustle and bustle, all those lists, and yet the enduring desire of people to shop at a pace and manner that would be familiar to our medieval forebears.
Winterval in Waterford.
And speaking of medieval: Waterford City, its origins as a significant port town dating back to the Vikings, has been thrusting itself to the front rank in recent years with its annual Waterford Winterval, a generous and abundant embracing of all things winter and Yule.
Of course, and we should never forget, Christmas is not all about markets, shopping, eating, and drinking. It exists because of its spiritual beginning, and while Ireland has been modernizing and changing apace in recent decades its people have not cast aside the essence or the images of a traditional Christmas.
A cozy Christmas hideaway in Dublin.
So if the visitor arrives in Ireland on a seasonal holiday there are places where the songs of the season rise to rafters that span half the passage of time between the present and that first Christmas. Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, which dates back to 1030, offers an annual Christmas Carol concert (advance booking required) that is well worth the visit.
The cathedral is in the older part of Dublin’s Fair City and only a short walk from the Temple Bar district where more earthly delights wait. Temple Bar is a full night out in a relatively small area, its hostelries all warm ports of call during the Christmas season. Warmth in every sense is an idea that has long been associated with Irish pubs and is most cherished at the coldest time of year.
So imagine a seat by a fire, turf perhaps, with a glass of Christmas cheer and an air of celebration that the Irish reserve, like a good wine, for the second half of December and the opening days of January. This picture can be expanded beyond the pub setting.
Many Irish castles and large country houses that function as hotels now offer Christmas specials where the idea is that you relax and celebrate while others do the work for you. You would be forgiven for thinking you have walked into a Hallmark Christmas movie in one of these magical settings. And you would not be far off the mark as the channel has to date been in Ireland a couple of times to film for the holiday season.
One such castle is Kilkea Castle in County Kildare. Kilkea boasts of being the oldest continually inhabited castle in Ireland with footsteps on the flagstones going back to 1180. What Christmas was like at this historic home of the Fitzgerald family in the late 12th century is open to your imagination, but even after extensive refurbishment it won’t be that difficult to imagine how people marked Christmas at a moment in time when the native Irish and the Normans were working out their joint future together.
Christmas in Derry City. Keep an eye out for those Derry Girls.
Another splendid destination at Christmas is Adare Manor in County Limerick. Christmas morning breakfast in the manor, perhaps after a stimulating walk in the picture postcard village of Adare, is a thought to savor. And the thought applies to the length and breadth of Ireland where castles and country estates compete at this time of year to best exemplify the spirit and atmosphere of an Irish Christmas past with all the comforts and conveniences of an Irish Christmas present.
Those comforts and conveniences include Ireland’s lately world class cuisine. Suffice it to say, the joys of an Irish Yuletide have much to do with drink and food. Turkey, ham, and goose are of course staples for the Christmas Day table, but an old Christmas Eve offering, Spiced Beef, is well worth sampling.
And for afters, well, Christmas puddings are joined by the likes of traditional Christmas Cake, Mince Pies, and perhaps a Sherry Trifle topped with custard or cream. Today’s Irish kitchens think nothing of exploring beyond the bounds of tradition, so the fare on offer is as expansive as an Irish welcome.
It goes without saying that your appetite has to be well up to it all, but walks in the clear Irish air, before and after the various feasts, will do the trick.
And all that outdoor activity can, and should, extend into the New Year. As mentioned earlier, Ireland’s winters can encourage outdoor activities so even in the first month of the year there are walks in Ireland’s many ornamental gardens such as the Japanese Gardens in County Kildare or Powerscourt in County Wicklow.
A winter scene in Ballinderry Village, Lough Derg, County Tipperary.
Game of Thrones fans have been flocking to Winterfell in recent years, that being location sites in the northern reaches of the island. The Winterfell Experience in Castle Ward, County Down is a strong draw - literally if you fancy firing arrows with a bow. Serious walkers have an abundance of choice in Ireland be it over hills and mountains, through valleys or along coastal routes on the Wild Atlantic Way, the Causeway Coastal Route which includes the Giant’s Causeway or the otherworldly Burren in County Clare.
So don’t wait any longer to plan for 2024 and the unrivaled delights of an Irish Christmas, a festive interlude that takes form in November, gathers pace in the first half of December, reaches its zenith on December 25th, four days after the sun is at its lowest, and extends into the New Year when the sun is once again reaching higher over the horizon.
Oh, and then, a wonderful little Irish extra. The day after Christmas, St. Stephen’s Day, is a holiday in Ireland, a day to unwind, an extra seasonal gift for mind, body, and soul.
Nollaig Sámh! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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