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View Maps and Visitor Guides. View what Northern Ireland has to offer and some of the best things to see and do during a visit. Here's a roundup of the most joyful and memorable Christmas experiences taking place across Northern Ireland, with highlights including the Belfast Christmas Market 2023 and Polar Express in Slieve Donard.
Look no further for festive short break inspiration in Northern Ireland. Christmas in Northern Ireland is a wonderful experience, with lots of things to do, places to stay and delicious local cuisine to make special memories with your nearest and dearest.
- The Advent Calendar
- Christmas Lights
- Belfast Christmas Market
- Jolly Saint Nick
- The Season of Giving
- Christmas Parties
- Festive Feasting
- Carols by Candlelight
- Christmas Eve
- Christmas Morning
The period of advent marks the preparation for Christmas Day, and the Nativity (a fancy word for Birth) of Jesus Christ, on the 25th December. Although these days Christmas celebrations typically start long before. So the period of advent varies each year, where it falls between November 27 and December 3, with the First Sunday of Advent. But most ...
Celebrations and decorations generally start before the beginning of advent these days, and we actually missed the switching-on of the town’s Christmas tree lights in Bangor by mere days, when we arrived on the 21st November this year (image below from xmas 2018). But the tree and decorations will be lighting up the town through to the new year, an...
The Christmas Continental Market is set to replicate the seasonal charms of Germany’s Christkindlmarkt and the winter markets of continental Europe, although they are more themed here, and not overly traditional to Christmas in Northern Ireland. Otherwise we have seen more traditional markets on winter road trips in Central Europe. But the Christma...
Aka Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, or simply Saint Nick. This jolly fat man is the face of modern-day Christmas, and it is him who brings kids all their presents, or not. Depending on whether they have been well-behaved. But there is an actual back story to ol’ Saint Nick which is traced back to a monk named St. Nicholas, from what is...
Of course the receiving of presents is more for the children of the family, and it is mostly about giving for the adults, which is ultimately more rewarding, they say. As we otherwise end up spending money we barely have, on presents that others don’t really want, as what things we do want can easily just be bought by ourselves. So each year the fa...
Traditionally folk here would celebrate all sorts of parties and get-togethers on the run-up to Christmas, with staff dos and Christmas events for clubs and organisations, where they eat turkey dinners and get festively drunk. But we obviously have no work or real connection outside of family here, so this is not something we can do. Plus we have b...
Most of our time is spent indoors watching cheesy Christmas movies and television specials, while eating festive food, and drinking mulled wine. Maybe with a log fire set in the fireplace of the front room. So I decided to get more involved in this part by cooking and baking and testing recipes for Christmas dishes, which there are a lot. So mulled...
Christmas is obviously a Christian festival, so many celebrations and events take place at the local church, which is pretty much next door to us in Bangor. So these celebrations will include all the organizations, like Girl’s Brigade and Scouts groups, as well as various bake sales and charity drives. The usual Sunday services also continue, only ...
Christmas Eve is traditionally for all the last-minute preparations these days, for those who left things too late. Like Allan’s dad’s traditional last-minute shop, when we queue for leftover poinsettias and anything Christmassy for mum, while he watches us from outside the shop. Like he does for birthdays and Valentine’s Day. He hates shopping. An...
Christmas Day kind of brings all the past weeks traditions together, with the church carols, the festive feasts, the parties, and of course the opening of the presents left by Saint Nick. Allan is awake first in the house, playing PlayStation games from around 05:00AM, like a big kid. Because “it’s tradition”. Otherwise the rest of the house wake a...
Visit Belfast Newsletter. Sign up to the Visit Belfast newsletter and receive inspiring ideas, events and offers which showcase the best of Belfast and Northern Ireland. Belfast is a glow with festive spirit and it’s a city that sparkles by day and twinkles by night. So come on in and make it a Belfast Christmas!
- Emma Dickson
- Christmas Cupboard. It was and still is one of the biggest temptations over the holidays - to stay away from the precious Christmas cupboard. It's where 'mammy's' store all the goodies in the run up to the big day, we're talking tubs of Twiglets, mince pies, Pringles, nuts and so much more!
- Cringe-worthy Nativity plays. We all know the scene in Love Actually, with the octopus and the lobster 🤣Your primary school Nativity play was either your time to shine on stage, or one of your most embarrassing memories.
- Fighting over who gets to put the angel on the top of the tree. After the struggle of getting the decorations out of the loft, unravelling the badly wrapped lights from last year and evenly spacing them on to the tree, there's always an argument over who gets to finish it all off.
- Toy Shopping. This was a genius move by parents – let's give the kids an Argos catalogue and a sharpie, and let them go wild. From life-size dolls to Hot Wheel tracks, this was the 90s version of scrolling through Instagram.
Explore a range of weird and wonderful Northern Ireland Christmas traditions with this wiki page. Find out about Black Santa, the Belfast Christmas markets, and more! You'll also learn about the history of Christmas in this part of the world and get links to some handy teaching resources.
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Discover Christmas days out and events at National Trust places in Northern Ireland. Meet Santa, browse Christmas markets and make your own Christmas wreath.
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