New Year’s Eve in Reykjavik — Ring in the New Year Like a Local
We Icelanders take New Year’s Eve seriously — and it’s wildly fun. Forget tame countdowns: on December 31st, the whole country glows with thousands of fireworks, roaring bonfires, and late-night celebrations that echo well into the early morning. Reykjavík, in particular, transforms into one of...
Want to Celebrate Icelandic Christmas – Here is the Ultimate guide
Icelanders go big on Christmas. Not only is generous gift giving a core feature of Icelandic Christmas. The festival lasts 13 days. Like elsewhere in the western world, Christmas celebrations and preparations start obnoxiously early, but we Icelanders try to extend the ancient solstice festivities...
The Icelandic Christmas Cat: Iceland’s Most Terrifying Yuletide Monster
The horrible Icelandic Yule lads were a gruesome bunch of trolls that terrorized children and stole food from hungry peasants around Christmas. Their parents were the horrible ogre Grýla, who ate naughty children, and her bedridden, lazy, no-good husband Leppalúði. And there was their pet,...
The 13 Icelandic Yule Lads: Iceland’s Bad Santas
Icelanders have their version of Santa Claus. Actually, we have thirteen versions of Santa Claus. Yes! Iceland has thirteen Santa Clauses, called Yule lads (‘Jólasveinar’ in Icelandic). The global trend of gentrification has caught up with them, and now they are a delight to children....
