Picture Amsterdam's canals at five in the afternoon, already dark, strung with lights and glowing gold against the water - this is the Netherlands at its most magical, and exactly why Christmas is one of the best times of year to visit.
The festive season here runs longer than in many countries. Christmas markets typically start appearing from late November and run through most of December, popping up in city squares across the country - Maastricht's is one of the most famous, with mulled wine and local crafts filling its historic centre, while Amsterdam's own markets add lights and stalls along the canals.
Dutch households also celebrate Sinterklaas in early December, distinct from Christmas Day itself, which means visitors get a longer stretch of festive atmosphere than a single-day celebration would offer - worth knowing if you're deciding when in December to plan your trip. Because this stretches across several weeks and overlaps with the school holidays, accommodation in the most popular cities is worth booking ahead rather than leaving to the last minute.
Once you arrive though, the simple things tend to make the biggest impression: ducking into a canal-side bar for a warm drink by candlelight, wandering a market stall by stall with mulled wine in hand, or taking an evening canal cruise past the lights strung along the water. Temporary ice rinks pop up around the city too, and the one on Museumplein is hard to beat - skating with the Rijksmuseum lit up as a backdrop, a wooden bridge arching over the ice, is one of those views that looks almost too picturesque to be real. Expect short, dark days and a real chill in the air - but it's exactly that cold that makes the warm cafés, seasonal treats, and glowing shop windows feel as good as they do, with noticeably fewer crowds at major museums to boot.
It's a quieter, more atmospheric time to see the country than the summer crowds allow - and for anyone deciding when to visit, the run-up to Christmas is hard to beat.
→ Continue planning: Winter in the Netherlands
