12 Things to Do in Athens in December

Many of the best things to do in Athens can be enjoyed beyond the summer, as it makes sense for a city to maintain its charm and identity throughout the rest of the year. So if you're planning to visit Athens in December and you're worried there won't be any fun things to do, don't worry, because there are plenty of options. Here are the best:

Meteora is a mountainous enclave with some 13 monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church, six of which are accessible to the public. It is a very interesting place because of the fact that these monastic centres are located on small mountain massifs that create a landscape worthy of a fairy tale.

December is an ideal month to book a trip to Meteora because there won't be as many tourists, even though the Christmas season makes the religious monuments more important. It's also great because you'll get panoramic views of the nearby snow-capped mountains. Plus, there are often special discounts.

The drive from central Athens takes about four hours and is mostly on fast-driving motorways. This is one of the best one-day tour or excursion plans from Athens.

But, without a doubt, the essential plan for your trip to Athens in December is to book tickets for the Koilon theatre show. With this activity you will travel back in time, specifically to the 5th century BC, in the middle of Ancient Greece.

On a rooftop next to the Acropolis, you can enjoy an amusing historical comedy starring popular characters such as Odysseus, the Cyclops or the daughters of Medea and Oedipus, while you sip a delicious glass of wine.

As with sweets, it stands to reason that Athens' cuisine is even more interesting during the month of December than it is during the rest of the year. For it's no secret that the Christmas and New Year festivities create a cycle of celebrations that make food a major cultural commodity in most Western countries.

It's hard to tell you a specific place to sit down for a meal, as it all depends on when and where you are and when you work up an appetite. Clearly, Monastiraki and Plaka will be my immediate references due to the fact that they are the most authentic neighbourhoods in Athens. Another no-fail option is to book a food tour.

The main dishes of Athenian culture that you have to order when you sit down to eat like a real Athenian are as follows:

• Frikase, which is a stew of meat and lettuce.
• Trahanas, which is a traditional wheat soup.
• Laharonizo with rice.
• cabbage in tomato sauce
• Revithia.
• Fasolada.
• Lahanontolmades.
• Giovarlakia, highly recommended for the youngest members of the family. These are beef meatballs boiled in a very thick sauce of lime and eggs.

Athens is the graffiti and street art capital of Europe. Entire neighbourhoods such as Psyri and Exarchia are graffiti districts in the urban heart of the city. At the same time, December is a very appropriate month to take your time and enjoy this reconstruction of the Athenian urban landscape. The weather is favourable, as you won't have to escape the scorching sun at every stop along your route. What's more, the absence of tourists is synonymous with comfort.

The urban tours offered by some guides in this area are quite practical in that they take you to the most renowned works of art. You will also learn about the urban culture of Athens and the Greek cultural identity in the modern times we live in.

Interesting details

• Prices: On average these tours cost €25 per person and usually last for three hours. There are some cheaper ones and it all depends on how much you are willing to pay. Some Athens bike tours also pass through these neighbourhoods and that can be an ideal combination.

Syntagma Square is a place you should never miss on your visit to Athens no matter what time of year it is. However, in December it is even more important to visit this corner of the city because on the 24th and 31st of this month there will be all kinds of church choirs with children singing Kálandas, the typical Greek Christmas carols.

This is a tradition in which children go from house to house singing typical Greek Orthodox Christmas songs in exchange for money and lots of sweets typical of Athenian cuisine. Nowadays it goes on all month long. Actually, it is not essential to go to this square to listen to Kálandas at this time of the year, although it is a place that I do recommend thanks to its proximity to other iconic places in the city such as the Hellenic Parliament, the National Garden of Athens or the rest of the Syntagma district.

My other tip is that the day you decide to go to listen to Kálandas in the Plaka neighbourhood you should also book the tourist bus of Athens, as they will take you to other corners of central Greece quickly. Allowing you to get around the area without the need to use public transport and while listening to an audio guide telling you about the history of the area you are visiting.

On your tour of Athens in December, be sure to set aside an hour and a half of your time to attend a Greek dance performance at the Dora Stratou Theatre on Philoponus Hill.

This performance, which will immerse you in Greek culture, features more than 70 professional singers, dancers and musicians. Once the performance is over, you will also have access to an exhibition of 2,000 traditional Greek dance costumes to soak up even more of this traditional dance.

Another highlight of this performance is that it takes place at sunset, so you can enjoy the sunset colours of this beautiful place.

December marks the beginning of the ice rink season. In the case of Athens, every year a rink is set up at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, a very nice place because it is a cultural complex with the new concert hall of the Athens Opera and also a national library of great academic influence.

When you go skating at this rink you have the opportunity to see some of the art exhibitions that are usually held throughout the month of December inside the foundation's premises. As this cultural complex and its respective ice rink are located in the municipality of Khallithea, it is a good idea to also explore the streets of this beautiful port community, midway between the city centre of Athens and the centre of Piraeus.

I advise you to go at night. Specifically, 9 p.m. is a good time to go knowing that in the winter it usually gets dark around 6-19 p.m. In fact, this is one of the best things to do in Athens at night during the month of December if you're looking for a quiet, family-friendly activity.

Interesting details

• Prices: Prices range from 5 to 10 € depending on the age of the person or the day. It also depends on whether you rent ice skates or bring your own.
• Opening times: The ice skating rink usually opens at around 6 p.m. and usually closes at around midnight throughout the month of December.

Today, the Greek Orthodox Church is the most populous religious institution in the country. The aesthetics that define this branch of Christianity are quite interesting and, during the month of December, this institution offers all kinds of celebrations every day for the Christmas and New Year's Holidays, and all of them are worth a visit.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation of St. Mary is located in Mitropolis Square, which in turn is an important point of interest in the Monasteraki quarter, one of the most famous in all of Athens. It stands out for its architectural style, which perfectly follows the lines of Greek-Byzantine aesthetics and is combined with some rather neoclassical details.

Its interior has nothing to envy to other marvels of religious architecture and, for this reason, it is important that you visit it during the month of December. This time of year will guarantee you the comfort you need to enjoy its Byzantine frescoes without having to deal with hundreds of tourists. It will also give you a glimpse of how the Greeks enjoy their Christian traditions in December.

In December the whole of Athens is filled with desserts. Those who year after year wish to relive the flavours of their childhood with sweets that can only be an invention of a gastronomy as authentic and diverse as the Hellenic one.

• Melomakarona is one of the great protagonists of this Greek culinary season. It is a piece of bread that was offered at funerals during the Middle Ages and over time honey was added to it, and from there it mutated to become a typical dessert for the winter solstice and the whole month of December in general.
• Diples, kourabiedes and kaltsounis are other must-order desserts. In fact, many of them are still traditionally made until mid-February and so a search for the best in town is usually one of those things to see and do in Athens during the winter. If I had to recommend a specific place to try them, I'd say choose the most traditional and uncrowded café you'll find in any of the touristy neighbourhoods in the centre, such as Monastiraki, Ekasarhia, Gazk, Kolonaki or Neapoli.

If you see Athens from the sky, you can say that Kotziá Square is one of the most important places in the city. Not only for its architectural beauty but also for its strategic location in the centre of this Mediterranean metropolis. On one side of the building is the Athens Town Hall, and during the nights of December, specifically on the evening of the 24th, an audio-visual spectacle is performed on the façade of this important public building.

Many consider it to be one of the most beautiful in the world, and every year they try to innovate with new ideas, so that they can continue to surprise the Athenian citizens who have become faithful followers of this artistic proposal.

I recommend this alternative for your trip to Athens in the month of December because it is free entertainment that can be perfectly accompanied with other plans to do in Athens during Christmas or the eve of it. And the truth is that this square is located in an area that you will surely be walking around every day of your visit.

When you think of Greek history, you automatically think of that period 3,000 years ago when Ancient Greece was the most important empire in the Western world. The reality is that its national history is far more diverse and interesting than you might imagine, and the Byzantine occupation and Greek Christianity have such ancient foundations that they span more than 1,000 years of history in this corner of the Balkans.

So a visit to the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens should be an activity on your December trip for the simple fact that this is an ideal time to visit without having to deal with too many tourists inside this Byzantine villa built in the 19th century. Inside you'll find all kinds of Christian and Byzantine art and you'll also learn how these cultures reshaped Greek identity to become what they are as a nation today.

This time of year is also a great time of year to visit this museum as you're guaranteed to have plenty of time to visit other nearby museums, such as the Museum of Cycladic Art or the National Gallery of Athens.

Interesting details

• Prices: Visiting this museum in December is even better value for money, as tickets cost €4 per person for those aged 25 and over, while the price rises to €8 during the summer season. Children under 25 years of age get in free of charge.
• Opening times: opens every weekday morning at 8am and closes at 8pm. The exception is Tuesdays, when the day starts at 1pm and closes at 8pm.

The Athens Concert Hall is a cultural venue with one of the best acoustics in Greece. During the month of December, every year, it is usually packed with events and most often these are opera concerts or ballet performances with performances such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker or other Greek comedies.

If you have time in your itinerary, I advise you to get tickets for the event that coincides with the dates of your visit, I assure you that it is an experience you will never forget.

And because it's a low tourist season, you'll be experiencing it like a local who enjoys the cultural offerings of their own city.

December already sees a drastic drop in temperatures compared to mid-autumn and you can expect lows of around 5 or 6 degrees Celsius, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying the best things to see and do in Athens.

Highs can climb to 15 degrees on a sunny day, but it's still too cold to fully enjoy those Athens cruises that characterise summer and spring.

In December Athens tends to fill up with a fairly moderate number of tourists, but it has to do with Greek people returning home to visit relatives.

is not a popular international destination in the tourist industry at Christmas, which makes it an ideal place if you are looking to enjoy a city in a quiet way, on your own terms and by the standards of the locals.

Prices in Athens during the month of December are slightly more expensive than in the rest of the tourist off-season, which runs from autumn to early spring.

However, the savings are significant compared to summer and on average you could spend 40% less than you would on a trip with the same activities in mid-summer.

Pack warm coats and comfortable walkingclothes, as the city offers a wide range of walking routes. Footwear needs to be appropriate for this type of urban sightseeing and it wouldn't hurt to choose versatile clothing that can be worn in a casual context or that will also look good in a more elegant setting.