Christmas in Malta 2026: A Local Guide to the Festive Season
Malta does Christmas without the cold. The lights go up along Valletta’s main streets in late November, village squares fill with cribs, and daytime temperatures usually sit in the mid to high teens, which means you can walk between most of it instead of dashing from one heated building to the next.
This guide covers what is actually happening for Christmas in Malta 2026, when it happens, and how to reach it from the Sliema and Gzira waterfront. Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year and New Year’s Eve on a Thursday, so the festive stretch runs as two long weekends almost back to back.
Christmas in Malta 2026: the dates to plan around
Four public holidays fall inside the festive window. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is on Tuesday 8 December, Republic Day on Sunday 13 December, Christmas Day on Friday 25 December, and New Year’s Day on Friday 1 January. Banks, government offices and most shops close on these dates, and restaurants that do open usually take bookings weeks in advance.
Buses run reduced public holiday timetables on those days, and the Sliema to Valletta ferry adjusts its sailings too. If you are working out how to move around the islands over the holidays, our guide to getting around Malta by bus, ferry and taxi covers the basics, including which routes serve the Gzira and Sliema waterfront.
Valletta’s lights, the city tree and the Christmas crib
The Valletta Cultural Agency runs Christmas in the Capital each year, filling Republic Street and Merchants Street with lights, installing the city tree and setting up a nativity crib in the centre of town, alongside street performances and family activities.
Go after dark. The lights are strung between buildings on streets barely wide enough for two cars, and the effect from the bottom of Republic Street looking up is the single best photograph you will take all trip. While you are there, St George’s Square and the Grandmaster’s Palace are both worth a slow look, and if you want the background to what you are standing in, read our piece on the history of Valletta before you go.
From the Gzira and Sliema side, the ferry from Sliema Ferries is the fastest way across Marsamxett Harbour and drops you at the bottom of Valletta, below the city walls. Guests at Valletta View Apartments get the other half of the picture for free: the lit Valletta skyline sits directly across the water, and in December the city is floodlit well past midnight.
Maltese Christmas traditions worth going out of your way for
Two things to eat and drink. Imbuljuta tal-qastan is a hot chestnut and cocoa drink spiced with cloves and citrus zest, traditionally served after midnight mass and sold at festive stalls through December. Qaghaq tal-ghasel, the ring-shaped pastries filled with treacle, appear in every bakery and most supermarkets from early in the month.
Then there are the cribs. Maltese families build presepji at home and churches compete quietly over theirs, so walking through any village in December means spotting half a dozen without trying. The other tradition to know about is the priedka tat-tifel, the Christmas sermon delivered by a child at midnight mass, a Maltese custom going back to the nineteenth century.
Bethlehem f’Ghajnsielem: the trip worth leaving Malta for
Gozo hosts the largest festive event on either island. Bethlehem f’Ghajnsielem is a life-size nativity village built across roughly 20,000 square metres of fields at Ta’ Passi, animated by around 150 costumed actors playing shepherds, artisans and villagers, with live animals, working mills and a grotto at its centre. It is a short walk from the Mgarr ferry terminal, so you can do it without a car.
It opens on selected dates only, usually from mid December into the first week of January, with the Adoration of the Magi staged around Epiphany. From Gzira, allow most of a day: bus to Cirkewwa, the Gozo Channel ferry across, then the short walk at the other end. We have mapped the timings for this and several other routes in our guide to day trips from Sliema.
What the weather is like for Christmas in Malta 2026
Expect daytime highs in the mid to high teens, cooler evenings, and a decent chance of a short sharp rain shower. It is comfortable walking weather and poor swimming weather, which catches a few visitors out. The sea is still swimmable for the committed, but most people want something warmer.
That makes the indoor options genuinely useful rather than a nice extra over Christmas in Malta 2026. Bayview Hotel & Spa is the only property in our portfolio with a spa, sauna, jacuzzi and an indoor pool alongside the outdoor one, so a wet afternoon has somewhere to go. If you are travelling with a dog over the holidays, Blubay Apartments is our pet-friendly option, and its rooftop pool is pet accessible too.
New Year’s Eve in Valletta
Valletta’s national New Year’s Eve celebration takes over St George’s Square with live performances through the evening, followed by a fireworks display launched from the Grand Harbour at midnight. The most recent edition drew an estimated 70,000 people across the square, Triton Square and the harbour viewpoints. It is free to attend and it gets very full by late evening.
Staying on the Gzira side keeps you close without putting you in the middle of it. Azur Hotel and Alavits Hotel are both a walk along the waterfront from Sliema Ferries, which matters most on the way home. Check the late-night ferry and bus arrangements in advance, since both run extended services on 31 December.
Where to Stay for Christmas in Malta 2026
All five of our properties sit on or near the Gzira and Sliema waterfront, within reach of the Valletta ferry, but they suit different festive trips. Valletta View Apartments faces the lit capital across the water, which is the view you want in December. Bayview Hotel & Spa has the spa, sauna and indoor pool for the cooler, wetter afternoons. Blubay Apartments offers self-catering space for families cooking their own Christmas dinner, and welcomes dogs. Azur Hotel puts you close to the Gzira waterfront walk and the ferry crossing for repeat evening trips into Valletta. Alavits Hotel works well as a straightforward base for a short festive city break built around the lights, the markets and New Year’s Eve.
Book early for the 25 to 27 December weekend and for New Year’s Eve, as both fill well ahead across the island. If you want to build the rest of the trip around food, markets and the harbour towns, our day trips from Sliema guide works just as well in winter, and our transport guide will save you a lot of waiting at bus stops over the holidays.
