Malta in December: a mild winter, three bank holidays and cribs on every corner

December in Malta has a character all of its own. It isn’t beach season, but it is the season of decorated churches, cribs in every nook and winter processions that hardly any outsider knows about. And the temperatures, with a mean in the mid-teens, make walking about a pleasure.

December weather

The Malta Meteorological Office gives December a 14.5°C (58°F) mean and 165.7 hours of sunshine over the month. It doesn’t publish the rainfall norm directly, but its notes from 2023 to 2025 put it at around 85 mm. Expect mild days and cool nights, with storms that bring strong wind and sunny spells in between.

The sea drops to about 18°C (65°F), again by my calculation from Met Office data, which recorded 20.5°C in December 2024 and said that was 2.2°C above normal. Perfect for a coastal walk. For a swim, that depends on how hardy you are. The rest of the year is on Malta weather.

Three bank holidays and three closure days

December packs three public holidays into three weeks. The 8th is the Immaculate Conception, a Tuesday in 2026. The 13th is Republic Day, marking 1974, and falls on a Sunday. The 25th, Christmas Day, is a Friday.

The closures are what to watch. Heritage Malta locks up every museum and site on the 24th, 25th and 31st. St John’s Co-Cathedral is also shut to sightseers on every bank holiday. If you’re coming for Christmas, plan around those days so you don’t end up at a locked door. Every date is listed on Malta public holidays.

Christmas, cribs and winter processions

Christmas is taken seriously in Malta, and visitmalta sums it up well. There are cribs in every town, from private homes to little chapels, and doing the rounds of them is a popular pastime. Churches are dressed in crimson for Advent and St John’s Co-Cathedral holds candlelit carol singing. Everything for the season, including the markets and the living nativity at Għajnsielem, is on Malta at Christmas.

Gozo adds two feasts in December that the Ministry for Gozo compares to the summer ones. On the 8th, the Immaculate Conception at the Franciscan church in Victoria, with a procession, bands and fireworks. On the 13th, St Lucy in the tiny hamlet of Santa Lucia, with Mass, a procession, fireworks and a parade of girls in white and red carrying candles, one of them wearing a crown of candles. It’s one of my favourite things about a Maltese winter, precisely because it barely makes the guidebooks.

Solstice at the temples, and St Elmo’s re-enactments

Heritage Malta has two dates in December 2026 that are worth planning around. On Sundays 6 and 13 there’s In Guardia at Fort St Elmo, when normal entry starts at 12:00. And on 20 and 21 December it opens Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra for the winter solstice, when, as Heritage Malta explains, the rising sun passes along the sides of Mnajdra’s main doorway and lights up a decorated slab in the first chamber. More on Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra.

On winter hours the temples and the big museums close at 17:00, so an early start pays off. The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum stays on 10:00 to 18:00 until 3 January, always pre-booked. Getting about, the Valletta ferry is on its winter timetable, which ends mid-afternoon on Sundays and holidays, and Gozo Channel’s night fare runs from November to March.

Crowds and atmosphere

December isn’t empty. The NSO recorded 225,104 visitors in December 2025, up 17 per cent on the year before, and the airport handled 709,352 passengers. Even so, it’s a fraction of the summer, and you feel it in the streets and museums.

For a British visitor, December is an easy short break. The plug is the same, English is an official language and Malta runs one hour ahead of the UK all winter. Malta follows Schengen rules, so a British passport holder needs no visa for a short stay, as gov.uk explains, and it’s worth packing your GHIC for medically necessary state healthcare.

If you’re weighing up winter months, compare with Malta in winter. And straight after the festive season, from 7 to 24 January 2027, Valletta hosts its Baroque Festival, with concerts at St John’s Co-Cathedral and in Mdina.