Christmas and New Year in Korea: the complete guide

Christmas in Korea is a public holiday, but the season around it belongs to the city rather than the church calendar: a festival of light that runs for the better part of two months, Christmas markets in the central square, the biggest broadcast stages of the year, and ski slopes an easy trip from the capital. This guide takes it in order, from the first switch-on in November to the bell that rings the new year in.

The switch-on comes first

Seoul's department stores treat their Christmas facades as a season in themselves, and they start early. The Shinsegae main store in Myeongdong lights its famous media facade from Friday 6 November, and over in Jamsil the Seokchon Lake Luminarie is already running: the lake promenade's light festival opens on 30 October and runs nightly to 28 February, under the Lotte World Tower. The Hyundai Seoul's Christmas village in Yeouido follows in November. None of it needs a ticket or a booking, and the practical consequence is pleasant: a Seoul trip any time from mid November onwards gets the city dressed, not just a trip in Christmas week.

Seoul Winter Festa: the city's own season

The umbrella over December is Seoul Winter Festa, the city government's winter festival across Gwanghwamun Square, the Cheonggyecheon, Seoul Plaza, the DDP and Bosingak. The city's festival plan runs it from 4 December to 31 January, and the festa's own programme brings the big central pieces in together on Friday 11 December: Seoul Light Gwanghwamun, the media facade show on the gate and the square; the Gwanghwamun Market, the city's Christmas market of food stalls and craft booths on the square, running to 10 January; and the Seoul Lantern Festival, whose illuminated sculptures line the Cheonggyecheon stream from Cheonggye Plaza and run the longest of all, to 31 January. Our Seoul Winter Festa guide walks the whole programme site by site. The walk that does it best is one evening's work: start at the square for the market and the light show, then drop down to the stream and follow the lanterns east before the crowds peak.

The theme parks in costume

Lotte World in Jamsil and Everland in Yongin both build full Christmas festivals into their parks for the season: parades, trees, themed zones and the rides running through it, and both sit an easy subway or shuttle ride from the centre. For families they are the season's reliable big day out, and for everyone else they are the warmest way to do a December evening that still feels like the holiday. Book the day tickets ahead in Christmas week, when both parks run at their busiest.

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The year-end stage: KINTEX bookends Christmas

Korea's year-end music season runs on broadcast specials and one proper festival, and both live at KINTEX in Ilsan this year. The SBS Gayo Daejeon takes the halls across 24 and 25 December, the biggest of the year-end K-pop stages; our Gayo Daejeon guide covers tickets and the room. A week later, on Thursday 31 December, Mint Paper closes the year in the same halls with Countdown Fantasy, a one day band festival across three stages, which our Countdown Fantasy guide takes apart bill by bill. Between the two, KINTEX effectively bookends the season, and Ilsan hotels on those two dates are the rooms to book first.

The ski season opens inside it

The other half of a Korean December is uphill. The Gangwon resorts open from late November: Phoenix Pyeongchang has announced Friday 27 November for its 2026-27 opening, and Mona Yongpyong, the country's biggest resort and the 2018 Olympic venue, is listed by Ikon Pass to open on Friday 20 November, with the resort's own season packages running from 21 November. The rest of the field follows through early December as the snowmaking allows, and resorts announce days rather than weeks ahead, so check the resort's own board in the week you travel. From Seoul, the Pyeongchang resorts are a KTX ride to Jinbu or a shuttle bus, and a ski day or two pairs naturally with a light festival trip: the city gives you the evenings, the mountains give you the days.

New Year's Eve, and the bell

Midnight on 31 December belongs to Bosingak, the bell pavilion in Jongno, where the new year is rung in with the ceremonial bell in front of the crowd, inside the Winter Festa's footprint and a short walk from the lantern-lit stream. It is the traditional centre of a night the city otherwise spends in concerts, hotel parties and the Countdown Fantasy halls out in Ilsan. The first days of January are the quiet coda: the lanterns run on to the end of the month, the sales start, and the season's last big winter weekend is the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival later in January.

Where to stay, and getting around

For the light season, stay on the centre's north bank grid: Jongno, Myeongdong and Euljiro put Gwanghwamun Square, the stream and both palaces in walking range, with Jamsil a subway ride east for Lotte World and the lake. For the KINTEX nights, either stay in Ilsan or accept the last train back into the city, and decide which before you book the ticket.

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Planning notes

Dress for the real winter: Seoul in December sits around freezing, and the lantern walk is an hour beside open water after dark. The season's hard deadlines are few (the light festivals are free and unticketed, the markets need no booking), so the planning that matters is rooms around the two KINTEX dates and ski weekends, and the December calendar for everything else on.

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