The Christmas Adventure begins in Hafnarfjörður

The Christmas adventure begins in Hafnarfjörður – lighting of the lights and Christmas Village

This weekend, the Christmas season officially begins in Hafnarfjörður with the opening of the Christmas Village and the lighting of the Christmas trees on Thorsplan and in Flensborgarhöfn. On Thorsplan, seventeen beautifully decorated Christmas houses have now been erected, where cheerful, singing vendors offer a wide variety of giftware, design and Icelandic handicrafts. The Christmas Village in Hafnarfjörður will be open every Saturday and Sunday during Advent from 12 pm to 5 pm. An opening festival will take place from 6 pm to 8 pm on Friday evenings, with Christmas entertainment, a fireworks display and Father Christmas.

The Christmas Village – a homely Christmas celebration on Thorsplan

This weekend, the Christmas adventure begins in the Christmas Village at Thorsplan. The Christmas Village is open every weekend during Advent and opens this year on Friday, 25th November at 18:00. There will be a scheduled programme on stage until 20:00 this Friday, with Felix Bergson keeping the Christmas cheer going. He and Sigrún Þorleifsdóttir – better known as Dúna from the Burkninn Flower Shop – will together light the lights on the Christmas tree in Thorsplan and count down with guests on the first day of the Christmas Village. Father Christmas and Grýla will be in the area, with singing and entertainment on stage and a fireworks display, courtesy of Fjarðar and organised by the Hafnarfjörður Rescue Squad. The small, beautifully decorated Christmas houses will feature a variety of gifts, handicrafts and Icelandic design.  This year, families and groups of friends can also have their picture taken at the Fjöður shopping centre as a memento of a lovely time in Hafnarfjörður during Advent.

Christmas entertainment and lighting of the Cuxhaven tree

At 3 p.m. on the first Saturday of Advent, the lights on the Cuxhaven tree in Flensburg Harbour will be switched on, and the Port of Hafnarfjörður will host entertainment in the harbour area, featuring light music, a nursery school choir and Father Christmas. After the programme, guests are invited to enjoy hot chocolate and doughnuts on the Kæna. The twinning between Hafnarfjörður and Cuxhaven has existed since September 1988, for almost three decades. These have taken a very diverse form, with the citizen-led twinning associations being the driving force behind cooperation in the fields of culture, sport, business and public administration. Hafnarfjörður is the only municipality in Iceland to maintain twinning links with Germany, and one element of their regular cooperation is that Cuxhaven presents the town with a magnificent Christmas tree as a gift each year for the Advent season. This tree is then erected in the harbour area by the memorial to the first German settlers.st. Luke's Lutheran Church in Iceland, which was built here in Hafnarfjörður by German merchants in the mid-16th century. This tree will be erected in the harbour this weekend.

Hafnarfjörður hosts at Christmas time

Thorsplan will be full of life and bustle around Christmas, and the little Christmas houses will have become a nationally renowned marketplace for art, craft and design. After 14 years, the Christmas Village has managed to captivate the entire nation and, increasingly, the tourists who choose to visit the country. The residents of Hafnarfjörður themselves are also increasingly taking the opportunity and the platform that is created there for hosting home-grown events during Advent. Thus, entire extended families and groups of friends flock to the centre of Hafnarfjörður, popping into shops, art exhibitions, the little Christmas houses or the town's museums, specifically to enjoy a cosy time during Advent.

• The programme for the Christmas Village on the weekend of 25th–27th November can be found here.
• The programme for the Christmas entertainment at Flensburg Harbour can be found here.
• Facebook page of the Christmas Village in Hafnarfjörður