Enjoy Amsterdam Holidays

If you’re planning a city break to Amsterdam, it’s a good idea to know if your trip coincides with any of the local holidays. After all, you don’t want to miss out on the chance to watch the festivities or run out of deodorant on a day when the shops are all mysteriously closed. Below, you’ll find a list of some of the most notable Amsterdam holidays and festivities.

In January, there’s a huge New Year’s celebration, where fireworks go off all around the city and can be seen for about an hour starting at midnight. The place to be is Dam Square, where there’s a huge celebration. There’s also a ritual burning of Christmas trees on the first Sunday after twelfth night, complete with music and hot chocolate.

This is probably the biggest, craziest party day of the year in Amsterdam. The party starts at midnight on the 29th and goes all day the 30th, and you’ll find both locals and tourists out on the streets everywhere for two days. Don’t plan to travel on the 30th, as no public transport runs into the center of t­he city.

In May and June, you get Liberation day on May 5, which marks the end of World War II with a festival in Vondelpark. In June is the Holland Festival, with four weeks of special cultural activities.

In early August, Amsterdam hosts a huge gay pride parade. The parade is thought to symbolize Amsterdam’s spirit of liberalism, and is outrageous, fun, and not to be missed. In the middle of August is the Grachten festival, which is a week of outdoor and indoor concerts in different areas along the canals.

On November 11 is Sint Maarten Eve. For this festival, the children of Amsterdam come out at sunset and go house to house to sing for sweets while their parents throw a party of their own in the streets.

On December 5 is Sinterklaas Eve, the night that Santa, or Sinterklass, brings gifts to Dutch children. Shops close early to allow everyone to be home in time to celebrate. On Christmas itself, you’ll also find that shops are closed. But since presents are exchanged on the fifth, many bars and restaurants will be open, and public transport will run, as well.

We went to Amsterdam for Xmas (22-26 December 07)and had an amazing time so we thought we would share a couple of pictures and video clips of our experience. We stayed at the Golden Tulip Hotel which is one block away from Dam Square so we were waling distance to everything.