Christmas and New Year in Mallorca: what happens when

AEMET's climate normals for Palma airport give 16.1°C by day in December, 5.4°C at night, 6.4 rainy days and 152 hours of sun across the month, about five a day. At Palma port, right on the water, the high barely moves (16.5°C) but the low rises to 9.7°C. The airport averages 2.5 days of frost in December and the port none. That is the gap between a hotel on the seafront and a finca out on the plain, where by midnight you will want the fire lit.

You notice the light more than the cold. On 24 December the sun rises at 8.07am and sets at 5.30pm, so a day out runs the opposite way to summer: leave early and get back with the last of the daylight. The upside is Sa Foradada, where sunset now comes at an hour when in July you would still be on the beach.

The sea is for looking at. The fleet's sailing season runs from May to October, and in winter the island comes into its own on land, from Palma up into the mountains.

As of 4 November 2026 some dates are firm and some times are still last year's: the 2025 New Year's Eve programme was not announced until 23 December. The asterisks mark last year's, and it is worth checking again in mid-December.

On the night of the 24th, churches across the island perform the Cant de la Sibil·la, on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2010. A boy or girl in a tunic walks through the church towards the chancel holding a sword upright in front of their face, and sings unaccompanied, with the organ only between verses. At the end, the singer cuts a cross in the air with the blade. Spain's Ministry of Culture dates the rite's arrival to the conquest of 1229 and places it in most of Mallorca's 157 churches.

The latest one is in the Cathedral: 11pm in 2025, sung by a boy from the Vermells de la Seu choir. Earlier ones are easier if you are travelling with children or have dinner waiting. That same year it was sung at 6pm in Santa Magdalena in Palma, and at 7pm in Sant Miquel and at the sanctuary of Lluc, where the voice is a blauet from its boys' choir. This year's times are not out yet.

Then you eat. A Mallorcan Christmas table opens with sopa de Nadal, a broth with meat-filled pasta, moves on to porcella rostida, roast suckling pig whose crackling has to go crec-crec, and ends with turrón and neules, thin rolled wafers. Some households do it on the night of the 24th and some at lunchtime on the 25th.

Anyone renting a finca for these dates ends up asking two questions: who cooks, and who drives home? Our general rate for a private chef at the villa starts at €110 per person for a five-course menu, for groups of eight or more. Dinner for eight starts at €880 and for twelve at €1,320, with up to 30 guests. The chef shops, cooks, serves and leaves the kitchen as it was found. For the nights of the 24th and 31st, the date and the price are confirmed when you ask.

The menu is agreed in advance and can be as local as you like: a roast is budgeted the same way as the tasting menu, and at Christmas the Mallorcan roast has a name, porcella. Wine is extra unless you ask for a pairing from the island's wineries. Ask about the date before the menu: on a night like that, a chef can only cook in one house.

The 31st is also the city's own day. The Festa de l'Estendard marks Jaume I's entry into Madina Mayurqa on 31 December 1229, and Diario de Mallorca counts it among the oldest civic festivals in Europe. In 2025 the royal standard went up in Plaça de Cort at 10am, Mass followed in the Cathedral at 10.30 and the ceremony returned to the square at noon. Traffic was stopped in and around Cort from 7am to 10am, and again from 8.30pm to 2.30am, when the closure also took in Avinguda de Joan Carles I, Carrer del Conqueridor and Plaça de la Reina.

At night the party is back in the same square. In 2025 the city put on music from 11.30pm, the bells rang out from the Cort clock, known as En Figuera, and the dancing went on until 1.40am. Plaça de la Reina had a giant screen and music until 2.30am. In 2025 Cort had a capacity limit, with the local police controlling the entrances. Última Hora counted around 500 people, wrapped up and holding their twelve grapes. For a capital city, that is a modest crowd.

The 2025 programme had no municipal fireworks. The ones you see are let off by residents, and there are plenty: Diario de Mallorca described almost half an hour of rockets last year from streets, rooftops and balconies in every district. You do not need to go into the centre to see them.

The hard part is getting back, especially if you are staying outside Palma. Our general rate for a private driver is four hours from €550 plus VAT for one to three people and €620 plus VAT for four to six, with €110 plus VAT for each extra hour. For that night, availability and price are confirmed when you ask, and the pick-up time and place are agreed beforehand, around the road closures.

One in five hotels in Mallorca stays open all year, according to the hoteliers' federation FEHM. At Playa de Palma the forecast for this winter is 27 establishments open in December and 21 after the closures over Christmas and January.

The Cathedral opens from December to February, Monday to Friday from 10am to 3.15pm and on Saturdays until 2.15pm. It shuts on Sundays, on 25 and 26 December and on 1 and 6 January. The Almudaina opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm and shuts on 24, 25 and 31 December and on 1 and 6 January. Our Palma in four hours takes in both, from €550 plus VAT, so the dates that work, if they are free, are 22, 23, 29 and 30 December. Next door, the Palau March has a Neapolitan nativity of nearly 2,000 pieces and opens Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays until 2pm; it is closed on Sundays and public holidays.

Double-check the Sóller train. As of 4 November its website announces a closure from 23 November to 1 February, while a day earlier Diario de Mallorca published a winter timetable with four daily departures until 22 December. You can reach Sóller by road either way: our route through Fornalutx and Sóller is five hours from €860 plus VAT for one to three people, and the one through Valldemossa, Deià and Son Marroig starts at €830 plus VAT, with food and entry fees on top.