It’s the most wonderful time of the year – but Christmas can also mean maximum travel stress. These key points can help you cope.
Fly on Christmas Day if you can, to save money and hassle
Air fares on 25 December are generally lower than immediately before or after the big day. In addition, airports are much quieter.
EasyJet has flights from London Gatwick, Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow on Christmas Day, mainly to sunshine destinations.
The routes from Gatwick to Amsterdam and Paris will each have two flights.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We are operating one of our biggest-ever schedules on Christmas Day this year from six UK airports, to get customers to where they need to be during the festivities, whether that’s visiting friends and relatives or to make the most of the bank holiday.”
British Airways will run a fairly comprehensive long-haul schedule on Christmas Day. Flying on 25 December is likely to save a fortune. On a London-Singapore one-way flight, for example, the lowest BA fare on 21 December is £1,837, compared with just £772 on Christmas Day – a saving of 58 per cent
Plan travel around the UK carefully
No trains will run anywhere in the UK on 25 December, but National Express and FlixBus will operate many hundreds of coach journeys between them, including to and from airports. But with demand likely to be strong, advance booking is essential.
British Airways is operating an unprecedented number of domestic flights to and from London Heathrow on 25 December 2024.
No BA flights will link London with either Inverness or Belfast on Christmas Day; Dublin also has no flights from Heathrow.
Be prepared for rail closedown
Besides the usual 25 December shutdown and the cancellation of almost all trains on Boxing Day, two key London terminals will be closed for much of the festive season this year.
Work on the controversial HS2 project will close London Paddington station from the evening of Christmas Eve until 30 December. Some Great Western trains from South Wales and Cornwall will be diverted to London Euston.
The Midland Main Line from London St Pancras International to Luton (including the airport), Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield will close at the London end from 21 to 29 December inclusive due to the replacement of the Agar Grove railway bridge in Camden, north London.
Hourly East Midlands trains will run from Sheffield, Corby and Nottingham as far south as Bedford, for rail-replacement buses to Milton Keynes Central. Intercity journeys to/from London are expected to take an hour longer.
Don’t miss the party
Heading abroad for – or on – 25 December is an excellent idea, but note that in some eastern European countries the main Christmas celebrations begin on 24 December.
Clearing airport security
Allow bags of time for the airport security check. Airline passengers tend to have coats, hats and scarves because it’s midwinter – and bags filled with fragile gifts because it’s Christmas. Key points to remember:
Don’t wrap presents before airport security. Staff are required to examine anything that looks unusual on their scanners – which could include your imaginatively sourced and impeccably wrapped Christmas gifts.
Leave those crackers out; some airports and airlines let them fly as cabin baggage, and some do not.
Make it a snowdome-free journey
These flaky festive stocking-fillers are full of liquid – and do not have a quantity marked on them. Therefore the security staff are likely to confiscate the decorative Yuletide item.
Don’t fear a total 25 December shutdown abroad
The UK is an outlier in closing down the railways on 25 December; in most Continental nations, and countries around the world, Christmas Day has near-normal service. Some top tourist attractions, too, remain open. In Amsterdam, for example, the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House are open from 9am to 5pm.
Stretch your celebrations by going west
Wish it could be Christmas every day? Well, you could arrange to be in Ethiopia or an Eastern Orthodox nation for their festivities on 7 January. Or just extend 25 December by eight hours by flying to California and taking advantage of the time change. Virgin Atlantic has a tempting fare of £594 flying Heathrow to Los Angeles on Christmas Day, returning two weeks later.
Ferries close down, too
From Dover on DFDS Ferries to Calais, the final sailing before Christmas Day is at 2.25pm on 24 December; to Dunkirk, it is 2pm. Routes restart at 10am (from Dunkirk) and 11.20am (from Calais) on Boxing Day.
Eurotunnel’s LeShuttle, however, keeps going 365 days a year.
Some local bus services will run on 25 December
Southern Vectis runs a near-normal schedule on the Isle of Wight on Christmas Day, and some other local operators have a skeleton service, particularly linking hospitals.
Read more: The best Christmas markets in the UK
