Christmas in Ireland 2025: Part 1

Okay! Finally carved out a little time to work on recapping our Christmas in Ireland.

As you know, I got SICK and was really down and out for a good week+ after the trip, and then the post-holiday re-entry rush was real at work (while still being pretty sick and then dealing with severe post-viral rib pain). Hence the delay! But better late than never. 🙂

Let’s back up to…. Friday, December 19, 2025 -> Saturday, December 20, 2025

Here we are Friday afternoon on the way to O’Hare. ALL SMILES! This is always probably the best part of vacation for me. The packing and prep and planning is finally over, “out of office” statuses are set at work, and we are now staring down ~10 days OFF to have family fun. Love it.

Nothing much to report about our travels themselves. We stopped off at Chick Fil A on the way for food, then arrived to Chicago and dropped the van at the off-site hotel we typically leave our car at.

I was pleasantly surprised how not busy O’Hare was! I mean, it was definitely busy (it always is…), but in terms of check in or security lines, it wasn’t bad at all, especially not for the Friday before Christmas.

Here we are at the gate, awaiting our Aer Lingus direct flight to Dublin.

Since we had anticipated crazy holiday crowds and/or traffic, we actually ended up being quite early. So, we left the boys in charge of our stuff by the gate and Ivan and I snuck off to grab a quick pre-flight beer. (This is actually the only time we experienced “airport crowds”, lol! Apparently a lot of people wanted a pre-red eye flight drink. All the bars in our terminal were packed! There’s one cute little cozy bar there that we love, but it was totally full.)

Oh well, we found a not-as-great spot that still sold beer. 😉

Our flight was just a teeny bit delayed- like 20-25 minutes- so I had a little time to read, too.

The flight itself was great. Very smooth, and I actually slept a good amount! I like the ~7:30/8 pm departure time, because by the time we were in the air, it was pretty close to actual bedtime/normal sleepy time.

After arrival to Dublin at ~9 am, it took approximately FOREVER to get our luggage (carry-ons only, but they had ended up checking them). I joked that they were rowing them across the Atlantic on a boat….

Then we got our rental car and still had a ~3.5 hour drive out to my sister’s house. Ugh. Ha. It makes for a very long trip when you factor in the ~2 hour drive from Madison to O’Hare + the long drive to my sister’s PLUS of course the actual flight and all the waiting time….

This was Ivan’s first time driving on the left- AND a stick shift! (Not at all his first time driving manual, but first time shifting with his left hand.) Fortunately he’s pretty quick with stuff like this and did great. We really had no issues with the driving at all thankfully.

Once we were out of Dublin, a majority of the drive is really easy, too. Some scenes from the drive:

My sister had sent a Google route with the best route including a stop off at a big and very nice gas station/rest stop/food court combo place. We got some lunch (the boys and I opted for a fast food ramen place that was warm and tasty and totally hit the spot for me) and loaded up on coffee (Ivan) and tea (me) for the rest of the drive. This was about the time we were getting a bit sleepy….

We made it though! Getting close to my sister’s rural house.

ARRIVED!! Here’s my 6 year old nephew waiting to greet us. 😊😊

The rest of Saturday was spent just catching up and settling in. My sister was in the process of making some Christmas cookies, the fire and Christmas lights were on and it was just SO COZY and the views are so beautiful there!

It was exciting to see everyone together (my parents had arrived the week prior) and kick off our Christmas week!!

You’ll just have to trust me that this is the CUTEST PICTURE EVER of me with my nieces and nephew. Turned out absolutely adorable!! So happy to be with them.

The kids showed Ethan and Asher some games on their old school Nintendo (fun!) while my sister + brother-in-law made us homemade pizzas and chicken wings for dinner.

It was delicious and we ate while watching Home Alone all together. 🙂

Considering the overnight flight and all, I think we all made it until a pretty normal bedtime. After the littles went to bed, the rest of us stayed up a while chatting in the sunroom.

Overall, a very smooth travel experience and great first day!

Sunday, December 21

Sunday was mostly a low key day, which was fitting since that first day you always feel a bit jet-lagged and off.

I can’t even remember specifically what we really did in the morning. My sister and her family went to church, as the kids were scheduled to read. We opted not to go along, since we had just arrived and all- it was nice to have a slow morning.

The rest of the day was spent doing various Christmas prep things, the kids played, I know I drank a lot of tea (lol) and we talked and hung out, etc.

It was a beautiful morning!

Some people- I think including Asher- went in the hot tub. Here’s my niece. They have an amazing view from their hot tub!

The kids played outside some and played Monopoly together.

By mid-late afternoon (can’t remember the timing!), my dad, Ivan and I went into town for a bit. I can’t remember the specifics, but I’m pretty sure my sister and husband stepped out to attend a Christmas party for a while. Anyway, we ended up leaving the boys home with my mom (who wasn’t feeling the best) + the kids, (and anyway, our rental car could only hold 5 people, max), and we ran to Tesco for a few items. Asher also managed to forget his PJs, so we picked up a pair, and some slippers for Ivan.

Since we were in the (VERY CUTE!) town and it was the holidays and vacation and all(!), we decided to stop off at a pub, too, before heading home. You know how we love a good pub, and how could we pass up the chance to go to some real, live, Irish pubs just a few days before Christmas?!

My dad knew of a good pub (he’s been in that town more times than we have!), so we stopped there.

We didn’t stay too long, but it was really enjoyable. We also decided we were hungry for a little snack, so Ivan and I shared a delicious bowl of this seafood chowder.

Meanwhile at home, we apparently missed a killer sunset! My mom and Asher were sending these incredible photos of the sunset over the bay.

When we drove up, the kids (and Asher) were playing on the homemade zipline in their yard. 🙂

We unloaded our groceries and hung around at the house for the evening.

My sister and I went in the hot tub at dusk, just the two of us. Soooo nice!

While we were in there, my brother-in-law headed out to pick up fish and chips for dinner. There’s a local truck that sells fantastic fish and chips from a Circle K parking lot nearby (lol, sounds very random, but we had it on our last trip, and it was super good!!). Unfortunately, even though it was “his night” to be there, my BIL arrived and found…womp womp…. no fish and chips truck. Darn! We had to pivot and basically just ate up leftover pizza/wings and other snackies for dinner instead, which was totally fine.

We took to watching either Netflix or Hallmark movies pretty much every night after the younger kids went to bed and/or hanging out in the sunroom. They built a cozy fire every night and lit candles and had dim lights and Christmas music playing much of the time… not sure how many times I can repeat that it was SO COZY, but it was really, really cozy. 🙂 Totally my favorite vibe for the holidays.

Monday, December 22nd

Still a couple days until Christmas! I’m glad we opted to arrive a good while BEFORE Christmas, because for me, the Christmas magic is definitely strongest in those pre-Christmas days.

Monday morning my brother-in-law took Asher and the two younger kids golfing! Asher loves to golf, and how cool to play in Ireland. 🙂

My brother-in-law took a great video of him hitting a golf ball over the Atlantic ocean! This is a screenshot:

After a pretty lazy morning, Ivan and I decided to take a walk. From my sister’s house, you can walk down the lane to the most BEAUTIFUL views, literally just a couple minutes away by foot.

It was so peaceful, and felt good to get some fresh air and movement in.

At the top of the hill, there are stunning water views.

There are a handful of other people who live down this lane, but otherwise it’s pretty remote! Was just us, some sheep and a few cow friends we ran into. 😉

Back home, the kids were decorating the gingerbread men.

The only real event on the agenda (besides general Christmas prep, like cookie making), was that my nieces had their first ever intra-squad ‘swim meet’ Monday night. They just joined a real swim team, and of course swim meets are my jam!! I was so excited to be there for their first one. (My sister joked that she signed me up to be a Timer…. HA!)

The pool is back in the main town (about ~20 min away). Ivan and I wanted to go early to spend a little more time in town first. We wanted to look for a few gifts (for people back home- Ivan’s brother/ gf, etc.)- specifically, some Irish wool hats or scarves, possibly.

We decided the boys should get out of the house a bit too, and besides, we wanted them to experience more “Ireland at Christmastime” culture. 🙂 So the 4 of us, plus my dad (who sort of served as navigator, since he knows the area pretty well now) headed into town a few hours before the swim meet.

We had the nicest time moseying around Westport! It was very Hallmark-movie-esque, in my opinion. So quaint and cute.

My dad also served as our photographer. 🙂

The boys never turn down gelato, even when it’s like 50 degrees out.

We spent a good hour or more browsing in fun shops.

When we finished, we had about ~1 hour left until the swim meet. Enough time for another pub stop! Yay. We poked our heads into a random one that looked cutely decorated- and it was even better inside! It was awesome. I loved the decor.

Festive pub photo overload:

After enjoying our pint, we walked over to the pool, where we met up with everyone else. The girls were warming up, and then shortly after, the “meet” began. (I say “meet” because it wasn’t official- just an informal intrasquad, which is the perfect way to start.)

They did great! It was so fun to watch and cheer them on. 🙂

Back home, my sister had prepared crockpot spicy pulled pork for burritos with all the toppings for dinner, and we watched another Christmas movie and relaxed once the kids went to bed.

One more day until Christmas Eve!

Tuesday, December 23rd:

I think Tuesday morning was the day my sister went off super early to the grocery store to buy all the holiday food. The rest of us were lazy and slept in and then basically lounged around all morning. Haha.

Eventually we decided that we’d all go to see a movie that afternoon. I had been itching to see the new Zootopia movie! It was really cute and we had popcorn for lunch. 🙂

Here I am post-movie with my oldest niece- recreating a pic on this bridge from the first time I visited, when she was just a toddler!

Back home, some of us had more Christmas prep to do. I had various gifts to wrap- I had ordered several gifts for the kids on Amazon UK and had them shipped directly to my sister’s house.

I enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the window while I did this in the bedroom, away from the kids!

The kiddos had MORE cookie decorating to do, after my sister so diligently rolled and cut out all the shapes…. fun times. Ha.

For dinner, my sister made a lovely spaghetti dinner with fresh garlic bread, salad, red wine and candles. 🙂

After dinner, the adults all headed into the nearest tiny town to the local pub for an adults only drink! The boys stayed home in charge of the younger kids- I think they maybe watched Home Alone 2? Or played some games… not entirely sure, but everyone was fine when we got home.

That’s a wrap on Part 1! Up next, the actual “Christmas Installment”- Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

After a very hectic fall + lead up to the holiday season, it was so nice to really just… be. I do feel a little bad for my sister, who bore the brunt of all the hosting and prep and the cooking and baking etc etc!! She (and her husband) were wonderful hosts; we were spoiled and I’m so grateful for all they did! But in fairness, they came our way last year! 😜

Also! It’s VERY RARE that I have the entire week of Christmas off. I might usually have a day or so off before Christmas but I typically go back to work right away on the 26th. This year, I so enjoyed all the movies, fireplace sessions, and family time, being able to fully enjoy the whole holiday week for a change.

To be continued!