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Photo by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Edinburgh in December
avoid · not the best time to go
The year in Edinburgh
Tap a month for its page
- JanJEdinburgh in January: avoid
- FebFEdinburgh in February: avoid
- MarMEdinburgh in March: ok
- AprAEdinburgh in April: sweet spot
- MayMEdinburgh in May: sweet spot
- JunJEdinburgh in June: sweet spot, busy
- JulJEdinburgh in July: good, busy
- AugAEdinburgh in August: good, busy
- SepSEdinburgh in September: ok
- OctOEdinburgh in October: ok
- NovNEdinburgh in November: avoid
- DecDEdinburgh in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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The numbers
| Daily high | 7°C |
|---|---|
| Nightly low | 3°C |
| Feels like, afternoon | 3°C |
| Rainy days, 1 mm or more | 12 · 97 mm |
| Humidity | 85% |
| Sunshine | 2.7 h/day |
| Daylight | 7.1 h/day |
| Crowds | 80 / 100, higher is quieter |
Ten-year averages for this calendar month. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts it. The model these figures come from drizzles more than a rain gauge, the more so the warmer the month, so its days count from 2 mm, rising to 5 mm in the hottest.
Weather read at the Royal Mile, 12 km from the airport (EDI): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
How busy it gets
Public holidays in December
- Christmas Day 25 Dec 2026
- Boxing Day 26 Dec 2026
- Boxing Day (observed) 28 Dec 2026
- Christmas Day (observed) 27 Dec 2027
Holidays crowd a place out and push fares up around them; they count toward the crowd score above.
Edinburgh in pictures
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Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Saffron Blaze, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What to pack
- A proper coat, hat and gloves: nights average 3°C.
- Rain gear you will actually use: about 12 rainy days and 97 mm.
- Humidity averages 85%; breathable fabrics dry faster.
Each line is a threshold over the ten-year figures above, not advice from anywhere else.
Before you go
Type G plugs at 230 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the Pound sterling. Everything for United Kingdom: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
On arrival in Edinburgh: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.
December elsewhere
In December from
The other months at Edinburgh
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