Amsterdam is a great city for a tourist visiting on Christmas Day. Most grocery stores, markets, restaurants, bars and coffeeshops are open on Christmas Day. Most city museums are open. Public transportation runs on a Sunday schedule.
Except for many retail shops being closed, the most noticeable difference of Christmas Day in Amsterdam were the normal number of people wandering the canal district streets with an unusually low number of cars and trucks driving in the city center. In fact, I had a moment when walking down a quiet city center lane not far from the Rijksmuseum when I suddenly became aware of the absence of any noise around me. No trams, no cars, no canal boats, no cyclists, no other pedestrians, not even the sound of birds. My realization was I am walking down the street in the middle of Amsterdam in the quietest moments I ever recall for this densely packed city. My footsteps were the only sound of the city around me.
Amsterdam is slightly too warm for much snow. Two of the most famous stories you might associate with the Netherlands are derived from Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates: A Story of Life in Holland, the 1865 work of 19th century American author Mary Mapes Dodge. She had never been to the Netherlands at the time of her novel publication. Ice skating on canals would be a rare occurrence in 21st century Amsterdam. And a boy saving a town in Holland from flooding by keeping his finger in the hole of the dyke overnight is a story more familiar to American than Dutch.
Besides, the Amsterdam Light Festival keeps canal boats running full in the cold winter evenings from late November to late January.
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