Iceland Monitor wishes everyone a happy and prosperous New Year and extends its sincere thanks to readers for their support and companionship throughout the year now past.

The Prime Minister says it is the government’s responsibility not to bend or retreat from its decisions, even when they provoke strong reactions and opposition.

Halla Tómasdóttir, President of Iceland, will confer the Order of the Falcon on fourteen Icelanders on New Year’s Day.

The annual New Year’s Eve Run will take place today at noon, resulting in road closures. Traffic will also be restricted in the Skólavörðuholt area later this evening.

Guðmundur Fylkisson is a police officer who has specialised in searching for missing children. He was named Person of the Year 2025 by readers of Smartland. He received the news with characteristic calm, saying that after 40 years in the police force, few things come as a surprise.

A TikTok video posted over the weekend shows the reckless behavior of two tourists at Reynisfjara beach, who stood dangerously close to the shoreline despite a red warning light being illuminated, narrowly escaping the waves.

The exact extent of fuel price reductions resulting from changes to government levies that take effect at the turn of the year will not be disclosed until New Year’s Eve.

The strongest earthquake in two and a half years struck near the Westman Islands early this afternoon, around 17 kilometres west-southwest of Stórhöfði.

An earthquake measuring 2.9 struck Öræfajökull shortly after 1:00 p.m. This is the strongest earthquake recorded at Öræfajökull so far this year.

A resident of the Vogahverfi district in Reykjavík says heavy truck traffic along Kleppsmýrarvegur is putting severe strain on local residents. She says it is a miracle that no serious accident has occurred and questions why the City of Reykjavík failed to make traffic changes when residential buildings were constructed along the road.

Höskuldur Tryggvason, better known as Höddi, has completed his nearly two-month journey across Antarctica, having crossed the continent using a kite and sled.

When pianist Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson had completed his postgraduate studies at Juilliard and was beginning to look seriously toward an international career, he decided to reach out to one of Iceland’s most renowned musical figures, Vladimir Ashkenazy, who resided in the country for years.

When pianist Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson had completed his postgraduate studies at Juilliard and was beginning to look seriously toward an international career, he decided to reach out to one of Iceland’s most renowned musical figures, Vladimir Ashkenazy, who resided in the country for years.

Vilhjálmur Birgisson, chairman of the Confederation of Labour (ASÍ), says that an average wage earner will end up paying tens of thousands of krónur more in taxes each year because personal tax credits and income tax brackets are not being raised sufficiently at the turn of the year.

Residents of Þorlákshöfn don’t let the fact that golf is usually considered a summer sport stop them, and have organized a late-season Þorláksmessa tournament that began at 11 a.m. today.

It is important for the Þorbjörn Search and Rescue Team to be able to resume fireworks sales in Grindavík this year, as the team has not been able to hold such sales for the past two years.

An earthquake shook the southwest of the country just twelve minutes before 2 a.m.

Valdimar Haukur Gíslason and his wife Edda Arnholtz spent Christmas Day without electricity at their home in Mýrar in Dýrafjörður. Valdimar says it turned out just fine and was actually rather cozy.

Six Christmas babies have been born at Landspítali over the past two days. Midwives at the Björk birthing centre also assisted with one home birth this morning, and one baby was born last night at the West Iceland Healthcare Institution.

Around 130 people attended the Christmas meal at Samhjálp yesterday, and the day exceeded all expectations.

A Christmas Day temperature record was broken overnight when 19.7°C was measured in Bakkagerði in Borgarfjörður Eystri just before 2 a.m.

Some residents of Grindavík have decided to return home for the holidays and spend Christmas in the town. A lively New Year’s Eve is expected.

“The main reason is simply that I’ve reached a point where I’m getting older. I might end up going to bed at four or five on Christmas Eve morning, then have to wake up three hours later to gather everything together to go to Litla-Hraun.”

Heba Guðrún Nielsen is an avid baker who loves creating fun and beautiful things for the people around her. She is 25 years old and lives in Seltjarnarnes, where she feels very much at home. She has made it an annual tradition to design, bake and assemble famous landmarks out of gingerbread for Christmas — structures that become striking holiday decorations in her home.

“Skate always holds its own. The tradition endures even as new generations come along,” says Viktor Örn Andrésson, head chef at the restaurant Brasa in Turninn at Smáratorg in Kópavogur. Yesterday, he was preparing today’s buffet, where skate takes centre stage, as is customary on Þorláksmessa (St Thorlak’s Day).

The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (IRCA) managed traffic on the national highway just above Vík this morning after rocks fell from Reynisfjall and landed on the road.

One of the striking findings in the latest inflation figures from Statistics Iceland is the sharp rise in home heating costs.

At 2 p.m. today, the Supreme Court will deliver its judgment in two cases brought by borrowers against Landsbankinn, concerning the terms governing variable interest rates on the bank’s loans.

In 2025, a total of 1,724 individuals with foreign citizenship who are resident in Iceland will receive old-age pensions, 1,075 will receive disability pensions, 1,464 will receive rehabilitation pensions, 30 will receive disability grants, and 794 will receive child support payments — amounting to more than 5,000 individuals in total.

For more than a decade, adventurer Kristján Gíslason has been either preparing for a motorcycle journey, travelling, or working on books and travel programmes known as Hringfarinn, familiar to many. He has now completed his second journey around the world, and it is interesting to hear about his latest adventures in countries the average person has barely even heard of.

Few things feel as festive as elaborate Christmas decorations. People across the country compete to dress their homes in Christmas finery, often aiming to outdo the previous year. “This takes several weekends,” says one interviewee who goes all out every year.

Tomorrow, Sunday 21 December, at precisely 15:03:01, a moment many consider magical will arrive: the winter solstice.

Police in the capital area arrested three individuals in an operation last night on suspicion of organised theft, which police believe targeted both members of the public and retail stores across the Reykjavík area. Unnar Már Ástþórsson, chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police, described the course of events to mbl.is.

Significant damage to Mjólkárlína 1 between Mjólkár and Geiradalur caused a power outage around midnight in the early hours of the day before yesterday in the Westfjords, and repairs have taken longer than initially expected. This was reported by Landsnet on its Facebook page and website.

With the rise of discount shopping days, Icelanders’ Christmas shopping has become far more spread out. This is reflected, among other things, in the fact that the capital area’s largest shopping centres, Kringlan and Smáralind, are starting their extended Christmas opening hours later than before. Despite the growing share of online shopping, foot traffic to shopping centres appears to be increasing.