Tradition to go swimming on Christmas
Árbæjarlaug swimming pool is closed over the holidays which the regular are not too happy about. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
“It’s extremely popular with families to come here on Christmas Eve and has become a tradition for many, especially for people with younger children. We also have a lot of regular guests who come here at 6:30 on weekdays, senior citizens and people who are hanging out. So it’s a great social center,” says Sigríður B. Guðmundsdóttir, swimming pool manager at Suðurbæjarlaug swimming pool in Hafnarfjörður.
“We’re open just for Christmas Eve from 8-13, but we always offer coffee and we’re also offering gingerbread cakes for Christmas,” she says.
Not happy with the closure of their neighbourhood pool
The opening hours of swimming pools around the country are however very different over the Christmas holidays. Árbæjarlaug is one of them that is closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the second day of Christmas as well as on New Year’s Day.
Svanhildur Árnadóttir, a regular visitor to Árbæjarlaug, contacted mbl.is to express her dissatisfaction with this arrangement.
For many Icelanders, swimming is a fixture in their daily routine, come rain or shine. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
“This is certainly not a good service for the regulars. It’s a big part of many families’ tradition to go swimming during Christmas, especially on Christmas Eve. Families often gather and have fun in the pools, but for example, there are always twenty of us who meet. I am therefore extremely dissatisfied with this arrangement and hope that this will be improved,” she says, adding that although some other pools may be open, people have even their own neighbourhood pool, a favourite pool, and would therefore prefer not to go anywhere else.
Many regulars
Gudný Bragadóttir, the shift manager at Kópavogur’s Sundlaug, agrees with her colleague at Suður-bæjarlaug, who says that many people attend the pool, especially on Christmas Eve.
“Well, there are a lot of people here and we have a lot of regular guests. For example, there’s a group here that comes here every morning called Húnar, because they’re here when we open. They go for a swim and have a coffee afterwards and discuss the daily news, so that is their daily routine,” she says.
