At a Glance
Compared to this destination's peak season December is the most expensive month of the Singaporean year, rivalled only by the October F1 weekend. Rates escalate through the month and peak brutally across Dec 20–Jan 2, when Marina Bay hotels commonly impose minimum stays. Three dated crunches: the BYD Singapore International Marathon (Dec 4–6) closes roads around Marina Bay and the Esplanade from before dawn; the Great Christmas Eve Street Party (Dec 24) packs Orchard Road; and the Marina Bay Countdown (Dec 31) puts a quarter of a million people on the waterfront. The value window is Dec 7–17: the lights and Christmas Wonderland are fully up, and rates are a fraction of what they become after the 18th. Fares rose 27 Dec 2025 (adult card S$1.28–2.57).
Singapore in December — Travel Guide
By Harry Nara · Last updated
Singapore in December offers some of the best conditions of the year, ideal for Christmas lights, marathon runners & NYE crowds. Expect temperatures of 24–31°C, around 19 days of rain, and high crowds across the city. Daily budgets typically land around $80–1,500+ for mid-range travellers. Book accommodation two to three months ahead — the most popular rooms sell out fast during peak visiting windows.
Contents14 sections
#Weather in Singapore in December
Singapore in December averages 24–31°C (75–88°F) with around 19 days of rain, and crowds are high.
December is Singapore's wettest month of the year, with the Northeast Monsoon at full strength: roughly 287mm of rain across 19 wet days, against daytime highs of 29–31°C and overnight lows of 24–26°C, at humidity that routinely sits above 90%.
The rain is heavier and longer-lasting than the afternoon thunderstorms of the dry months. A December system can settle over the island for two or three hours, and the sky often stays grey afterwards rather than burning back to blue. Mornings are still the most reliable window.
December also brings monsoon surges: a strong pulse of northeasterly wind funnels down the South China Sea and parks over the peninsula, producing two or three consecutive days of cool, persistent rain with daytime temperatures dropping to 22–24°C. It is the only time of year Singapore feels genuinely cold, and it is the only weather that can write off a whole day outdoors. The Meteorological Service Singapore flags surges in its fortnightly outlook.
None of which stops December being the most visually spectacular month of the Singaporean year, and the busiest.
#Getting Around
Changi Airport (SIN) connects to City Hall on the East-West MRT in around 30 minutes, entirely under cover.
Grab or taxi to Marina Bay runs S$25–45, and both surge hard in a downpour.
Fares rose on 27 December 2025. Adult card fares now run from S$1.28 for a short hop to roughly S$2.57 for a long cross-island journey, per the Public Transport Council's 2025 fare review. Use an EZ-Link card, or tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard through SimplyGo, which charges the same fares with nothing to buy.
Two dates close roads. The marathon weekend (4 to 6 December) shuts long stretches around Marina Bay and the Esplanade from the early hours.
New Year's Eve closes roads around the bay progressively through the evening, with MRT services running extended hours into the small hours of 1 January. On both, the train is the only sane option.
#What to Do in Singapore in December
Christmas on A Great Street at full strength
Orchard Road's light-up runs to 1 January and December is its peak.
The display covers 3.1km from Tanglin to Dhoby Ghaut, with a 14-metre Christmas tree, two temporary Christmas Villages carrying rides and stalls, projection mapping on the Hilton Singapore Orchard facade, and nightly artificial snowfall shows. It costs nothing to walk.
The Great Christmas Eve Street Party on 24 December closes part of the road for live performances, food trucks and a midnight countdown. It is one of the genuinely joyful nights of the Singaporean year and it is comprehensively packed.
Christmas Wonderland at Gardens by the Bay
Singapore's biggest festive event takes over the Supertree Grove with a European-style Christmas market, luminarie light arches, carnival rides and nightly snowfall.
Timed-entry sessions run from 6.30pm to 11pm, with last entry around 10.15pm.
Advance tickets started at S$9 adult and S$7 child in the 2025 edition, rising to S$11–15 for same-day purchase, with under-3s free.
Older guides quoting a S$5 ticket are years out of date. Weekend sessions between mid-December and New Year sell out; book the 6.30pm slot to photograph the market in blue hour before the crowd thickens.
The Singapore Marathon, under a new name: 4 to 6 December 2026
The city's flagship race has a new name and a new shape. What most people still call the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon now runs as the BYD Singapore International Marathon presented by adidas, with Standard Chartered's name now attached to the 10km event rather than the whole meet.
The 2026 edition occupies the weekend of 4 to 6 December, with the full marathon on Saturday 6 December and a 4.30am flag-off to beat both the heat and the storms. For the first time, the marathon and the half-marathon run on separate days.
ZoukOut on Siloso Beach
Asia's best-known beachfront dance festival returns to Siloso Beach on Sentosa in early December, running dusk to dawn across multiple stages. Dates and the line-up are confirmed on Zouk's own channels; treat any line-up you see on a third-party aggregator or resale site as unconfirmed until it appears there, because the billing changes late and the aggregators are not reliable.
Marina Bay Singapore Countdown: 31 December
Singapore's New Year's Eve is public, free and ticketless, and it is genuinely world class. Fireworks launch from barges across the bay, the buildings around the waterfront carry synchronised projections, and the signature installation is a field of roughly 20,000 illuminated wishing spheres carrying half a million handwritten wishes collected from the public through December.
The prime free vantage points are the Esplanade waterfront, the Promontory, Marina Bay Sands Event Plaza and the Helix Bridge. Programme details land on the official Marina Bay Countdown site in December.
New Year's Eve without the crush
A quarter of a million people on the Marina Bay waterfront is a particular kind of experience, and it is not for everyone. There are four honest alternatives, in ascending order of cost.
Watch from further out. The fireworks are launched from barges and go high, which means the bay is not the only place to see them.
The Esplanade Park lawns, the upper decks of the Marina Barrage and the open ground around Gardens by the Bay East all give you the sky without putting you in the compression zone at the water's edge. You lose the building projections and the wishing-sphere installation. You keep the fireworks, and you keep the ability to walk home.
Book a bayfront restaurant. Dinner with a window on 31 December costs a substantial premium, but it buys you a chair, a roof, a bathroom and a guaranteed sightline, and by any rational measure that is worth the money.
Book a rooftop. CÉ LA VI and Marquee at Marina Bay Sands, and the bayfront hotel bars, sell New Year's Eve packages that go on sale in October and disappear well before Christmas.
Reckon on S$200–500+ per person, and considerably more for anything with an unobstructed view.
Leave the bay entirely. Sentosa, Dempsey, Tiong Bahru and Katong all have a good New Year's Eve without a single firework in sight, and the taxis still work at 1am.
The post-Christmas sales, from 26 December
26 December is not a public holiday in Singapore. There is no Boxing Day here in the British sense: the shops open, the offices open, and the discounting begins. The post-Christmas clearance, running from 26 December through early January, is one of the two heaviest discounting windows of the Singaporean year (the other being Black Friday in late November), and it matters more than it used to because the old centralised Great Singapore Sale ended after 2022.
#Food & Dining
December is the one month of the Singaporean year in which you must book ahead or go without.
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve set menus at the hotel restaurants (Raffles, the Fullerton, Mandarin Oriental, the Ritz-Carlton, Capella) go on sale around October and the good ones are gone by late November. The same is true at the top of the independent scene: Odette at the National Gallery (three Michelin stars), Burnt Ends, Les Amis, Jaan and Candlenut in Dempsey Hill. If a festive dinner is part of the plan, it needed booking weeks before you read this.
Christmas log cakes are a genuine local obsession, pre-ordered through December from Awfully Chocolate, the hotel pastry shops and every decent bakery in the city.
And then there is the other December, the one the rain actually calls for.
Bak kut teh, the peppery Teochew pork-rib soup, at Founder in Balestier.
Laksa at 328 Katong.
Claypot rice, cooked to order over charcoal.
Bak chor mee at the Michelin-starred Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. Hawker centres are roofed and open-sided, which makes eating a bowl of laksa during a December thunderstorm one of the definitive Singapore experiences rather than a compromise.
The year-round backbone holds regardless: chicken rice at Tian Tian in Maxwell Food Centre (S$5–7), chilli crab at Jumbo or Long Beach (S$60–90 a head), and satay on Boon Tat Street outside Lau Pa Sat from about 7pm.
#Nightlife
December is Singapore's biggest party month and its most over-subscribed.
Zouk at Clarke Quay runs sold-out programmes through Christmas week and into New Year's Eve, and it is the same operation behind ZoukOut on Siloso Beach.
Marquee at Marina Bay Sands and CÉ LA VI on its rooftop run large-scale NYE events with international bookings; both sell out.
Note that 1-Altitude at One Raffles Place is closed for redevelopment and cannot be booked, whatever the rooftop-bar listicles still say.
The indoor cocktail scene continues to be the best reason to drink here at all, monsoon or not: Atlas in Bencoolen with its art-deco gin tower, Manhattan at the Conrad Centennial, Jigger & Pony, 28 HongKong Street and Native on Telok Ayer. All are indoor. None of them care what the sky is doing.
Book NYE by early December at the very latest. By the third week, everything with a view of the bay is gone.
#Shopping
Orchard Road is at full festive intensity all month: ION Orchard, Paragon, Ngee Ann City, Takashimaya, Mandarin Gallery, and the lights outside them, free.
The retail event is the post-Christmas clearance from 26 December (a normal working day here, not a holiday), which runs into early January and pushes real discounting across fashion, electronics and luggage.
VivoCity and Suntec City are the largest malls outside the Orchard strip.
Beyond the malls: Bugis Street Market is the cheap, chaotic end, Haji Lane in Kampong Glam has the independents, Tiong Bahru the design shops and bakeries, and Mustafa Centre in Little India is open around the clock and sells, without exaggeration, everything.
Tourists can reclaim the 9% GST on purchases above S$100 at Changi.
#Culture & Etiquette
- Christmas here is civic, not religious. The decoration is universal across a multi-faith city and nobody regards it as a statement of belief.
25 December is a public holiday; 26 December is not.
- New Year's Eve crowd density around Marina Bay is extreme. Keep bags zipped and in front of you, agree a meeting point with your group in advance, and expect mobile signal to degrade badly around midnight.
- Umbrella etiquette matters in the wettest month. Shake and fold at the entrance; most malls and MRT stations provide umbrella bags or stands.
- The MRT eating and drinking ban is enforced (up to S$500), as is littering (from S$300).
- No tipping. Service charge and 9% GST are added to the bill.
- Vaping penalties rose to as much as S$10,000 on 1 May 2026, and devices are routinely detected at Changi. Leave it at home.
- Drug laws are extreme. Trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty.
#Essential Local Phrases
Singapore has four official languages plus Singlish (a localised English-Malay-Hokkien-Tamil blend). You'll get by in plain English everywhere, but a handful of local words will help you read menus, order at hawker stalls, and understand what people are saying.
| What you want to say | What you'll hear in Singapore |
|---|---|
| Yes / OK | Can lah (Singlish) |
| No / Cannot do | Cannot (Singlish) |
| Delicious | Shiok (Singlish) |
| To eat / Let's eat | Makan (Malay, universally used) |
| Iced coffee at a hawker stall | Kopi peng (Hokkien) |
| Spicy | Pedas (Malay) |
| Bill, please (at a restaurant) | Mai dan (Mandarin) |
| Thank you | Terima kasih (Malay) / Xie xie (Mandarin) |
| Sentence emphasis | Lah (added at the end) |
#Packing List
- Cotton or linen clothing. Synthetic fabric is unbearable above 90% humidity.
- A sturdy compact umbrella. December is the wettest month of the year and this is not optional.
- A lightweight rain shell for monsoon-surge days, when the wind beats an umbrella.
- Closed shoes that cope with standing water, plus sandals.
- One smart outfit. December is the one month you will genuinely need it: Christmas dinners and New Year's Eve rooftops enforce dress codes, and shorts and flip-flops will get you turned away.
- A light layer for interiors. Singaporean air conditioning is set to a temperature best described as punitive.
- Sunscreen. The clear windows still carry equatorial UV.
- Insect repellent for outdoor evenings.
- A plastic bag or umbrella sleeve for the wet umbrella in your day bag.
- A Type G adapter (the same three-pin plug as the UK).
#Backup Plans (Rainy Days)
In the wettest month, the indoor plan is not a contingency. It is half the itinerary, and Singapore is better equipped for it than anywhere else in tropical Asia.
The connected complexes are enormous: the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes, ION Orchard, VivoCity, Suntec City and Jewel Changi, all with cinemas and restaurants attached, all reachable without stepping outside.
The Cloud Forest and Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay are fully climate-controlled, and in a genuine storm the Cloud Forest's 35-metre indoor waterfall, seen against real rain hammering the glass, is one of the better things you can do with a wet afternoon anywhere.
The museum circuit is the strongest option: the National Gallery Singapore (from S$25), the ArtScience Museum, the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum, all within a short covered walk of City Hall MRT.
Universal Studios Singapore keeps running in light rain, though rides pause for lightning, and December is one of its busiest months, so go midweek or before the 18th.
#Budget & Costs
December is the most expensive month of the Singaporean year, rivalled only by the October F1 weekend. Rates escalate through the month and peak brutally across 20 December to 2 January, when Marina Bay hotels commonly impose minimum-stay rules.
- Budget: hostel dorm, hawker meals, MRT.
Around S$80–125/day.
- Mid-range: 3-star or good 4-star hotel, mixed dining.
Around S$160–250/day.
- Comfortable: 4-star or 5-star hotel, restaurant meals, paid attractions.
Around S$280–470/day.
- Luxury: Marina Bay Sands, Raffles, the Fullerton or Capella, fine dining.
S$700–1,500+/day, and multiples of that across New Year's Eve, when suite rates can run into four figures a night.
Reference costs: hawker meal S$5–10.
Casual restaurant S$15–30.
MRT single ride S$1.28–2.57 (card fare).
Taxi from Changi to downtown S$25–45.
Universal Studios Singapore S$83.
Gardens by the Bay conservatories S$32.
Christmas Wonderland from S$9 in advance.
A festive set menu at a hotel restaurant S$120–350 a head. A New Year's Eve rooftop package with a fireworks view S$200–500+ per person, and considerably more at the top end.
#Safety & Health
Lightning is December's defining hazard. Singapore records one of the highest strike densities on earth and the monsoon is its peak. Outdoor attractions (the Singapore Flyer, the OCBC Skyway, cable cars, the Sentosa luge) suspend service during warnings, and that is prudence, not fussiness. Get under a roof when you hear thunder.
New Year's Eve crowd density around Marina Bay is genuinely extreme, with a quarter of a million people on the waterfront. Keep bags zipped and worn in front, agree a meeting point in advance because mobile networks degrade badly around midnight, and do not attempt to move against the flow of the crowd after the fireworks.
Wet surfaces are the unglamorous risk: polished mall and MRT-station floors turn treacherous in a downpour, and most falls happen in the first few steps indoors.
Dengue is a year-round concern and the mosquito bites in daylight. Use repellent and check the NEA dengue cluster map if you are staying outside the centre.
Vaping penalties rose to as much as S$10,000 on 1 May 2026, and etomidate-laced pods are now handled under drug law, with possession carrying the possibility of a long custodial sentence and caning. The rules apply to tourists exactly as they apply to residents.
Drug laws are among the harshest in the world; trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty. Never carry anything for anyone.
Tap water is safe and excellent. Healthcare is world class and expensive, so travel insurance is strongly recommended.
Emergency numbers: 999 (police), 995 (ambulance and fire).
#What's Changed for 2026/27 Travellers
- The marathon has been renamed. The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon is now the BYD Singapore International Marathon presented by adidas (4 to 6 December 2026), with Standard Chartered now sponsoring the 10km. The marathon and half-marathon also run on separate days for the first time.
- Christmas Wonderland now starts at S$9 in advance, not the S$5 that older guides quote.
- The F1 Singapore Grand Prix is in October (9 to 11 October 2026), not September. Older comparisons calling September "the other expensive month" are out of date.
- 26 December is not a public holiday in Singapore. The post-Christmas sales begin on a normal working day.
- The Great Singapore Sale no longer exists in its centralised form; it ended after 2022. Black Friday and the post-Christmas clearance are where the discounting lives.
- Public transport fares rose on 27 December 2025. Adult card fares now run S$1.28 to about S$2.57.
- Vape penalties rose on 1 May 2026 to as much as S$10,000, with Kpods handled under drug law.
- 1-Altitude is closed for redevelopment and cannot be booked for New Year's Eve, despite its persistence on rooftop lists.
#About This Guide
Research for this guide combined traveller reports from r/singapore and Tripadvisor's Singapore forum with primary and near-primary sources: the BYD Singapore International Marathon site for the 4 to 6 December 2026 dates, the renaming and the new two-day format; the official Orchard Road Christmas site for the Christmas on A Great Street run to 1 January, the 3.1km route, the 14-metre tree and the Christmas Eve street party; Gardens by the Bay for the Christmas Wonderland session times and current ticket pricing; the Marina Bay Singapore Countdown site for the wishing-spheres installation, the free vantage points and the extended MRT services; Zouk for ZoukOut at Siloso Beach; the Public Transport Council for the 27 December 2025 fare adjustment; the Health Sciences Authority for the vaping penalties that rose on 1 May 2026; and the Meteorological Service Singapore for the Northeast Monsoon structure, the monsoon-surge pattern and the climate normals. Climate figures use MSS/NEA 1991-2020 normals.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Christmas like in Singapore?
Enormous, secular and free. Christmas on A Great Street runs the full 3.1km of Orchard Road from Tanglin to Dhoby Ghaut, with a 14-metre tree, two Christmas Villages, projection mapping and nightly artificial snowfall shows. Christmas Wonderland takes over the Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay with a European-style market, from S$9 in advance (not the S$5 that older guides quote). The Great Christmas Eve Street Party on 24 December closes part of Orchard Road for a midnight countdown. December 25 is a public holiday; 26 December is not, and the post-Christmas sales begin on a normal working day.
When is the Singapore Marathon, and what is it called now?
It has been renamed. What most people still call the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon now runs as the BYD Singapore International Marathon presented by adidas, with Standard Chartered's name attached to the 10km event rather than the whole meet. The 2026 edition runs across the weekend of 4 to 6 December, with the full marathon on Saturday 6 December and a 4.30am flag-off to beat the heat and the storms. For the first time the marathon and half-marathon are split across separate days. If you are not running, note that the course closes long stretches around Marina Bay and the Esplanade from before dawn.
How do I do the Marina Bay Countdown on New Year's Eve?
It is free, public and ticketless. Fireworks launch from barges across the bay, the waterfront buildings carry synchronised projections, and the signature installation is a field of roughly 20,000 illuminated wishing spheres. The prime free spots are the Esplanade waterfront, the Promontory, Marina Bay Sands Event Plaza and the Helix Bridge, and you need to claim one before 10pm; by 10.30pm the best areas are at capacity and access is marshalled. MRT services run extended hours into the small hours of 1 January. If a three-hour stand in a quarter-million-strong crowd is not appealing, book a bayfront restaurant or a rooftop, both of which go on sale in October and sell out before Christmas.
When is the cheapest time to visit Singapore in December?
The first ten days, and specifically 7 to 17 December. The Orchard Road lights and Christmas Wonderland are already fully up, the city is far easier to move around, and hotel rates are a fraction of what they become after the 18th. Rates escalate steeply through the second half of the month and peak across 20 December to 2 January, when Marina Bay hotels commonly impose minimum-stay requirements. December is the most expensive month of the Singaporean year, rivalled only by the October F1 weekend, but that expense is concentrated in the last fortnight.
What’s the weather like in Singapore in December?
Singapore in December typically sees temperatures of 24–31°C with around 19 days of rain across the period. Pack light, breathable layers and strong sun protection — days get genuinely hot.