Christmas and New Year's on Maui

Holiday shopping and markets in South Maui

Kihei does its holiday shopping at small markets more than at big stores, and that is where we find the best gifts to bring home. For 2026, a listing site shows a Kihei Christmas market on Thursday, December 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at South Maui Gardens on Auhana Road, with a similar holiday market on December 3. Expect local makers, jewelry, prints, soaps and food, and check the listing the week before, since small markets sometimes move dates.

The Shops at Wailea is the dressed-up option. It is an open-air center with palm-lined walkways and a fountain courtyard, and in December it adds lights, music and Santa. Last year it hosted the Black Friday Santa parade from Kalama Park, free Santa photos on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and a free Christmas Eve music show called the Mele Kalikimaka Show. Look for this year's schedule there in November.

Kihei's regular markets keep going through the holidays too. Our post on Kihei farmers markets covers where to buy Maui-grown fruit, flowers and coffee, and December is a good month for gift-sized bags of Kula and Kona coffee, macadamia nuts and local honey. For a Christmas Eve or Christmas morning table, a few stems of local flowers and a pineapple go a long way in a rental kitchen.

One of our favorite December evenings is free. In 2025, Maui Walking Tours led a Kihei Christmas carol walking tour through Kalama Park on the Friday before Christmas at 4 p.m., with carolers from Maui Madrigale in Dickens costume. Reservations were taken online. If it repeats on the same weekday, it would fall on December 18, 2026, which lines up nicely with a first evening on the island.

Holiday music and the Nutcracker

Maui has a real holiday stage season, and most of it happens in Kahului and Wailuku, about 25 to 30 minutes from Kihei. The Maui Arts and Cultural Center, which everyone calls the MACC, is the big venue. For 2026, the Maui Pops Orchestra has announced its Holiday Pops concert, Holiday in High Fidelity, for Sunday, December 6, at 3 p.m. in the Castle Theater, with tickets from $37 to $80 and half-price tickets for students on most seats. That is early in the month, so it suits guests who come in the first week of December.

Two Nutcrackers ran last year. Alexander Academy staged a full-length Nutcracker with more than 100 dancers at the Castle Theater on December 13 and 14, 2025, and Maui OnStage and Momentum Dance put on Nutcracker Sweets at the Historic Iao Theater in Wailuku over the second and third weekends of December, at $25 for adults and $20 for students. If Nutcracker Sweets keeps its pattern, the last weekend falls around December 19 and 20, 2026, inside most holiday trips.

Ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro brought his Holidays in Hawaii show to the Castle Theater on December 20, 2025. His 2026 tour shows mainland dates in early December, and no Maui date has been posted yet, so keep an eye on the MACC calendar. The MACC box office is the best place to check what is on during your week.

Closer to home, the resorts in Wailea put on free music most evenings in December. Last year the Four Seasons ran a nightly Sunset Mele with Hawaiian music on its oceanfront lawn from December 21 to January 3. Pair a sunset walk on the beach path with a stop for music and you have a lovely, easy evening.

Upcountry and Wailuku in December

If you have a free day before Christmas, drive up the mountain. Upcountry Maui is cooler, with pine trees, pastures and old towns that dress up for the season, and it is where some of Maui's own Christmas trees grow. Our Upcountry Maui day trip post lays out the full loop from Kihei.

In Makawao, the Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center runs a holiday marketplace on its 1917 estate. In 2025, Hui Holidays ran from November 21 to December 24, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with prints, ceramics, jewelry and cards by Maui artists, and a Santa Workshop for kids on one Saturday in mid-December. It has run on roughly the same dates every year since at least 2022.

Kula Botanical Garden sells Christmas trees grown on its family farm, usually on early and mid-December weekends, and the Pukalani Community Association held a holiday fair and an electric light golf-cart parade at Pukalani Country Club on Saturday, December 6, 2025. Both are worth checking if you arrive early in the month.

Wailuku, the county seat, has its own holiday version of First Friday on Market Street. For 2026 the last First Friday is December 4, from 6 to 9 p.m., and in past years the December edition, called Winter in Wailuku, closed Market Street to cars and filled it with holiday craft vendors, keiki crafts and hula. For later arrivals, Wailuku is still worth an afternoon for lunch and a walk, and it is the gateway to Iao Valley, one of the island's best short outings.

Finding a Christmas tree on an island

Almost every Christmas tree in Hawaii comes by ship. According to the Maui Invasive Species Committee, about 99 percent of the state's cut trees are Douglas and Noble firs from Oregon, more than 90,000 trees in more than 150 refrigerated containers. Matson estimates it carries more than 100,000 trees to the islands each season. The tree ships arrive around Thanksgiving, so the choice is widest in late November and early December.

Maui also grows its own. Kula Botanical Garden has sold Upcountry-grown Monterey pines and some Monterey cypress on December weekends, and the Kula Forest Reserve has been the one place on state land on Maui where you can cut your own Monterey pine with a permit from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which was $20 in 2021. Call ahead before you plan around either one, since dates and rules are set each season.

Then there is the local favorite, the Norfolk Island pine. Its tidy layered branches make it look like a living Christmas tree, and many families in Hawaii decorate one in a pot on the lanai year after year. Many of the trees called Norfolk pines in Hawaii are Cook pines or hybrids of the two. You will see tall ones standing above the pastures on the drive to Ulupalakua.

For a vacation rental, a small potted tree or a string of lights on the lanai rail is more than enough. A folding tabletop tree fits in a suitcase, and it looks lovely lit up against the sunset.

Mele Kalikimaka and a little holiday history

Mele Kalikimaka means Merry Christmas, and the phrase is a sound-borrowing from English. Hawaiian has no r or s sounds and every syllable ends in a vowel, so Merry Christmas became Mele Kalikimaka. Happy New Year is Hau'oli Makahiki Hou, from hau'oli for happy, makahiki for year and hou for new. You will hear both all month, from the grocery checkout to the radio.

The song most visitors know, Mele Kalikimaka, was written in 1949 by Honolulu-born R. Alex Anderson after a coworker remarked that Hawaii had no Christmas songs of its own. Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded it in 1950, and it has been on every island holiday playlist since. Anderson lived to 100 and was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1998.

Christmas came to Hawaii with the ships. The first recorded Christmas in the islands was December 25, 1786, at Waimea on Kauai, when two British trading ships under Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon were anchored offshore and the crews marked the day with a roast pig. In 1858 Mary Dominis put up the first Christmas tree in the Hawaiian kingdom at Washington Place in Honolulu, with a Santa handing out gifts to about 100 children, and in 1862 King Kamehameha IV made Christmas an official holiday of the kingdom.

Today the island Christmas is a mix of all of it: church services in Hawaiian and English, lights on the palm trees, plate lunches and turkey on the same table, and a beach day in the afternoon. Last year the Grand Wailea held two non-denominational Christmas Day services in its Seaside Chapel that were open to the public, and Maui's churches post their Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Mass and service times in December.

Christmas Day in the bungalow

The bungalows are set up for cooking Christmas dinner yourself. Each one has a full kitchen, and Kihei Holiday and Kihei Bay Surf both have barbecue grills on site, so a Christmas fish on the grill with rice, salad and pie is an easy and very Maui meal. The Family Favorite and the Modern Ocean View also have washers and dryers in the unit, which helps when the beach towels pile up over a long holiday stay.

The trick is to shop early. Costco, including the Kahului warehouse, is closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. On Christmas Day 2024, Foodland, Times and Whole Foods in Hawaii were closed while most Safeway stores were open, and we expect a similar pattern this year, though the stores post their own hours in December. We do the big shop on December 22 or 23 and keep Christmas Eve for fresh fish and flowers.

Ask at the fish counter for whatever came in that morning, often ahi, ono or mahimahi, and keep the preparation simple: salt, pepper, a little shoyu and a hot grill. Pick up a bag of rice, a Maui onion, some local greens and a loaf of sweet bread, and you have dinner for six without a single reservation.

Leave room in the day for the beach. A Christmas morning swim at Sugar Beach, across the street from Kihei Holiday, is an easy way to start the day, and the beach chairs and towels are already in the closet. Then it is presents on the lanai, a nap, the grill at sunset and a walk along the sand after dark.

Christmas dinner out

If you would rather someone else does the dishes, Wailea's resorts put on the island's big holiday dinners, and they book up early. For 2026, the Fairmont Kea Lani has announced a Christmas dinner buffet on Friday, December 25, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at the Kea Lani Restaurant, by reservation. Ka'ana Kitchen at the Andaz Maui lists a Christmas buffet on December 25 from 4 to 8 p.m. at $215 per adult and $107 for children 6 to 12, plus tax and service.

For a sense of other prices, Hotel Wailea offered a five-course Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner at $225 per person in 2025, and the Grand Wailea served a Christmas Day brunch booked through OpenTable. Most resort restaurants open holiday bookings in October or November, and the best tables at sunset go first. If you want a specific night, book it as soon as your flights are set.

Kihei itself is relaxed on Christmas. Many Kihei restaurants open on Christmas Day, some with holiday hours, so call ahead to check. Our guide to where to eat in Kihei lists the places we like for fish tacos, plate lunches and sunset drinks, most of which are open in the days around Christmas.

A lu'au is another way to spend a holiday evening. The Wailea Beach Resort has announced its Te Au Moana lu'au on Christmas and on New Year's Eve, the New Year's Eve one with a champagne toast and fireworks over Wailea Beach. Our guide to Maui lu'aus compares the main shows, and holiday nights sell out first.

Whales for Christmas

NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary says up to 12,000 humpbacks, more than half of the North Pacific population, come to Hawaiian waters between November and May to breed, give birth and nurse their calves. The season peaks from January through March, and by Christmas the first mothers, calves and escorts are usually spouting in the channel between Kihei and Kaho'olawe.

You can watch from shore. Sit on Sugar Beach in the early morning when the water is flat, look for the white puff of a spout, and wait. The Family Favorite has binoculars on the shelf for exactly this, and the lanai at Best Ocean Views faces the channel. Our whale watching guide explains what each behavior means, from a tail slap to a full breach.

The sanctuary's visitor center at 726 South Kihei Road, a short drive south of Kihei Holiday, is free and open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It is open on weekdays other than federal holidays, including Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The lawn out front looks straight across the channel.

For a closer look, whale-watch boats leave Ma'alaea Harbor, about 15 minutes from Kihei, every day of the season. Pacific Whale Foundation runs daily trips and asks guests to check in 45 minutes early at its Ocean Store in the Ma'alaea Harbor Shops. Boats must stay at least 100 yards from humpbacks, but curious whales often come closer on their own.

Haleakala sunrise on a holiday morning

Watching the sun come up over the crater of Haleakala is one of the great Maui mornings, and holiday mornings book fast. The National Park Service requires a $1 reservation per vehicle for entry between 3 and 7 a.m., booked only at Recreation.gov, on top of the $30 vehicle entrance fee that is good for three days. Reservations open 60 days ahead at 7 a.m. Hawaii time, and a second, smaller batch opens two days ahead. The park allows 150 vehicles each morning, so be logged in right at 7 a.m.

Here is the math for 2026. Counting back 60 days, Christmas morning reservations open around October 26, with the second release on December 23. New Year's Day opens around November 2, with the second release on December 30. Set an alarm for 7 a.m. Hawaii time, which is 9 a.m. on the West Coast and noon on the East Coast in winter, and be logged in a few minutes before. You will need a paper copy of the reservation and a photo ID at the gate.

From the bungalows the drive to the summit takes about 2.5 to 3 hours, and it is cold at the summit before dawn, often below freezing, so bring every warm layer you packed. Our Haleakala sunrise guide walks through the night before, the drive and what to wear, and the Haleakala National Park page covers the hikes once the sun is up.

If you miss out on a sunrise ticket, sunset is a lovely alternative with no reservation needed, and the summit is open 24 hours. The park posts road and weather updates at nps.gov/hale, and we check it the night before any summit trip. On the way down, stop in Kula for breakfast and an Upcountry morning.

Holiday-week days out

Between Christmas and New Year's, we plan one outing a day and leave the rest for the beach. The Maui Ocean Center in Ma'alaea, about 15 minutes from Kihei, is open every day of the year, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. most days and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Its tunnel through the open-ocean tank is a hit with kids and grandparents alike, and it is a good plan for a cloudy afternoon.

Iao Valley State Monument in Wailuku is open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visitors from out of state need an advance entry and parking reservation at gostateparks.hawaii.gov, at $5 per person and $10 per car. Wai'anapanapa State Park, with its black sand beach on the road to Hana, works the same way, and holiday dates can fill, so reserve when you book your car. Our Road to Hana guide covers that drive from Kihei.

Closer to home, the boardwalk at Kealia Pond is free and takes half an hour, with stilts and ducks on one side and the Kihei shoreline on the other. A snorkel at Ulua or Mokapu in Wailea, a morning at Kamaole Beach III with the kids, or a sunset walk on the Wailea Beach Path round out the week.

West Maui is open for visitors, and the Lahaina community has asked guests to visit with care. Front Street reopened to vehicles on August 1, 2026,. A temporary marketplace with food trucks and shops is reported to open on the former Outlets of Maui site on November 10. Ka'anapali's resorts and Whalers Village run their usual holiday programs, and last year Whalers Village showed free holiday movies under the stars on weekends in December. Our guide to visiting Lahaina today has the details.

New Year's Eve in South Maui

New Year's Eve on Maui is loud, and that is part of the fun. From about 9 p.m. the neighborhoods light firecrackers, and at midnight the sky over Wailea fills with fireworks. In South Maui the main event is the fireworks show at midnight over Wailea Beach.

In 2025, the only public aerial fireworks shows in Maui County were in Wailea and in Lana'i City. The Wailea show is put on by the resorts on Wailea Beach, and for 2026 the Wailea Beach Resort has already announced a New Year's Eve lu'au with a champagne toast and fireworks over the beach. Because the beach is public, you can watch from the sand with a picnic blanket, or from the Wailea Beach Path above it. Arrive by 11 p.m. if you want to park close.

For a party, the resorts host ticketed events. The Fairmont Kea Lani has announced a New Year's Eve celebration at its PILINA lounge from 8 p.m., and last year the Four Seasons held an oceanfront party with a live band and the midnight fireworks, while Hotel Wailea hosted a seven-course tasting menu and a champagne party. Tickets go on sale in the fall, so book in November if one is on your list.

Our favorite New Year's Eve is simpler. Grill dinner at the bungalow, take a walk on Sugar Beach under the stars, and come back to the lanai to listen to Kihei celebrate. Kids can stay up for the noise without anyone driving anywhere. On the west side, last year the Westin Maui in Ka'anapali swapped fireworks for a 150-drone show at midnight.

Firecrackers and the rules

Firecrackers are a long-standing New Year's tradition in Hawaii, and on Maui they happen on a big scale. State law allows consumer fireworks on New Year's only from 9 p.m. on December 31 to 1 a.m. on January 1.

Firecrackers need a county permit. In 2025, Maui County sold permits for $25 each, each good for up to 5,000 firecrackers, to buyers 18 and older with proof of age, from December 26 until just after midnight on New Year's Eve. In Kihei, permits were sold at Longs Drugs on South Kihei Road and at Pacific Starr Fireworks in the Pi'ilani Village Shopping Center. Sparklers, snakes and small fountains under 12 feet do not need a permit.

The county keeps fireworks out of county parks and off public roads, and away from schools, churches, hospitals and hotels, and aerial fireworks need a special permit. For our guests, the easiest plan is to enjoy the neighborhood show from the lanai or the beach and leave the lighting to the locals.

The firecrackers wind down by about 1 a.m., and the morning after is one of the calmest mornings of the year on Sugar Beach.

New Year's food traditions

Many local families start the year with raw fish, sashimi and poke made with ahi, for good fortune, and the fish counters are busy for days. Fish markets suggest ordering ahi a few days early. A tub of shoyu ahi poke, a pot of rice and some furikake make a fine New Year's Day lunch on the lanai.

Japanese plantation workers brought mochitsuki, pounding sweet rice in a stone or wooden mortar, to Hawaii, and Hawaii Magazine notes that mochi has been a New Year's food in Japan since the Heian period. Families eat ozoni, a soup of mochi, dashi and vegetables, on New Year's Day, and the stretch of the mochi stands for long life. You will also see kagami mochi, two stacked rice cakes topped with a small orange, on altars and shelves, and kadomatsu, bamboo and pine arrangements, beside front doors.

You can join in. In 2024, the Japanese Cultural Society of Maui held an Oshogatsu mochi pounding at Wailuku Hongwanji Mission on December 28, with a bento dinner and ozoni for $20 to $25, and registration at jcsmaui.org. The 2026 date has not been posted. Maui Specialty Chocolates in Kahului makes fresh mochi every day and often sells out, so order ahead, and Sam Sato's in Wailuku is known for its manju, open Monday through Saturday mornings.

Our New Year's Day is easy: sleep in, swim, poke and rice for lunch, and an afternoon nap. Then a sunset walk and leftovers.

Planning the trip

The holiday weeks are the most popular dates on the calendar, so we suggest planning in this order: bungalow first, then flights, then the rental car, then the reservations that sell out, such as Haleakala sunrise, Iao Valley, holiday dinners and lu'aus. Our bungalows page shows all four places, and the holiday weeks are the first dates to fill.

Next, lock in the rental car, since holiday rates are best early. Our guide to renting a car on Maui compares the airport companies with local outfits and Turo, and a reservation you can cancel is a smart first step.

Pack light. The days are warm, so think swimsuits, reef-safe sunscreen, a rash guard and sandals, plus one warm layer and long pants for Haleakala or an Upcountry evening. Our Maui packing list covers the rest. For gifts, leave space in your suitcase for coffee, macadamia nuts and a few prints from the holiday markets.

Think about which bungalow fits your group. Families of five fit well in the Family Favorite, which has a king, a queen and a sofa bed. Two couples or a family of four will love the views from Best Ocean Views or the Modern Ocean View, and couples looking for a quiet holiday for two choose the Couples Getaway studio at Kihei Bay Surf.

A sample holiday week from Kihei

Here is how we would spend December 22 to January 1 with a family, mixing a few big outings with plenty of beach time. Swap days around to match the events you book and the weather on the day.

Day one, December 22: arrive, a swim at Sugar Beach and an early night. Day two: the big grocery shop for Christmas, a snorkel at Ulua Beach in Wailea, and sunset on the beach path. Day three, Christmas Eve: Santa by outrigger canoe in Wailea at 10 a.m., fresh fish and flowers for the next day, church or carols in the evening.

Day four, Christmas Day: presents on the lanai, a morning swim, fish on the grill at sunset or dinner in Wailea. Day five: Maui Ocean Center in the morning and the beach in the afternoon. Day six: Upcountry day, with the winery at Ulupalakua, Kula and a late lunch in Makawao. Day seven: whale watch out of Ma'alaea in the morning, nap, poke for dinner. Day eight: Iao Valley and lunch in Wailuku.

Day nine: Haleakala sunrise for the early risers, beach for everyone else. Day ten, New Year's Eve: a quiet day, grill dinner, then the neighborhood show from the lanai or a short drive to Wailea for the midnight fireworks. Day eleven, New Year's Day: sleep in, ozoni or poke, a last swim and a slow sunset.

Common questions

Sources

Dates, hours and prices change. We checked these in October 2026; confirm with the organizer before you go.

• Fairmont Kea Lani, Festive 2026
• Wailea Beach Resort, holiday experiences
• Grand Wailea, festive season
• Four Seasons Maui, festive season 2025
• Maui Now, Santa at The Shops at Wailea (2025)
• Maui News, December 2025 holiday events
• Maui Now, Kihei Christmas carol walking tour (2025)
• Fairs and Festivals, Kihei Christmas market 2026
• Maui Now, Maui Pops 2026-27 season
• Maui Now, Hui Holidays at Hui No'eau (2025)
• Maui Invasive Species Committee, a Hawaii Christmas story
• Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Ka Wai Ola, Kalikimaka past
• Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Christmas in the kingdom
• Makawao History Museum, Mele Kalikimaka and Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
• Costco holiday closures
• NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary
• NOAA sanctuary visitor center, Kihei
• Haleakala National Park, sunrise reservations
• Haleakala National Park, fees
• Maui Ocean Center FAQs
• Hawaii State Parks, Iao Valley State Monument
• Maui Now, New Year's Eve fireworks information (2025)
• Maui News, permitted aerial fireworks (2025)
• Hawaii Magazine, why we eat mochi on New Year's
• Maui Now, Oshogatsu mochi pounding (2024)
• Hawaii Department of Education, 2026-27 school calendar
• NOAA NCEI, Kahului 1991-2020 monthly normals
• County of Maui, Front Street reopening