Nollaig na mBan: Why women’s Christmas matters more than ever in Wales

Sarah Rees

As Wales searches for hope amid social and climate crises, an Irish tradition reminds us that rest, solidarity, and women’s leadership are essential to meaningful change.

2025 was not an easy year for many of us. As I knocked doors across Caerphilly ahead of the seismic by-election that saw Lindsay Whittle elected and signalled a genuine beacon of hope, I noticed a shift in the national mood. We moved almost overnight from American-movie levels of Halloween decorations to Christmas lights going up from the first days of November, pumpkins yet to rot. Across Cymru, people are restless. They are yearning for change.

That’s why I’m calling on women across Cymru to reclaim a tradition from our Irish sisters: Nollaig na mBan, or Women’s Christmas. Celebrated on 6 January — the Feast of the Epiphany — it is a time when women gather together to enjoy Christmas on their own terms.

By the end of the festive season, women are exhausted. The invisible labour of Christmas — the planning, shopping, cooking, decorating, teacher gifts, panto trips, and nativity costumes — still falls disproportionately on women. The irony that this work has been handed to “Santa” in popular culture isn’t lost on any of us.

So this year, I’m inviting women to down tools and begin 2026 differently: with rest, connection, and solidarity. We’re celebrating Nollaig na mBan a little early this year, work and school getting in the way on the 6th, but the point is to make it work for you. In Cork, many pubs report near-total female clientele for this day. In Cardiff, I learned the tradition from my Irish friend Stacey, founder of Black and Beech, who introduced it to hordes of local women. Her one rule is simple: zero effort. No cooking, no prepping — take-away and bring a bottle. As the Irish saying goes, “There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t met yet.”

This year, I’m taking that Irish inspiration a step further. I had the honour of meeting Mary Robinson in Cardiff last November, at the invitation of Denise McQuade, the Consul General of Ireland in Cardiff. We spoke about climate breakdown, the urgency of change, and how we confront the growing hatred in our communities. She pinned a badge from her climate justice network, Project Dandelion, from her jacket to mine and told me I should to take its message to the women of Wales.

Project Dandelion is rooted in hope and collective action. The dandelion is resilient. Its roots regenerate soil. Every part of it is useful. It spreads on the wind. Its purpose is simple: to grow more dandelions.

That symbolism matters. Too many people in Cymru are being pulled towards populism and far-right narratives because life feels harder than ever and devolution has not yet delivered what they were promised. When people feel abandoned, fear rushes in to fill the gap. The antidote is not despair, but solidarity, and Welsh women have always been at the heart of movements that care, organise, and rebuild.

That is why I’m launching Dandelion Cymru — a women-led movement rooted in climate justice, social justice, and care. Because every issue we are fighting — from the cost of living to public services, from health to housing — is bound up with the climate and nature crises.

Like dandelions, women of Cymru are resilient. We adapt. We endure. And when we come together, we spread hope.

So for now, rest — it’s your Christmas.

Nollaig na mBan shona daoibh.