Photo Gallery Christmas Swimmers Take the Icy Plunge
Taking a dip in icy waters at Christmas is a seasonal tradition around the world. Here members of the ice swimming club Berlin Seals wade into the Orankesee lake in north-east Berlin on Christmas Day, wearing nothing but their Santa hats. East Germans developed a taste for public nudity under the communist regime.
Around 50 members of the ice swimming club Berlin Seals took part in the Christmas Day swim. At 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit), the Orankesee lake was warmer than usual.
A woman enters the Siberian river of Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk to take a swim on Dec. The air temperature in Krasnoyarsk is about -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).
A woman rubs snow on herself after taking a swim in the Siberian river of Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk.
Hardy swimmers brave the cold waters of the Vltava river in Prague for a traditional Christmas swim on Dec. 26.
Swimmers jump into the cold water of Barcelona harbor during the traditional Nadal swim race on Dec. 25.
Christmas swims are popular around Britain. Here members of the Bournemouth Spartans swimming club take to the English Channel on Christmas Day.
Over 40 people took part in a swim in a lake in Zlate Piesky in Slovakia. The Ladove Medvede Swim Club are unusual in holding their swim on Christmas Eve.
An elderly Chinese man washes his body after a winter swim in a lake in Beijing on Dec. 27. The man said the water was much warmer than when he was a young man.
Of course, some waters are more pleasant than others around Christmas time. Here two men frolic in the surf at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Christmas Day.
