In Lake Orankesee outside Berlin, members of the Berliner Seehunde winter swimming club happily jumped into the water. The temperature in the lake was only 1.5 degrees above freezing and a thin layer of ice had formed at the shore, according to public service channel RBB.
Some protected themselves from the cold with swimming shoes, gloves and Santa hats. Winter swimming has attracted more and more people in Germany in recent years and the Berliner Seehunde has been forced to impose a membership freeze.
In the UK, too, it is popular to take a dip on Christmas Day. At Forty Foot Point in Dublin, Ireland, hundreds of people had gathered to throw themselves into the waves.
Cold water also did not deter participants from the traditional winter baths in Brighton and Birmingham.
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