Winter is Kyoto's quietest tourist season by a clear margin — and increasingly, that's exactly the appeal for visitors who've done the sakura or kōyō crowds once and want the city with room to breathe.
What the weather is actually like
Cold, generally dry, with occasional light snow that tends to dust temple roofs and gardens rather than seriously disrupt travel — a light snowfall over a temple garden is one of Kyoto's more striking, less-photographed seasonal looks precisely because so few visitors are there to see it.
Temple illuminations
Several temples run special winter evening light-up events, separate from the autumn kōyō illuminations — timing and participating temples are announced each year, so check closer to your visit. The evening cold generally keeps these noticeably less crowded than their autumn equivalents.
New Year (hatsumōde)
The first shrine or temple visit of the new year is a major, widely observed tradition in Japan, and Kyoto's best-known shrines see significant local crowds in the first few days of January specifically for this — a genuinely different atmosphere from a normal visit, worth experiencing if your dates line up, but expect it to be busy in a very local, not tourist, way.
Plum blossoms: the underrated preview
Ume (plum blossom) typically flowers from late January into February, ahead of sakura, at dedicated plum groves around the city. It draws a fraction of cherry blossom season's crowds despite being, to many visitors, just as attractive — a genuinely underrated pocket of the calendar.