(New throughout after European markets open)
* Euro brings gains this week to almost 1 percent
* Yen rises half a percent vs dollar
* Aussie and kiwi still bid, good buying seen this week
By Patrick Graham
LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - A poor week for the dollar worsened on Thursday, the last trading day before Christmas, falls of half a percent against the euro and the yen offering little sign of the strength most banks have predicted for 2016.
Still on course for an almost 10 percent overall gain this year, the dollar is down 2.3 percent against the yen and almost 4 percent against the euro in December, the latter largely due to a European Central Bank decision that went far easier on monetary stimulus than many had expected.
Most major bank analysts, in a raft of 2016 outlooks published this month, expect the dollar to rise further, but the moves forecast are far smaller than a year ago and there is less consensus on which currencies it can gain against.
"(It) has been a standout year for the greenback overall, but as we move closer towards 2016 there are few calls for USD to repeat its 2015 strength," said Simon Smith, chief economist with retail trading platform FXPro in London.
With volumes a fraction of daily averages and bank dealing rooms in London on skeleton staffing, the dollar fell 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies to 97.973, down 1.3 percent since this time last week.
The euro traded at $1.0956 EUR= , up just over 0.4 percent. The dollar eased to 120.36 yen JPY= from 121.00.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars, battered by a brutal late-year sell-off of oil and other commodities, were up around half a percent at $0.6814 and $0.7273 respectively.
Sterling was unmoved by British data that showed banks approved 20 percent more mortgages in November than a year ago, trading up 0.1 percent against the dollar at $1.4888. A 0.4 percent fall to 73.64 pence per euro looked largely the result of the single currency's gains against the dollar.
(Editing by Dale Hudson)