The first Christmas market is believed to have been held in Dresden in Germany in 1434. Hosted in charming city squares, fuelled by festive treats, soundtracked by the carols they inspired, European Christmas markets have continued to lead the way in seasonal celebrations ever since.
Click through the gallery for our ranking of our favourites to discover the market we believe sets the gold, frankincense and myrrh standard of Yuletide cheer…
The cobbled streets and colourful buildings of Stockholm’s Old Town, Gamla Stan, make the perfect setting for Yuletide celebrations. Indeed, Stortorget, Gamla Stan’s main square, has been hosting a Christmas market here since the Middle Ages. Each year 41 charming wooden chalets cram into the square selling everything from mulled wine and festive-themed pepparkakor (Swedish ginger biscuits) to high quality ceramics and fine smithing. The charming shops and cafés that surround the square offer all kinds of typically Swedish treats too. In 2024 the market will run 24 November to 23 December.
The star of the Lithuanian capital’s Yuletide celebrations is the spectacular Christmas tree installation in Cathedral Square. Each year features a different design, always with a real Christmas tree at its heart, usually reflecting something from the city’s 700-year-old history or a distinctively Lithuanian belief or value. The tree in 2019 (pictured) had a chess theme, recognising that the game was popular amongst the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania when Vilnius was first founded. This year’s tree will be unveiled on 29 November, with the surrounding Christmas market then running until 29 December.
This spa town in Italy’s South Tyrol region boasts the most naturally beautiful setting of all of Europe’s Christmas markets. It's set along a promenade beside the burbling Passirio River and backed by snowy alpine peaks. The crisp mountain air makes everything that little bit more magical. The lights twinkle brighter, the smell of cinnamon lingers longer and the speck, apple strudel, wine, mulled wine and cakes offered by the stalls even more tastier. This festive season the market will run from 29 November 2024 to 6 January 2025, closed on Christmas Day.
Stunning Seville offers a traditional Christmas market experience but with a distinctly Andalusian flair. Come 1 December, the city is transformed into a spectacle of lights, colours and activities, with a series of illuminations leading revellers along Avenida de la Constitución to the famous Bethlehem portal in the Town Hall arch and onto the Cathedral of Saint Mary (pictured), where local traders have stalls selling their Christmas wares, including traditional nativity scenes to be displayed at home. Then, on 5 January, it all ends, when the Three Wise Men parade through the streets throwing sweets and gifts.
Tiny Luxembourg City celebrates the festive season in a big way when the annual Winterlights festival seems to take over the whole city. Running from 22 November 2024 to New Year’s Day, this year’s edition will see the city decorated with festive lights, Christmas market stalls at every turn and a huge illuminated Ferris wheel offering unparalleled views over the city. With live concerts and performances, exhibitions and workshops for kids, a wonderfully festive atmosphere is guaranteed.
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The Hungarian capital boasts two Christmas markets. One in front of the city’s venerable Basilica of Saint Stephen. The other is in Vorosmarty Square. Each offers slightly different experiences. The market in front of the Basilica tempts visitors with spectacular illuminations and an ice rink centred around a Christmas tree. Vorosmarty Square (pictured) is the place to go for traditional Hungarian dishes like goulash, stuffed cabbage and grilled sausages and a shot of Zwack Unicum, a local fire water made of more than 40 herbs. Both open on 17 November 2024.
The Christmas market in the southeastern Dutch town of Valkenburg is easily the most unique in Europe. It is held in an ancient cave system under the town’s ruined castle known as Fluweelengrot, the Velvet Cave. The centuries-old passageways that wind their way through the yellow marlstone are decorated with twinkling lights, colourful baubles and freshly cut Christmas trees and lined with stalls offering all kinds of seasonal gifts. The festive fun runs from 15 November 2024 to 5 January 2025 and includes an above-ground Christmas parade, Santa village and toboggan run as well.
Ask a Greek child where Santa lives and chances are they'll say the tiny town of Drama. Tucked away in the northeast of the country, its annual Christmas festival, Oneiroupoli, has delighted visitors with breathtaking illuminations, bustling markets and colourful figurines of Christmas characters, including the big man himself, dotted around the town’s river. A ‘real life’ Santa wanders through the town as well, reinforcing the town’s claim of it being his home, helped by ‘Love Fairies’ handing out fairy bags to both children and adults alike.
Every Christmas, Festplassen, a beautiful square set around a pond in Bergen’s city centre, turns into a magically decorated Christmas market. Here you’ll find stalls selling exquisite handcrafted woollen items, traditional Norwegian Christmas nibbles (including reindeer!) and the obligatory festive Ferris wheel. Make sure to drop by the world’s biggest gingerbread village, housed in byROMMET in Kong Oscars gate, open from 16 November. And then on to Bryggen, the iconic UNESCO World Heritage wharf lined with colourful 18th century buildings, home to the city’s famous Christmas shop which brings seasonal joy to Bergen every day of the year.
Boasting 25 different yuletide markets, the Croatian capital offers revellers the truly unique experience of being able to go on a ‘Christmas market crawl.’ Start with the markets in the three parks in the lower town and make your way to Ban Jelacic Square, passing through the Gric Tunnel (pictured), decorated with Dickensian street scenes. Countless events, concerts and festive food and drink will tempt you away from your path, but if you stay true to your mission, you can reward yourself with a chocolate-covered festive fritter called fritule upon reaching the medieval upper town.
This bustling French city, close to the German border, is home to the European Parliament. But as the nights close in and the festive season approaches, it transforms into something altogether more magical, the self-styled European ‘Capital of Christmas'. The whole city is decked out in decorations and twinkling lights, with 300 Christmas market chalets dotted around city squares selling unique festive treats, including bredle, delightful Christmas biscuits unique to this part of Alsace. At its heart, Place Kléber, you’ll find Europe’s tallest decorated Christmas tree, a tradition that dates back to Strasbourg’s first festive market in 1570.
The Aragonese capital may have only been hosting Christmas markets for 15 years but in the city’s vast and impressive Plaza del Pilar it has the perfect venue. Here wooden Christmas market chalets nestle under grand UNESCO-listed square buildings, built in a unique Mudéjar style when Muslims and Christians coexisted in the city in the Middle Ages. Illuminated by spectacularly festive lights, the square also hosts a life-size nativity scene in front of the basilica and an incongruous, but super-fun, toboggan run at the western end. This year festivities run from 2 December 2024 to 8 January 2025.
The lively Christmas market held in the venerable Polish port city of Gdansk has quickly become one of the most popular festive markets in Europe. The medieval town square is the focal point, illuminated by fairytale lights, full of stalls offering local delicacies and original gifts and bursting with festive cheer. Fun rides bring yuletide thrills and smiles, live cultural events bring a uniquely Baltic flavour while special artistic light installations dotted around the city are the perfect backdrop for a seasonal selfie. In 2024 the fun begins on 22 November and runs until 23 December.
Visiting this charming northern Bavarian town during the festive season is like stepping into a Christmas card illustration. The gingerbread-style cottages seem even more colourful and charming and the crisp winter air makes the magical Christmas lights twinkle even brighter. Its annual Reiterlesmarkt is regarded as one of the most picturesque in Germany, transforming the town’s market and church squares into a breathtaking tableau. Brass bands from around the region play each day, bringing a little bit extra oom-pah-pah to proceedings.
Finns love celebrating the festive season, and for those in the capital that means holding pikkujoulu (or 'little Christmas') parties and heading down to Helsinki’s famous Christmas Market on Senate Square. Watched over by the city’s dazzling white cathedral, completed in 1852, locals and visitors alike peruse more than one hundred stalls offering a smorgasbord of beautifully crafted gifts and tasty festive treats, all while sipping on glögi, hot Finnish mulled wine. On 13 December, the newly crowned St. Lucia descends the cathedral’s stairs, an important and symbolic occasion for Finns.
Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt is the one of the biggest Christmas markets in Germany, taking over the city’s historic Hauptmarkt and spilling into the adjoining streets and squares. You’ll find everything you love about the festive season here, just on a bigger and more audacious scale. The market is also famous for its spectacular opening ceremony where the year’s chosen Christkind, a curly-haired Christmas angel (pictured), urges revellers to give in to the child-like excitement that the market inspires. Of course, the stalls selling glühwein and weissbier will hope you indulge your adult side as well.
The annual Christmas market in Florence’s gorgeous Piazza Santa Croce brings a touch of Italian pizazz to the ubiquitous Bavarian Christmas market concept. You’ll find traditional German festive treats like bratwurst and pretzels and Kürtőskalács chimney cakes, smothered in cinnamon and chocolate, of course. But the charming wooden stalls in the square also offer Italian treats like cheese, jam and chocolate as well as seasonal votive candles, unsurprising considering the location. An annual tradition in Florence for over 500 years, the market will run from 28 November to 20 December in 2024.
Set over two magical locations, the Christmas market in this charming Rhine River city is both the largest and prettiest in Switzerland. The market in Münsterplatz (pictured) in front of Basel’s historic cathedral offers all kinds of seasonal trinkets and has a real fairytale feel to it. Head to the stalls in Barfüsserplatz for waffles, mulled wine, genuine Basel Läckerli (a kind of gingerbread), delicious Swiss raclette and the ever popular grilled sausages. Running from 28 November to 23 December in 2024, make sure you drop by City Hall to write down a Christmas wish in the Basel Wish Book.
Beginning on the first Sunday of Advent, the Latvian Capital’s Christmas market is a particularly musical affair. On Fridays, a DJ provides a seasonal soundtrack. On Saturdays, local choirs fill Dome Square with a heavenly chorus. And on Sundays musicians wander through the narrow cobbled streets playing traditional Latvian folk songs. It is a time when Riga’s historical centre becomes even more magical, with lively markets stalls selling uniquely Latvian handicrafts and tempting visitors with delicious Christmas sweets and peppery gingerbread cookies.
Every Advent the historic centre of this Tyrolean Swiss city is aglow as the festive lights twinkle, brass bands and Christmas concerts echo and the town hall’s famous gilded ‘golden roof’ shines even more brightly. Christmas stalls tempt visitors with ornaments, handicrafts and alpine festive treats like Kiachln, Christstollen and Kletzenbrot, accompanied, of course, by a warming mug of Glühwein. Running from 15 November to 23 December in 2024, the festivities also include a Krampus run where local men dash through the streets dressed as fearsome half-goat half-demon creatures.
In the last week of November Krakow's gorgeous Old Town transforms into a magical winter wonderland, particularly around Rynek Główny, the largest medieval square in Europe. Here you’ll find a cheery village of 80 timber huts selling all manner of festive gifts and trinkets, most handcrafted, including local specialities like amber jewellery, wooden toys and hand-painted Christmas decorations. For a truly enchanting experience, arrive by horse-drawn carriage (pictured). If you’re really lucky there’ll be a sprinkling of snow, the perfect festive flourish.
It stands to reason that one of the most beautiful cities in Europe also has one of the continent’s most beautifully situated Christmas markets. Centred on the city’s historic Old Town Square and proudly watched over by the Baroque Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, the markets are exquisitely gorgeous and, at night, bathed in the golden glow of thousands of twinkling lights. Running from 30 November 2024 to 6 January 2025, you can expect unique handcrafted gifts, hearty festive food and wine and delightful Central European carolling. Good King Wenceslas would surely approve.
By German standards, Cologne’s annual Christmas market is the new kid on the block, having only been founded in 1820. But it more than compensates with its sheer size, consuming the square in front of the city’s mega massive twin-towered Gothic cathedral and spilling into nearby streets and squares and even the harbour. Thankfully the Christmas-Market-Express mini train is on hand to ferry revellers through the city’s brightly decorated and illuminated streets from one market area to another. In 2024 festivities begin on 18 November and continue to dazzle until 24 December.
As the days shorten and the temperatures drop, the Belgian capital shrugs off its staid reputation and embraces its festive side. Its annual Christmas market and Winter Wonders celebration, held between 29 November 2024 and 5 January in 2025, is one of the most colourful in Europe, with the city’s normally austere buildings lit up by playful illuminations and its grand squares filled with bustling market stalls. There’s also a Ferris wheel, merry-go-rounds, curling and an ice-skating rink. At Christmas time the capital of the EU really knows how to let its hair down.
The origins of Salzburg’s famous Christmas market dates to the late 15th century. It begins with a spectacular opening ceremony on the Thursday preceding the first Advent Sunday and ends on New Year’s Day. As well as over 100 stalls, there is a packed cultural calendar too, including a performance of Mozart’s most famous festive tune, Sleigh Ride from Three German Dances. For the full Wolfgang Amadeus experience, treat yourself to a packet of Mozart Kugeln (pictured), the famous balls of chocolate created by Salzburg confectioner Paul Fürst to celebrate the city’s most famous son.
If you’ve ever wondered what Christmas markets were like in the Middle Ages, the Esslingen Christmas Market is for you. Merchants and artisans don outfits from the time and happily haggle and bargain with their modern-day customers. Pewterers, glassblowers and blacksmiths display their timeless skills as they create totally unique Christmas gifts. And the city’s squares are filled with the kind of music, stilt walkers, jugglers, fire magicians, acrobats, storytellers and minstrels that entertained and delighted those who visited the market hundreds of years ago. In 2024 you can step back in time between 26 November and 24 December.
Wandering the cobbled lanes of medieval Colmar at Christmas is like stepping into the pages of a fairy tale. The storybook timbered houses of this enchanting Alsatian town are festooned with decorations and festive lights strung across its narrow streets ensuring that the whole town twinkles. You’ll find six different Christmas markets tucked around the town, most running from 29 November to 23 December in 2024, each with a different Yuletide speciality including gourmet food, artisanal crafts and Christmas decorations. Don’t miss Santa’s arrival by boat in Colmar’s gorgeous ‘Little Venice’ (pictured).
Rows of wooden chalets radiate out from an enormous freshly cut Christmas tree in the centre of Tallin’s spectacular Town Hall Square, with vendors selling uniquely Estonian handicrafts and delicacies. Here you’ll find hand knitted mittens, scarves and hats to ward off the winter chill as well as traditional blood sausages, beer-braised sauerkraut and seasoned potatoes. The hot mulled wine (glögg) is locally sourced too, made only from berries and fruits found in Estonia. A new addition in 2024 is Gingerbread World, home to local bakers selling elaborately designed cookies, only available while the market runs from 22 November to 27 December.
In a city famous for its gilded coffee shops, it is only fitting that the Austrian capital’s Christmas market is equally glitzy. Held in Rathausplatz Square, backed by the city’s splendid neo-Gothic town hall, the market is aptly called the ‘Viennese Dream’, bathed in golden light and beckoning visitors to lose themselves in a warren of glittering stalls. Running from 16 November to 26 December 2024, its irresistible handicrafts and seasonal treats are irresistible. Resistance is futile. Our advice is to just give in to the dream.
The Christmas market at Craiova may be one of Europe's lesser known markets but is definitely one of the most extraordinary and our worthy winner. From 15 November 2024 to 5 January 2025, visitors can experience not one but four different Christmas worlds, each as magical and enchanting as the other. Romanian Christmas revolves around the country’s unique festive traditions, Beauty and the Beast gives a fairytale twist to the celebrations. Santa’s village is popular with the kids, while the Galactic Christmas experience is decidedly more futuristic. Add in eastern Europe’s highest-flying Santa’s sleigh and you can see why this Christmas market tops our list.
Now read on to see how we ranked the UK's best Christmas markets...