When does each market open, what things cost, how busy does it get, and how it compares to the rest. Find your next Christmas trip and create memories for life!
Every Christmas market scored on the same things (atmosphere, stalls, food and drink, value, crowds, and how easy it is to get there) so you can compare them properly
Strasbourg
Christkindelsmärik · November 27, 2026 – December 24, 2026
Strasbourg opens its eight official Christmas markets on Friday 27 November 2026, spread over 11 squares and free to enter. The Christkindelsmärik dates from 1570, the oldest in France, and has stood on Place Broglie since 1871. The rest range from a cathedral classic to a container market.
Most originalThe gold standard of German Christmas markets, where a 9000-litre Feuerzangenbowle and the Christkind's prologue from the Frauenkirche balcony set a benchmark that rivals Strasbourg's oldest-market prestige.
Best for scaleTen distinct markets across a walkable city, from the grand Rathausplatz to the intimate Spittelberg, make Vienna the most complete Christmas market destination in Europe. The crowds are the price.
Oldest in GermanyGermany's oldest Christmas market, and the one that still sets the standard for how a city can do six distinct markets without any of them feeling like an afterthought.
Budapest has two of Europe's best-rated markets within a ten-minute walk, but the crowds at the Basilica and Vörösmarty on weekends are the price you pay for that quality.
Six themed markets inside a twenty-minute walk of a half-timbered old town under 25 km of garlands. Sleep in town and the 9:30 lanes and the 16:30 lighting hour are yours.
Best for music loversLeipzig gives you about 300 stalls, a medieval craft market and brass music from the Old Town Hall balcony, all in a walkable old town 1 hour 14 minutes from Berlin. Go Monday to Thursday, start on the Naschmarkt around 16:00 and be on the Markt for the 18:00 brass.
Europe’s best Christmas market 2026Strasbourg9.1 out of 10, No. 1 of 194 cities scored, and running since 1570
Best atmosphereRavenna Gorge10 out of 10 for atmosphere
Best stallsDresden9 out of 10 for stalls
Best food and drinkBudapest8 out of 10 for food and drink
Easiest to reachLeipzig9 out of 10 for getting there
Most elbow roomBamberg9 out of 10 for elbow room
Best on Christmas DayColmar8.1 out of 10, main market open on 25 DecemberMarket quiz
Take our quiz! 10 quick questions about your dates, who’s coming and what you’re after. We check your answers against every market we score and show you your best three, with the reasons.
Question 1 of 10
Picking the market is the fun part. These four tools sort out the rest, from the day it opens to what goes in your suitcase.
Opening and closing dates for 230 markets in 33 countries, plus the nights worth planning around, from tree lightings to Krampus runs.
22days until the first big markets openVienna and Budapest, Friday 13 November
Pick any two of the 37 markets we score and see how they stack up on scores, opening dates, December weather and the trip between them.
31 things to bring, and the list sizes itself to how cold your market gets once the sun goes down.
−6°CHow Graz feels after dark in December21°F with the wind, the coldest of our 35 markets
Which week to sail, which lines stay in port after dark, and how far each dock is from the Glühwein.
3 to 20 December is when every river market on these sailings is open. Most German ones close on the 23rd.
The Strasbourg guide, both sides
Tell us where you’re going and we’ll email you that city’s pocket guide. It’s a real street map with every market on it, plus the opening hours, what things cost and how to get from one market to the next. Print it, fold it, and it still works when your phone dies in the cold.
Two A4 pages, made to print on both sides of one sheet. After that, a few emails a season, and you can unsubscribe in one click.
Quick picks