Bergen at Christmas
It rains on the Bergen Christmas market more often than not, and I still love it, especially in the hour around sunset. At lunchtime I only like it well enough.
The Bergen Christmas market itself is small. It’s one square, Festplassen, beside the little lake in the middle of town, and you can walk all of its lanes in under an hour, so next to Salzburg or Vienna it’s not the reason I’d book Bergen.
What makes up for it is about six minutes’ walk away, on Kong Oscars gate. Pepperkakebyen is a whole town made of gingerbread, and it’s the part of a Bergen Christmas I’d never skip.
So I wouldn’t book Bergen for the market alone, but as part of a few days in Bergen it’s a real treat, with the old wharf at Bryggen and the funicular up Fløyen both within ten minutes’ walk of it.
When Is the Bergen Christmas Market 2026?
The Bergen Christmas market on Festplassen runs every day from Friday 20 November to Tuesday 22 December 2026, and it costs nothing to get in.
It opens 12:00 to 21:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 21:00 at weekends.
Of those weekends, the Advent Sundays are the ones I’d aim for. At 13:00 on 29 November and 6, 13 and 20 December there’s a candle lighting and sing-along at the top of Fløyen, free once you’ve ridden up.
On a clear day you can stay up there until it gets dark and then ride down to the market with the lights on.
The market’s last day is the Tuesday after that final Advent Sunday, 22 December, and in past years it shut at 18:00 that evening, so by Christmas Eve the market has gone.
Pepperkakebyen keeps going, though, right up to 10 January. It’s open 09:00 to 13:00 on Christmas Eve, 13:00 to 18:00 on Boxing Day and 11:00 to 15:00 on New Year’s Eve, and it’s shut only on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Sat 14 Nov | Pepperkakebyen opens, and the Festival of Lights by the lake from 16:00, ending in fireworks |
| Fri 20 Nov | Bergen Christmas market opens on Festplassen |
| Sat 28 Nov | Christmas farmers’ market at the Fish Market, also 5, 12 and 19 Dec |
| Sat 28 Nov | Weekend market in the crypt under Nykirken begins, weekends until 20 Dec |
| Sun 29 Nov | Advent candle lighting on Fløyen at 13:00, also 6, 13 and 20 Dec |
| Tue 22 Dec | Last day on Festplassen |
| Thu 24 Dec | Pepperkakebyen open 09:00 to 13:00 |
| Sat 26 Dec | Pepperkakebyen reopens 13:00 to 18:00 |
| Thu 31 Dec | Pepperkakebyen open 11:00 to 15:00 |
| Sun 10 Jan | Last day of Pepperkakebyen |
| From Mon 11 Jan | Closed until next season |
The Christmas Market on Festplassen
This year the market opens out towards the lake, onto the big Christmas tree on Lille Lungegårdsvann with Ulriken rising behind it, and the horse carousel turns down by the water.
There are 94 stalls, bars and rides in all, and NOK 65 a ride gets you up the 22-metre Ferris wheel, with the centre lit up below you at night.
In my opinion, a weekday around sunset is the best time to be there. On 15 December the sun sets at 15:28, and in the grey of the early afternoon the market can feel a bit flat, but then the lake and Ulriken go blue, the lights of the city climb the mountains all round, the wheel lights up and the whole square fills with people.
So try to be on Festplassen by about half past two, have a wander while it’s still quiet, and then stay for the lights.
When the rain gets to you, and in Bergen it will, the heated tents are where you thaw out. My favourite is Peisestuen, the dim fireside pub tent with Chesterfield sofas, which is bigger this year because so many people wanted in last year.
You may well still end up sharing a table with strangers, and on a wet Bergen night that’s the best bit.
If you can, though, keep away from Festplassen on a Saturday night. That’s when the squeeze spills out into the lanes between the glass houses and they get claustrophobic, and with over 800,000 visits last season, weekend evenings are when it peaks.
What to Buy
The corner worth coming back to is Juletorget, where up to six new local makers set up every day, so a second walk through later in the week shows you different tables.
The stalls round it sell wool, honey, cheese and Christmas decorations, all of it proper quality and priced like it. That’s why I’d pick the one thing I really wanted rather than browse with my card out.
Pepperkakebyen, the Gingerbread Town
Pepperkakebyen has houses, churches, ships, oil platforms and little trains running through it, all under dimmed night-time lighting, and since 1991 it’s been built each year by kindergartens, schools, companies and families.
So much of it is made by amateurs that it feels as if the whole city had a hand in it, and that’s what I love about it.
For a town this homemade, though, the NOK 199 adult ticket feels steep. It’s double the NOK 100 it cost in 2018 and 2019, for the half hour to an hour most people spend inside.
Children under 16 go free from Monday to Friday, and the profits go to children’s charities, which makes it easier to pay.
It’s at byROMMET on Kong Oscars gate and opens at 09:00 on weekdays, three hours before the market, so you should do Pepperkakebyen on a weekday morning, when it’s quiet, and save the market for the afternoon.
On a morning when Bergen is pouring, it’s a good place to be indoors anyway. Just try to avoid weekends and the last days before Christmas, when the queues build.
What to Eat and Drink at the Bergen Christmas Market
At the Bergen Christmas market I’d leave the churros, chimney cakes and bratwurst to everyone else, along with the pasta tossed in a cheese wheel and its long line, and go looking for elk and reindeer, because that’s what tastes of Norway.
- The elk burger is the first thing I’d track down, piled with fried mushrooms, onions and cranberry sour cream, which is about as much Norwegian forest as you can fit in a bun.
- A reindeer hot dog comes sharp with mustard and sweet with redcurrant, and it only takes one hand, which leaves the other free for a gløgg.
- Lefse, the soft Norwegian flatbread, turns up as a free sample at some stalls, and with so many stalls handing out tastes, you can graze your way round Festplassen without your bank card noticing.
- Vestlandsgløgg, the alcohol-free local version, is sweeter, and if you’re not drinking it’s the one to order.
- Gløgg was NOK 149 last year, NOK 40 of it for the mug, and the mug is the point, because it goes home with you and a shelf of Bergen gløgg mugs is a very good souvenir. If you’d rather not keep one, ask for your gløgg without it.
With a gløgg at that price, I’d budget for one or two dishes and make them the elk and the reindeer. Cards and phone payments work almost everywhere.
What Else to Do in Bergen in December
Most of the rest of Bergen in December fits round a market afternoon, either in the morning before the stalls open or up a mountain as the day ends.
- Fløyen is six minutes up on the Fløibanen funicular, NOK 145 return, and late afternoon on a clear day is when I’d ride it, because you get to look down over the whole city as it lights up. On a pouring day you’ll only see cloud, so check the webcam before you buy.
- Bryggen, the old Hanseatic wharf built by the same merchant league as Lübeck, is dressed for Christmas and ten minutes from Festplassen, so it’s what I’d do with the morning before the market opens at 12:00. Julehuset there is a year-round Christmas shop that fills two floors in November and December.
- Ulriken643 is the higher cable car, NOK 435 return to 643 metres, and it’s closed on Mondays until 23 December.
- A fjord cruise to Mostraumen leaves the centre at 10:00 and takes about three and a half hours, so you’re back in time for the market in the afternoon.
- Nordnes Sjøbad is where I’d warm up after the rain, with a heated seawater pool, sea dips and a sauna, and City Sauna is a floating alternative.
- The train over the Hardangervidda plateau to Oslo takes 6 hours 45 minutes at the fastest, and if Bergen isn’t the end of your trip, it’s the way I’d leave. Until 12 December that fastest one, the 06:19, runs as a bus.
Weather in Bergen in December and What to Wear
Rain is what Bergen does in December. About 20 of the month’s 31 days were wet from 2015 to 2024, and with days around 6°C and nights around 2°C, it’s like a wet British December, only darker.
A hooded waterproof jacket beats an umbrella, because the wind turns umbrellas inside out. Under it, wear warm layers, and bring a hat, gloves and waterproof shoes with grip for the wet cobbles.
Snow settles on the seven mountains round the city far more often than in the centre, so don’t count on a white Festplassen.
The northern lights are an even longer shot, I’m sorry to say. Bergen sees them only a handful of times a year, in strong storms, which is too rarely for anyone to run tours, so for the aurora you need to go a lot further north, to Tromsø.
Is the Bergen Christmas Market Worth It?
Yes, if you can take rain instead of snow and a small market instead of a big one.
What you get back is Pepperkakebyen in the morning, Fløyen above the city and the market once the lights come on, and that’s a lovely couple of December days. Come on a weekday if you can and stay on Festplassen until the wheel comes on. If it pours, Peisestuen’s fire is only a few steps away.
