I went to the Christmas market in Bruges (Brugge, if you’re reading the Flemish signs) last year, and none of Belgium’s big Christmas markets has a better setting.
The stalls fill the Markt, ringed by stepped-gabled guild houses with the 83-metre Belfry towering over one side, and once the lights come on it looks exactly like the photos, which hardly ever happens.
The stalls themselves were another story. For six years Bruges ran its market out of black containers, and even dressed up in wood with a few trees added, they still looked more like a building site than a Christmas market.
Last year was their last.
For 2026 the city has spent €1.8 million on 95 wooden cabins with pointed roofs, which it calls Brugse Kabans, and on paper they’re exactly what a square like this has been missing.
It’s still a small market, though. The Bruges Christmas market is two squares a few minutes apart, with 88 stalls between them last year, and most of those sell food and drink.
So I’d treat the market as the backdrop and Bruges itself as the trip. That means staying a night or two if you can, coming midweek and keeping your evenings free for when the day-trippers have gone home.
The Colmar Christmas market works the same way, and it’s even more of a squeeze, at 3 out of 10 on our Elbow room score against 4 for Bruges.
Bruges Christmas Market 2026–2027 Dates and Opening Hours
The Bruges Christmas market runs from Friday 20 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, on the Markt and Simon Stevinplein, and entry is free.
It opens at 11:00 every day and closes at 22:00 Sunday to Thursday and 23:30 on Fridays and Saturdays, and on New Year’s Eve it stays open until 03:00.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are the exceptions, and their 2026 hours aren’t out yet.
Last year the market closed at 17:00 on Christmas Eve, and only some stalls opened on Christmas Day.
Christmas week is short on hours and long on crowds, so I’d go for a Monday to Thursday before 21 December. From the 21st Belgian schools are off until the market closes, and weekends are the busiest days all season.
Mondays aren’t a sure thing either. Cruise ships dock at Zeebrugge on some Sundays and Mondays in December, and most of the passengers who leave the ship head into Bruges.
Whatever day you pick, try to be on the Markt around 16:30. The sun sets at about 16:40 in December, so you catch the square in the last of the daylight and then get to watch it light up.
Once it’s dark, keep an eye on the clock if you’re buying presents. The official closing times cover the market as a whole, but last year most stalls shut at 20:00, or 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, so do the shopping before dinner.
And if shopping is the point, the one event to time a trip around is the Handmade in Brugge MAKERSmarkt, 18 to 20 December, when Bruges makers sell their own work indoors in the Stadshallen under the Belfry.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Fri 20 Nov | Both markets, the ice rink and the IJsgloed winter bar open |
| Fri 27 Nov | The Brussels Christmas market opens |
| Thu 3 Dec | The Ghent Christmas market opens |
| Fri 18 Dec | Handmade in Brugge MAKERSmarkt in the Stadshallen, 16:00–20:00 |
| Sat 19–Sun 20 Dec | MAKERSmarkt, 11:00–18:00 |
| Mon 21 Dec | Belgian school Christmas holidays start |
| Thu 24 Dec | Christmas Eve, 2026 hours not out yet (last year 11:00–17:00), rink 10:00–17:30 |
| Fri 25 Dec | Christmas Day, 2026 hours not out yet (last year only some stalls), rink 12:00–22:00 |
| Thu 31 Dec | Market open until 03:00, rink 10:00–17:30 |
| Fri 1 Jan | Market on limited hours last year, rink 12:00–22:00, Belfry and Musea Brugge museums closed |
| Sun 3 Jan | Last day of the markets and the rink |
| From Mon 4 Jan | Closed until next season |
Where Is the Bruges Christmas Market?
The Bruges Christmas market is in two places, the Markt and Simon Stevinplein, a few minutes apart on foot along Steenstraat, the main shopping street.
The ice rink isn’t on either square. It stood in the middle of the Markt for years and moved to the Minnewater park two winters ago, and since last winter the rink has been in Koning Albert I-park, near ‘t Zand at the edge of the old town.
The Markt
The Markt is the square in all the photos, and I’d start there, but from above. Climb the Belfry in the morning, all 366 steps of it, and from the top you get the new cabins, the square and the rooftops of Bruges in one go.
Tickets are €15 on weekdays and €16 at weekends and from 26 to 31 December, and you book a time slot online, because it’s the most visited sight in town. Make sure you’re there on time, as a late arrival means the ticket lapses.
Back on the ground, the Markt is the square for eating and looking rather than shopping, and after dark it gets loud.
In the evening it tends to turn into more of an après-ski bar than a Christmas market, with rounds of jenever shots and pop music (Barbie Girl got a spin last year), which is fun for about one chorus.
When it tips over, walk to the other square.
Simon Stevinplein
Simon Stevinplein is the smaller square, with its trees wrapped in lights and more of the local and handmade stalls, and in 2024 at least it had Christmas music and a horse carousel while the Markt was playing pop.
It’s the nicer of the two, and the square for gifts and for kids.
It still fills up at weekends, because the stalls are packed in tight, so a weekday, or the first hour after the 11:00 opening, is the time to browse.
The Ice Rink
The rink is covered, which matters in a Bruges December, but the cover is a big marquee at the edge of the old town, so you won’t be skating with the Belfry in view.
If you do go, it’s €9 to skate, and the rink only takes cash or the Belgian payment apps Bancontact and Payconiq, so bring euros.
Beat the Crowds and Sleep in Bruges
The best thing you can do for this trip is book a bed in Bruges.
Almost 6.9 million of the city’s nearly 8 million visitors in 2024 were day-trippers, against just under 1.1 million who stayed the night, and in 2023 December was its busiest month, with a million visitors. By the evening, most of those day-trippers have gone.
And the evening is when Bruges is at its best.
The Markt is still lit, the side streets go quiet enough to hear your own footsteps on the cobbles, and you get the canals in the dark almost to yourself, which after a day of tour groups feels like a different city.
Mornings are the other quiet window. Around 9:00 the old town still mostly belongs to the people who slept there, so that’s the time for the Rozenhoedkaai photo without twenty heads in it.
A day trip from London misses both of those windows, so I wouldn’t do Bruges in a day from London.
The Eurostar via Brussels takes from 3 hours 10 minutes each way, so you’d spend more than six hours on trains to see the market at its busiest and be heading home just as it gets good.
Two days in Bruges is about right at Christmas. One covers the Belfry, both markets and the Christmas shops, with dinner once the crowds have thinned, and the second is for Ghent, or for the brewery and a museum if it’s pouring.
What to Wear in Bruges in December
Whichever two days you pick, pack for rain before snow. A December day in Bruges averages 7°C and drops to about 2°C at night, and there’s some rain on 18 or 19 days of the month.
Snow is rare. Our snow odds study found snow on the ground on just 6% of Bruges market days over 21 winters, and on 10% of Christmas Eves, so don’t book Bruges for a white Christmas.
What you want is a waterproof coat with a hood, a hat, gloves and shoes with grip, because the cobbles get slippery in the wet and you’ll be standing outside for hours.
What to Eat and Drink
Eating and drinking is what the Markt does best, so come hungry, and start with a Christmas beer.
- Christmas beer is brewed once a winter, darker, stronger and spicier than the brewery’s regular beers, and a glass of it under the Belfry beats any Glühwein on the square.
- Jenever is the Belgian juniper spirit, sold by the shot in flavours from fruit to chocolate, and it started at €3.50 a shot last year. One goes down very quickly in the cold.
- Stoofvlees is Flemish beef slow-cooked in beer, and it’s the local hot dish I’d look for first, along with shrimp croquettes.
- Tartiflette is the French import, potatoes, bacon and melted Reblochon, and at €10 last year it’s the most comforting thing you can buy on a 2°C night.
- Braadworst comes with fried onions and sauce, and it’s good, but €10 for a sausage stings.
- Frites were €7 last year, with mayonnaise or andalouse sauce on top.
- A warm waffle was €4 in 2024, and it’s best plain, because a good one doesn’t need the cream and the chocolate sauce.
- Glühwein comes red or white, and it was €5 last year plus a €2.50 deposit on the cup, which you get back when you hand it in. Simon Stevinplein had its own mugs last year, if you want one to keep.
- Hot chocolate was €3.50 at the market in 2024, but this is Belgium, so I’d have mine at a chocolatier’s, like The Old Chocolate House on Mariastraat.
The drinks are fairly priced. A €5 Glühwein matches the Strasbourg Christmas market and is only 50 cents more than the Nuremberg Christmas market charged last year.
It’s the food that hurts, and €7 chips are where Bruges starts to feel like a city that knows you’re a tourist.
Whatever you’re buying, carry some euros for the cabins. Belgian law says every business has to take cash and offer at least one electronic way to pay, but at a cabin that electronic option can be Bancontact or Payconiq, which a British card won’t work with.
What to Buy (and Where the Real Christmas Shopping Is)
The best Christmas shopping in Bruges happens indoors, because a lot of the cabins on the Markt sell the same beer gift packs and souvenirs you’ll see in every shop window in town, and most of them aren’t worth stopping for.
That goes for the chocolate on the Markt too. I’d buy it from a proper chocolatier instead, and The Chocolate Line, Dumon and Depla are the three I’d go to.
If your dates line up with the MAKERSmarkt, that’s the indoor market to aim for, the first one the city has held, with Bruges makers selling their own work in the Stadshallen. It’s free, and on that weekend it’s the rainy-day plan as well.
The rest of the season, it’s the Christmas shops, which are open all year. De Witte Pelikaan on Vlamingstraat is two floors of trees hung with glass baubles, and it’s worth the detour off the Markt.
Käthe Wohlfahrt, the German Christmas shop you might know from Rothenburg, has two branches in Bruges, on Walplein and Breidelstraat, and the Walplein one is open 10:00 to 18:00 every day.
Bruges at Christmas Beyond the Market
For the evening, I’d walk. From the Markt it’s a couple of minutes to the Burg for the big Christmas tree, then down to the Rozenhoedkaai, where the canal, the old houses and the Belfry line up for the photo everyone takes.
That walk is the light show this year, because the Winter Glow light trail is gone. Last winter was its seventh and final year, and the city dropped it partly because residents had had enough of the crowds it brought into their streets.
The replacements the city announced in March won’t help a December trip either. The music and light show in St Salvator’s Cathedral has been pushed back to next winter.
The other one, the Winter Giant, is a set of illuminated giant puppets that residents are building in workshops from 17 November, and it only comes out on the Burg on 30 and 31 January.
So this December it’s a few light installations around town and the canals, and I’d take the canals over any light trail.
Seeing those canals from a boat is less of a sure thing. The boats are open, and from December to February they only run when the weather allows, so take a trip as a bonus if one’s going.
If the boats aren’t going, the De Halve Maan brewery tour is how I’d spend the afternoon. It’s the family brewery on Walplein that makes Brugse Zot, and the tour is €16 with a beer, takes about 45 minutes and finishes on the roof, looking out over the whole city.
Bruges or Ghent? (And Where Brussels Fits)
Do both if your dates allow, because they’re very different trips. Bruges is the prettier one and by a distance the more touristy one, while Ghent feels like a city people actually live in.
Ghent’s market is bigger, too, with more than 150 chalets over seven squares, and it runs much later, with the bars open until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
So Bruges is for the look and Ghent is for the night out, and if you hate crowds more than you love a pretty square, go with Ghent, which gets 5 out of 10 on our Elbow room score to Bruges’ 4.
Just remember Ghent doesn’t open until Thursday 3 December, so a late-November trip is Bruges only.
If it’s Bruges or Brussels, Brussels wins on size and Bruges on the setting and the evenings. The Brussels Christmas market had 238 chalets last year and a free light show on the Grand-Place.
It opens on 27 November, and since that’s where the Eurostar gets in, it makes an easy first or last night of the trip.
Both are easy hops from Bruges, Ghent in 22 to 28 minutes with four trains an hour and Brussels in about an hour. Since July 2026 SNCB doesn’t sell tickets on the train, so buy yours before you board, and at weekends adults aged 26 to 64 get 30% off.
If you’re adding Antwerp to make it all four big ones, our guide to the Belgium Christmas markets makes Ghent the base. I’d still give Bruges a night of its own, because the evening is the reason to go.
Bruges Over Christmas and New Year
Bruges keeps going after Christmas, which a lot of the big markets don’t. Strasbourg and Nuremberg close on Christmas Eve, while Bruges runs to 3 January.
If you’re here for Christmas itself, plan around what’s shut. The Belfry and the Musea Brugge museums close at 16:00 on Christmas Eve and stay closed on Christmas Day, while the rink stays open on both days.
Some stalls also pack up after the 24th, so if gifts are the point, come before Christmas.
New Year’s Eve is the big night, when the market stays open later than any other night of the season. The Belfry and the museums shut at 16:00 that day and stay closed on 1 January.
Is the Bruges Christmas Market Worth It?
Yes, and this is the best year in a while to go, because the black containers are finally off what’s, for me, the prettiest Christmas square in Belgium.
It’s worth it if you come for Bruges as much as for the market, and give it at least one night.
It’s not the one for a long market crawl, because two squares and 88 stalls won’t keep you busy the way the Cologne Christmas market will, and it’s not worth a Saturday day trip from London.
Give it a weeknight, though, and Bruges after dark is as good as Christmas gets in Belgium.
