Copenhagen at Christmas
Tivoli is the reason I’d go to Copenhagen at Christmas. The old pleasure garden next to the station strings thousands of lights through its trees and round its lake, the Nimb palace glows at the far end, and the whole thing melts me a little.
The Copenhagen Christmas markets out on the squares are a let-down after that, I’m afraid. The wooden huts along Strøget look pretty, and a gløgg on Nytorv under the lights is a good half hour, but most of the stalls sell the same churros, Glühwein and imported trinkets you’d find in any German city.
So spend your money on one evening in Tivoli, enjoy the free squares for the lights and a drink, and buy your presents at Christiania, where the makers sell their own work.
When Is the Copenhagen Christmas Market 2026?
Copenhagen’s Christmas markets run from Friday 6 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, though that long season is really several markets, each keeping its own dates, and all of them except Tivoli are free to walk into.
Christmas in Tivoli runs every day from 13 November to 3 January, apart from Christmas Eve, and it opens at 11:00.
The free street markets keep shorter seasons. Nytorv and Gammeltorv opened on 6 November and run until 21 December, the new market on Højbro Plads runs from 14 November to 20 December, and Kongens Nytorv’s winter market runs from 13 November to 29 December, with its rink lasting until the 30th.
That means the street markets are mostly gone after 21 December, which catches out a lot of people who come for the week before Christmas. If that’s your week, Tivoli, Kongens Nytorv and possibly Nyhavn, if it keeps last year’s dates, are what’s left.
Danes celebrate on the 24th, so Christmas Eve is a quiet, closed sort of day. Tivoli is closed on the 24th, Kongens Nytorv shuts on the 24th and 25th, and most shops close by mid-afternoon.
Tivoli reopens on Christmas Day with fireworks on the 25th and 26th, and it’s busy then, because half of Copenhagen has eaten too much and needs somewhere to walk it off.
If you can pick your dates, come well before all that, for the weekend of 11 to 13 December, when Christiania’s hall is open, the City Hall Square market should have started, Nytorv and Højbro Plads are still trading and Tivoli has its Lucia procession on the Sunday.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Fri 6 Nov | Nytorv and Gammeltorv market opens |
| Fri 13 Nov | Christmas in Tivoli opens at 11:00, and the tree is lit at 16:30 |
| Fri 13 Nov | Kongens Nytorv rink and winter market open |
| Sat 14 Nov | Jul På Højbro Plads opens |
| Sat 21 Nov | Tivoli Youth Guard Christmas parades begin, until 19 December |
| Thu 26 Nov | The Nutcracker opens in Tivoli’s Concert Hall, until 20 December |
| Tue 8 Dec | Christiania’s Christmas market is expected to open, until 20 December |
| Fri 11 Dec | The City Hall Square market is expected to open, for about ten days |
| Sun 13 Dec | Lucia procession in Tivoli at 17:30 |
| Sun 20 Dec | Last day on Højbro Plads |
| Mon 21 Dec | Last day on Nytorv and Gammeltorv |
| Thu 24 Dec | Tivoli closed |
| Fri 25 to Sat 26 Dec | Tivoli reopens with Christmas fireworks |
| Tue 29 Dec | Last day for the Kongens Nytorv winter market |
| Wed 30 Dec | Last day for the Kongens Nytorv rink |
| Thu 31 Dec | New Year’s Eve fireworks in Tivoli at 23:00 |
| Sun 3 Jan | Last day of Christmas in Tivoli |
| From Mon 4 Jan | Closed until next season |
Christmas in Tivoli
Tivoli opened in 1843, and at Christmas it throws everything it has at the dark, with lit-up stalls between the old trees, rides, Santa’s house, a pagoda and light installations reflected in the lake.
The stalls are much like the ones in town, so it’s the lights you’re really here for, and they’re worth every krone of the ticket.
How Much Is Tivoli at Christmas?
It isn’t cheap. Entry starts at 210 DKK for adults, and the price moves with the date and time you pick, so weekends usually cost more than weekdays. Children aged 3 to 7 pay roughly half, under-3s go free, and that’s all just to walk in.
Rides cost extra, and single rides are steep enough that a ride pass pays for itself after about three, which you can decide on once you’re inside. Tickets don’t sell out, so I’d buy a day ahead once you’ve seen the weather forecast.
If you’ll go twice, look at the Tivoli Pass, from 479 DKK for a year, because you can upgrade a day ticket to one on the same day and have what you paid knocked off.
The Copenhagen Card Discover covers entry too, though not the rides, and it only pays off if you’re also doing two or three museums.
When to Go
In mid-December the sun sets at about 15:36, so even an afternoon ticket gets you Tivoli in the dark. Try to go on a weekday, through the gates by about 15:30, and stay as long as you like.
Monday to Thursday is the time to go, because Friday and Saturday evenings are the busiest, and so are the 25th and 26th. Even then it’s busy rather than Disneyland, so a Saturday is still worth it if that’s the only evening you’ve got.
The Sunday I’d make an exception for is Lucia on 13 December, when the procession comes through in front of the Nimb at 17:30, white dresses and candles against all those lights, and it’s included in your ticket.
Eating in Tivoli
Food inside is pricey and the sit-down restaurants are hit and miss for what they charge, so either eat before you go or head for the Tivoli Food Hall, which is better value.
Eating there early, around 16:30, beats the crowd and fits neatly after the lights come on. A same-day hand stamp at the Food Hall exit also lets you pop out for dinner in town and come back, though not during the big events.
The Free Christmas Markets in Copenhagen
Outside Tivoli, the markets line up along one easy walk through the old centre, from City Hall Square down Strøget to Nytorv, Højbro Plads, Kongens Nytorv and finally Nyhavn, about 25 minutes end to end if you don’t stop. You will stop, though, if only for a gløgg.
The gløgg and the lights are what these squares do well. The markets on them are fairly young, the old Højbro Plads one only started in 2011, and Danish Christmas lives in homes and cosy bars more than on squares, so most of the stalls are the imported kind and I wouldn’t plan your present shopping round them.
Nytorv and Gammeltorv
The organiser calls it Denmark’s biggest Christmas market, and it fills the two squares by the old courthouse with wooden huts selling glass, knitwear, ceramics and Danish beer around a big round grill.
The best thing here is the rink, because in a city where Tivoli charges 210 DKK just to get in, skating on Nytorv is free, skates included, which makes it the cheapest ice in central Copenhagen. The market stays open until 22:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Højbro Plads
Højbro Plads is the square I’m most curious about this year, because its new market brings in makers from Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, which is exactly what the other squares are missing, and there are talking trees that tell children a Christmas story.
Don’t go looking for the market that used to be here, because that one has moved to City Hall Square for about ten days in mid-December.
Kongens Nytorv
Copenhagen’s grandest square has a 1,200-square-metre ice rink round its middle and a winter market built around food, and it’s better food than on Strøget, with local restaurants running some of the stands. The stalls only open at 14:00 from Monday to Thursday.
Last year there was no covered or heated seating and it felt a bit bare, so treat it as a skate and a snack rather than an evening.
Nyhavn
The stalls along the canal under the painted gabled houses are the Copenhagen photo everyone takes home, and you should take it too, ideally from the far quay.
But don’t eat or drink at Nyhavn, because a gløgg there costs far more than anywhere else in the centre, and the food is both dearer and worse. Its 2026 dates aren’t out yet, and last year it ran from 31 October to 28 December.
Christiania (Where I’d Buy Presents)
Christiania’s is the market I’d cross town for. It has filled the old Grey Hall since 1974, about 100 makers selling their own crafts, with live music and none of the imported stock from Strøget.
It runs from about 8 to 20 December, 12:00 to 20:00, and because it’s all indoors, it’s the best place in town on a wet afternoon.
It gets crowded, so go early in the afternoon and leave the pram outside, because there’s no room for one in the hall.
Cards and MobilePay work almost everywhere in Copenhagen, but check how the stalls here take payment, because at least one event in this hall has been MobilePay only, which needs a Danish phone number.
What to Eat and Drink at the Copenhagen Christmas Markets
Gløgg is the Danish mulled wine, sweeter than Glühwein and with raisins and almonds in the cup, and it goes best with a plate of æbleskiver, round little pancake balls dusted with icing sugar that you dip in jam.
On the squares, last year’s prices ran like this.
- Æbleskiver come in sixes for about 55 to 65 DKK, and last year the ones baked at the stands on Kongens Nytorv were the ones I’d queue for.
- Flæskesteg sandwich is crispy roast pork with red cabbage and pickles in a bun, the taste of a Danish Christmas dinner in your hand.
- Smørrebrød is the open sandwich lunch to book a table for, at places like Schønnemann or Det Lille Apotek.
- Gløgg costs about 55 to 70 DKK a cup on the squares and up to 100 DKK at Nyhavn, so drink it anywhere but the canal.
For a proper gløgg, though, skip the stalls altogether and go to Hviids Vinstue by Kongens Nytorv, a wine bar dating from 1723 where the gløgg is strong enough that one glass is plenty.
What’s the Weather Like in Copenhagen in December?
Copenhagen in December is wet, windy and dark far more often than it’s white. It averages about 6°C by day and 2°C at night, but the wind off the harbour makes it feel closer to −2°C.
Snow lay on the ground on only 9% of market days in our snow odds study, so I wouldn’t count on snow in Tivoli.
So pack a windproof, waterproof coat, a hat, gloves and boots that cope with wet cobbles, and dress the way you would for a December weekend in Edinburgh.
Day Trips from Copenhagen at Christmas
Copenhagen’s best Christmas outings are all on the train, from a castle up the coast to a second country over the bridge.
- Kronborg, Hamlet’s castle in Helsingør, is about 45 minutes up the coast by train and holds its Christmas at the castle on set days between 30 November and 19 December. If you can make the 13th or 14th, I’d book a Christmas concert inside those walls.
- Louisiana, the modern art museum at Humlebæk, sits on the same line about 40 minutes out, with sea views over the Øresund and late opening until 22:00 from Tuesday to Friday, so it fits on the way back from Kronborg.
- Malmö, in Sweden, is under 40 minutes over the bridge, and its square market runs Thursday to Sunday on the Advent weekends, so you can have lunch in Sweden and be back in Copenhagen for the evening.
- Aarhus is under three hours by direct train, and Den Gamle By there, an open-air museum dressed for 400 years of Danish Christmas, is the most Danish Christmas you’ll find. It deserves a night of its own.
Coming up from Germany by train, Copenhagen makes a great last stop. Hamburg is about 4 hours 45 minutes away by direct train and Lübeck is a short hop from Hamburg, so you can do three cities and three very different Christmases in one week.
Is the Copenhagen Christmas Market Worth It?
Yes, for Tivoli. One evening in Tivoli after dark is what I’d come for, ticket price and all, even if I never bought a thing on the squares. It suits anyone who’d trade a day of browsing stalls for one big, beautiful evening.
The time to come is between 8 and 20 December, while Christiania’s hall is open and the street markets are still trading, so you can buy your presents from the makers in the Grey Hall in the afternoon and still be in Tivoli by dark.
