Leeds at Christmas
The Leeds Christmas market starts the second you walk out of the station, and this year it’s had a complete reboot.
A new operator, the team behind THOR’S tipi, has taken over City Square and is making it a properly Yorkshire market, with over 60 Yorkshire traders, two new bars, log-fire tipis and somewhere between 150 and 200 Christmas trees round the statues.
Up the hill on Millennium Square, Ice Cube puts a rink under a marquee with its own food stalls and a funfair, and between the two, Leeds has more to do at Christmas than its reputation suggests.
Leeds isn’t a market I’d cross the country for, and York and Manchester both beat it on size and setting. What it does well is food, Leeds’ own independent kitchens rather than another row of bratwurst, and that’s what I’d come for.
When Is the Leeds Christmas Market 2026?
The Leeds Christmas market on City Square runs every day from Thursday 19 November to Wednesday 23 December 2026, and Ice Cube on Millennium Square carries on to Thursday 31 December. Entry to both is free.
On City Square, the traders and street food open 10:30 to 19:00 from Sunday to Wednesday and 10:30 to 20:00 from Thursday to Saturday. The two bars stay open later, 11:00 to 21:00 from Sunday to Tuesday and 11:00 to 23:00 from Wednesday to Saturday.
Ice Cube’s stalls and funfair open 12:00 to 21:30 Monday to Thursday, 12:00 to 22:00 on Fridays, 11:00 to 22:00 on Saturdays and 11:00 to 19:00 on Sundays.
City Square has gone by Christmas Eve, but Ice Cube is open on 24 December, with public skating running until 19:00. Both sites are shut on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and Ice Cube is back from the 27th until New Year’s Eve.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Thu 19 Nov | Leeds Christmas Market opens on City Square, and Ice Cube at Christmas opens on Millennium Square |
| Sat 21 Nov | Penguin Club skating for under-9s begins at Ice Cube, weekend mornings at 10:15 |
| Wed 23 Dec | Last day on City Square |
| Thu 24 Dec | Ice Cube open, with public skating until 19:00 |
| Fri 25 to Sat 26 Dec | Everything closed |
| Sun 27 to Thu 31 Dec | Ice Cube open, with daily 10:15 skating sessions |
| Thu 31 Dec | Last day at Ice Cube |
| From Fri 1 Jan | Closed until next season |
When to Go
Friday and Saturday evenings from about 18:00 to 20:00 are the crush, especially round the rides at Ice Cube, so a weekday afternoon is the time to go if you want to look at the stalls.
For an evening in the bars, Wednesday and Thursday give you the late opening without the full weekend crowd.
The Leeds Christmas Market on City Square
City Square is the forecourt right outside Leeds station, edged by traffic, so it was never going to feel like an old-town square.
The new look works hard to change that, with Yorkshire Rose snowflake arches, tinsel on the statues and all those trees, plus the log fires in the tipis.
The idea this year is Yorkshire first. The traders come from round the county, and Real Markets Yorkshire runs cabins that rotate through the season, so a visit in late November and another in mid-December should give you different makers.
Leeds used to be the same crêpe and sweet stalls on repeat, spread thinly across three sites, which got old fast.
This year every chalet is on City Square, so I’d give the new line-up a proper look rather than assume it’s the same as before.
If you remember the German Christkindelmarkt, that’s gone for good. It ran with Frankfurt from 2002 to 2019 and was dropped in 2022, so nothing German-run is coming back.
The two new bars are THOR’S Highland Lodge and the Folie Alpine Ski Bar, and they’re where the evening happens, open until 23:00 from Wednesday to Saturday.
They only take cards, so leave the cash at home, and you can’t book a table, so it’s first come, first served.
There’s free live music every Sunday, Santa visits, craft workshops and an Elf Hunt trail for the kids, and you could easily spend two to five hours here. Toilets are outside the Highland Lodge and the Folie bar.
Ice Cube on Millennium Square
Ice Cube is about a 10-minute walk uphill along The Headrow, and it’s the council’s own Christmas site, a covered rink with more than 15 food stalls, Bavarian-style huts and a funfair spread over Millennium Square, Victoria Gardens and Cookridge Street. THOR’S Tipi Bar in Victoria Gardens, a canvas tent with fire pits and mulled cider, is the cosiest corner of the site.
Skating is £13 with skate hire. Public sessions start from 12:15 on weekdays, because schools use the ice in the mornings, and from 10:15 at weekends and from 21 December.
With kids under nine, the weekend Penguin Club at 10:15 is the gentle way in, £18 for a parent and child.
The rides draw queues on Friday and Saturday evenings, so with children I’d come in the afternoon and do the skating first.
There’s a carousel, a Wheel of Light, Rescue Rudolph and a North Pole Funhouse, plus Yorkshire pudding wraps, poutine and toasted marshmallows in the food huts.
On Thursdays there’s an accessible skating session, at 10:15 in term time and 09:15 in the holidays, and there’s a Changing Places toilet beside the Civic Hall. Book the skating ahead and wear shoes with grip, because the square gets slippery.
What to Eat and Drink at the Leeds Christmas Market
The food is the best thing about a Leeds Christmas, because the new operator has brought in the city’s own independents, and I’d come hungry.
- Little Bao Boy’s spice bags, in the Highland Lodge, are what I’d go looking for first.
- La Grassa, Stuzzi and Farsley Fire & Smoke are all Leeds names too, so whichever queue is shortest, you’re eating from the city’s own kitchens rather than a touring bratwurst van.
- House of Trembling Madness and Storymaker Mead cover the drinks with a bit more character than a paper cup of mulled wine.
- Mulled wine or cider was £5 a regular and £7 a large last year, under the old operator.
The prices are steep, though. Last year a Yorkshire pudding wrap was £11 to £14, a tiramisu £7.50 and a box of loaded hash browns £15, so I’d pick one proper dish rather than grazing.
Things to Do in Leeds at Christmas
The best thing to add to a Leeds trip is the light trail at Temple Newsam, and there’s plenty in town for the hours before the bars get going.
- Northern Lights at Temple Newsam is a mile-long light trail with a Christmas village and fairground, from 20 November to 31 December.
- Harewood House has its Magic at the Mansion from 6 November to 3 January, and a Christmas market with over 75 makers on 27 to 29 November.
- The Royal Armouries is free, 10:00 to 17:00, and a good place to spend a wet afternoon.
- Kirkgate Market is Leeds’ huge indoor market, with a Market Kitchen food hall for lunch, closed on bank holidays.
- Whitelock’s Ale House, down an alley off Briggate since 1715, is where I’d go for a pint after the market.
And if you’ve been searching for Leeds Castle, that’s in Kent, nowhere near Leeds.
Weather in Leeds in December
Bring a proper waterproof. Leeds in December is cold and wet, around 7°C by day and 2°C at night, with plenty of rain and grey skies. Snow is unlikely, with our snow odds study giving a weekend visit about a 6% chance.
Bring a waterproof and a warm coat, and grippy shoes if you’re skating.
Getting to Leeds, and Parking
From London, King’s Cross to Leeds takes about 2 hours 10 minutes, roughly twice an hour, and since the market is on the station’s doorstep, you can be holding a mulled wine within five minutes of getting off.
There’s no LNER between London and Leeds on 24 or 26 December and no trains at all on Christmas Day, so plan your travel round those days.
The train is by far the easiest way in, because City Square is right outside the station.
If you drive, the Woodhouse Lane multi-storey is about five minutes from Ice Cube, open 24 hours, at £2.70 for two hours or £4.90 for three, with Blue Badge bays on levels 1 and 7.
Leeds, York and Manchester in One Trip
Leeds is easiest as part of a northern Christmas market trip. York is only 21 to 24 minutes away by direct train, several times an hour, and Manchester is about an hour in the other direction, so you could base yourself in Leeds and do all three.
Closer in, Saltaire is 14 minutes away, Harrogate 28 minutes, and Keighley 19 minutes, where the Keighley and Worth Valley steam railway runs Christmas trains to Haworth from 28 November.
Is the Leeds Christmas Market Worth It?
As a destination on its own, not really, and I’d still rank York and Manchester well ahead.
But as an evening of good food on your way through, it’s well worth it, and this year’s Yorkshire-first reboot makes it the most interesting it’s been in a while.
Come on a weekday, eat at the independents’ stalls and pair it with York the same day.
