Is the London Christmas Market Worth It?
London at Christmas makes me ridiculously happy, and the markets are a big part of why, even though the city doesn’t really have a Christmas market the way Cologne or Strasbourg does.
What it has is better, if you’re up for a bit of walking. There are chalets under the London Eye, a bar with a heated rooftop looking straight at Tower Bridge, a piazza where it snows on the hour, Norway’s tree in Trafalgar Square and, out west, a full-blown funfair in Hyde Park.
Stitch a few of them together along the river and you’ve got the best Christmas evening walk in Britain, and you won’t pay a penny to get into most of it.
It isn’t cheap once you start eating and drinking, and the famous one is the one I’d be most careful with. But pick the right markets for the right time of day and London is a brilliant few days in December.
When Are the London Christmas Markets 2026?
The London Christmas markets run from Saturday 31 October 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027, and every one of them is free to walk into apart from Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, which sells timed tickets.
They don’t all open at once, so the season sort of switches itself on through November. Leicester Square’s rink goes first, Southbank follows on 2 November, the London Bridge Christmas market opens on 10 November, Hyde Park on 19 November, and the new King’s Cross Winter Market in Granary Square joins last, on 26 November. The full list is in the table below.
Most of the markets keep roughly 11:00 to 22:00 every day. Southbank’s craft chalets close at 21:00 while its food stalls and bars keep going, and Hyde Park shuts at 22:00 with last entry at 21:30. Hyde Park also opens late on a lot of November and December weekdays (11:00, 12:00, even 14:00 on 1 December), so check the opening time before you book a morning slot.
Christmas week is where you need to pay attention. On Christmas Eve the London Bridge market closes at 17:00 and Borough Market runs 08:00 to 15:00, while Southbank and Hyde Park carry on as normal. Everything is closed on Christmas Day, and there’s no Eurostar either. On New Year’s Eve Southbank is shut and the London Bridge market stays open until 21:00.
Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden’s stalls and King’s Cross haven’t put their exact hours out yet, so treat those as expected rather than fixed.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Sat 31 Oct | Skate Leicester Square opens |
| Sun 1 Nov | Leicester Square lights switch on |
| Mon 2 Nov | Southbank Centre Winter Market opens |
| Fri 6 Nov | Trafalgar Square stalls expected to open |
| Tue 10 Nov | Winter by the River opens at London Bridge City |
| Wed 11 Nov | Skate at Somerset House opens |
| Thu 12 Nov | Covent Garden lights switch on |
| Wed 18 Nov | Greenwich Market lantern parade and lights |
| Thu 19 Nov | Hyde Park Winter Wonderland opens |
| Thu 26 Nov | King’s Cross Winter Market opens in Granary Square |
| Sat 28 to Sun 29 Nov | No GWR trains at Paddington, no trains Peterborough to King’s Cross |
| Mon 30 Nov | Borough Market’s Christmas season starts |
| Thu 3 Dec | Trafalgar Square tree lighting expected |
| Fri 4 Dec | Covent Garden snowfall starts, every hour 12:00 to 21:00 until 31 Dec |
| Thu 24 Dec | London Bridge closes at 17:00, Borough Market 08:00 to 15:00 |
| Fri 25 Dec | All markets closed, no Eurostar |
| Thu 31 Dec | Southbank closed, London Bridge open until 21:00 |
| Sun 3 Jan | Last day for Hyde Park, London Bridge and King’s Cross |
| Mon 4 Jan | Last day for Southbank |
| From Tue 5 Jan | Closed until next season |
The Best Christmas Markets in London
Out of everything London puts on, there are two I’d plan a whole evening around, and both of them sit on the Thames.
Southbank Centre Winter Market (My Favourite)
This is where I’d start, every time. The chalets line the Queen’s Walk under Hungerford Bridge, so you’re queuing for churros with the London Eye glowing over your head and Big Ben lit up across the water, and I still get a little giddy about that.
It’s really a food and drink market. The Dutch pancakes, hot cider and big bowls of winter street food far outnumber the gift stalls, and the jewellery and decorations are fine but nothing you’ll remember on the train home. Come hungry, not with a shopping list.
Get there on a weekday around 15:00, have a look round the craft chalets before they close at 21:00, and you’ll still be by the river when the lights come on, which in December is barely an hour later.
Winter by the River (the London Bridge Christmas Market)
From Southbank it’s a 40-minute walk east along the river, or a quick hop on the Uber Boat, and it’s worth every step, because this is the setting that gets me. The stalls sit at London Bridge City with Tower Bridge and the Tower of London right across the water.
The stalls themselves are crafts, gifts and treats, with a nice chunk of them from social enterprises. But the reason to come is The Clubhouse, a two-storey bar with a heated rooftop canopy and a balcony over the river. Get a drink upstairs after dark and watch Tower Bridge lit up. That’s my favourite hour of a London Christmas.
There’s curling too, six lanes on the pier at £15 an adult and £10 a child for 50 minutes. It’s daft and competitive and great fun with a group, so book a lane in advance.
Covent Garden
Covent Garden isn’t a chalet market at all. It’s the whole neighbourhood decorated to the eyeballs, with more than 300,000 lights, giant gold bells and baubles hanging in the Market Building and a 50ft Norwegian spruce on the West Piazza.
And from 4 to 31 December it snows. Every hour, on the hour, from 12:00 to 21:00, fake snow drifts down over the Piazza, and I don’t care how silly that sounds, it’s pure joy every single time.
Time your visit for the top of the hour, then wander the Apple Market for gingerbread, preserves and handmade gifts.
Thursdays are Festive Thursdays with late shopping all through November and December, and Miracle on Russell Street, the Christmas pop-up bar, is back from 9 November for its tenth year.
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is about nine minutes’ walk from Covent Garden, and it’s the one with the history. Norway has sent London its Christmas tree every year since 1947, and the stalls gather round it in front of the National Gallery, with carol singers under the branches.
Londoners love to mock the tree for looking a bit sparse, and they’re not wrong. The market is small too, about twenty stalls. Treat it as a stop on the way between Covent Garden and the river rather than a destination, and come after the tree lighting, which is expected on 3 December.
Leicester Square
Another five minutes from Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square has a rink round the Shakespeare statue and a handful of gift and snack stalls beside it. Come for a skate, not the shopping. The lights go up on 1 November and stay until 6 January.
King’s Cross Winter Market
The new one for 2026, and a lovely surprise if you’re coming in by Eurostar, since it’s right next to St Pancras. It opens on 26 November in Granary Square with independent food, drink and makers, and it’s free.
King’s Cross actually runs seven free Christmas markets over the season, from a Mexican Christmas market (27 to 29 November) to a Japanese-style Shotengai market (3 to 6 and 17 to 20 December). There’s also a roller rink, and a Christmas tree decorated by Aardman, so expect Wallace and Gromit. If you’ve got an hour before your train, this is where I’d spend it.
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland (Go in With Your Eyes Open)
This is the one everybody’s heard of, and it’s the one I’d be most careful about. It’s a huge funfair with a Christmas market tucked in among the rides, more than 150 rides, shows and attractions, a Giant Wheel with a new light show, roller coasters, a circus, an ice kingdom, a Bavarian village and a big ice rink.
Families and groups who come for the rides have a brilliant time. Come for a Christmas market, though, and you’ll probably feel let down, because it feels much more like a carnival than Christmas, the food stalls start to look the same very quickly, and on a weekend evening you can barely move. After Christmas it gets properly packed.
Then there’s the money. Entry is a timed ticket on top of everything else, £5.50 standard and £8.25 peak (most evenings and weekends). A glass of mulled wine was £7.40 last year, which is Zurich prices, and the rink runs from £12.65 an adult in advance up to £21.25 on the day.
So go off-peak on a November Monday to Thursday, when the green slots cost £1 (the site also says off-peak is free, so you may pay nothing at all). Book everything online first, because on-the-day prices are higher and the good slots sell out, and use the gate closest to the first thing you want to do. The south gate by Hyde Park Corner is best for the rink and the circus.
What to Eat and Drink
Southbank and the London Bridge market are where I’d eat, and Borough Market is where I’d shop for food.
- Dutch pancakes are the Southbank classic, small, buttery and gone in seconds.
- Churros turn up at nearly every market, and they’re best eaten walking along the river.
- Hot cider is my pick over mulled wine on the South Bank. It suits the cold off the Thames.
- Mulled wine is everywhere. Budget around £7 a glass in the big sites (it was £7.40 at Hyde Park last year).
- Bratwurst is the thing I’d actually spend money on at Hyde Park.
- Roasted chestnuts are for the walk between markets.
Borough Market’s Christmas season runs from 30 November to 31 December, and it’s the opposite of the funfair food. Think turkeys, Christmas puddings set on fire, hampers and proper British cheese. It closes 25 to 27 December, and on Christmas Eve it runs 08:00 to 15:00.
The Best Way to Do the London Christmas Markets
Because the markets are spread out, the trick is matching each one to a time of day, and the evening I’d plan goes like this.
Start at Southbank in the middle of the afternoon while the chalets are open and the crowds are thinner. As it gets dark, walk up to Covent Garden (12 minutes) and catch the snowfall on the hour. Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square are each a few minutes from there if you want them.
Then take the Tube or the Uber Boat over to London Bridge for a drink on The Clubhouse rooftop with Tower Bridge lit up in front of you.
Save Hyde Park for a separate night, and only if you want the rides. Weekdays are calmer everywhere, and weekends in December are busy in all the central markets, since day-trippers pour in and Leicester Square has the cinema and theatre crowds on top.
The Uber Boat stops at Embankment, London Bridge City and Greenwich and takes Oyster and contactless, so it doubles as a sightseeing cruise between markets.
What’s the Weather Like in London in December?
Mild and damp, mostly. December in London averages about 9°C by day and 4°C at night, but it feels closer to freezing after dark, and it rains on around four days in ten. The sun sets around 15:50 in mid-December, so the lights are on long before dinner.
Don’t count on snow. Our snow odds study puts it at 2% of market days and a 3% chance of a snowy weekend, so the snow you’ll see is the Covent Garden kind. Bring a waterproof layer rather than heavy winter gear.
Beyond the Markets
The lights are half the fun. Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Carnaby and Regent Street all go up in November, and the Trafalgar tree is lit in early December. Skate at Somerset House runs from 11 November to 10 January if you want a rink with a grander backdrop than Leicester Square, and the West End has its Christmas shows on, including The Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at Wyndham’s from 18 December.
Greenwich Market is a nice half day out by boat, with its lantern parade and lights switch-on on 18 November, and Old Spitalfields has a Wednesday makers’ market through the season.
Day Trips From London
London is the one UK city where proper European Christmas markets are a day trip away.
- Lille is 1h22 on the Eurostar from St Pancras, which makes the Lille Christmas market an easy day out.
- Brussels is just under two hours, and the Brussels Christmas market is a genuinely different experience from anything in London.
- Bath is 1h20 from Paddington, with its market running 26 November to 13 December, but not on 28 and 29 November, when there are no trains from Paddington.
The last Eurostar back from Brussels leaves at 20:56 on weekdays, and on 24 and 31 December it’s 17:56, so plan around that. There are no Eurostars at all on Christmas Day.
So, Is the London Christmas Market Worth It?
Yes, as long as you treat it as London at Christmas with the markets as your evening plan rather than one big market to tick off. Prices are high and Hyde Park can be a slog, but Southbank under the Eye, a drink facing Tower Bridge and snow falling on Covent Garden on the hour is a night I’d happily repeat every December.
Do the river on a weekday, save Hyde Park for an off-peak November night, and avoid travelling on 28 and 29 November. If you want one big traditional market square on top, Edinburgh’s Christmas market is four hours up the line from King’s Cross.
