Why Belgium Works for a Christmas Market Trip
The best thing about the Belgian Christmas markets is how close together they are. Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges are all within about an hour of Brussels by train, so you can sleep in one city and see three or four markets without packing a bag.
And you've got plenty of time to do it, because all four of the big ones stay open until Sunday 3 January 2027, and Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp trade on Christmas Day itself.
Which is rarer than you'd think. The Freiburg Christmas market packs up on 23 December, for example, and in Switzerland the main markets are all shut by the evening of Christmas Eve.
When Do the Belgian Christmas Markets Open in 2026?
Entry is free at all the big Belgian markets, but they don't open together. The season starts with Hasselt on Friday 13 November 2026, and the big four don't all open until Friday 4 December, which catches a lot of people out.
- Bruges opens on Friday 20 November 2026 and runs to Sunday 3 January 2027.
- Brussels runs from Friday 27 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, its 25th Winter Wonders.
- Liège opens on Friday 27 November and closes on Wednesday 30 December, with its rink staying until 2 January.
- Ghent runs from Thursday 3 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.
- Leuven runs from Thursday 3 to Sunday 20 December only.
- Antwerp runs from Friday 4 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.
So a trip in the last week of November gets you only two of the big four, Bruges and Brussels, plus Liège from the 27th. If you want all four open at once, aim for a weekday from 4 December onwards, and if you want Leuven as well, that window closes on 20 December.
Don't plan the dates around snow, though. In our snow odds study, Brussels had snow on the ground on just 4% of its market days, and Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp only 6 to 7%.
Are the Belgian Christmas Markets Open on Christmas Day?
Yes, mostly, which makes Belgium the place to go if your trip runs over Christmas itself. Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp are open on 25 December 2026, Ghent from 12:00 until midnight and Antwerp from 12:00 to 22:00, and Liège opens at 13:00.
Mons is closed that day, and Bruges hasn't published its Christmas hours yet (last year it ran 11:00 to 17:00 on the 24th, and only some stalls opened on the 25th).
Christmas Eve is the short day, though. Brussels and Antwerp close at 18:00 and Ghent at 17:00, and the Grand-Place in Brussels has no light show on the 24th, the 31st or 3 January. New Year's Eve runs short in those three cities too, but Bruges stays open until 03:00 on 31 December.
The Big Four, and Which One to Pick
I'd start in Brussels, because it's the biggest of the four and the Eurostar drops you right there, and then give each of the other three a day, because each one does something better than Brussels.
Brussels (Start Here)
Brussels runs the biggest market in the country, with 238 chalets in 2025 strung through the lower town from the Bourse to the old fish market quays. The Grand-Place itself has no stalls, just the tree and a free sound-and-light show every evening, and in my opinion that show is the high point of the whole market, enough to keep you in Brussels after dark before the train to Ghent.
Now, it gets very busy. The busiest Saturday of 2025 drew nearly 200,000 people, so try to go Monday to Thursday, and keep your phone in a zipped pocket when the crowd thickens round the show.
Once the show's done, follow the chalets down to Sainte-Catherine to eat, because that's where the seafood is. On the way there's tartiflette, raclette and caricoles (sea snails, and a proper Brussels thing), and this year the Basque Country and Béarn have their own guest village on the Place de la Bourse. Just north of the Bourse, the rink on Place De Brouckère was €12 last year, with curling if you'd rather not risk the skates.
Bruges (Prettiest, Busiest)
This year Bruges has swapped its old black container stalls for wooden cabins, which suits what's already the prettiest setting of the four, one market on the Markt under the Belfry and a cosier one on Simon Stevinplein a few minutes away.
The trouble is that everyone else wants that view, and December weekends are the busiest time of the year in Bruges. So go on a weekday, and start by climbing the Belfry's 366 steps, because from the top you get the whole market laid out underneath you. It's €15 on a weekday if you book online first.
The gift shopping fits in straight after, because last year most stalls shut at 20:00 (21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays). Once they do, there's still the covered rink in the Koning Albert I-park, and it's €9.
Ghent (The Late One)
Ghent is the one I'd send you to if Bruges sounds like too much. It's less touristy than Bruges, and it runs much later, with the bars open until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays and the market going from 12:00 to midnight on Christmas Day.
There's plenty to fill those hours, with more than 150 chalets over seven squares from Sint-Baafsplein to the Korenmarkt, a €9 Ferris wheel and a real-ice rink under the Stadshal. I'd pay the extra euro for the homemade mulled wine, €6 last December against €5 at the bars.
Antwerp (Skating, and the New Eurostar)
Antwerp is the newest way in from London, because from Monday 14 December there's a direct Eurostar in 2 hours 41 minutes, four trains a day. It's one way only, though, so the trip home still goes back through Brussels.
From Antwerpen-Centraal, the market starts at the Operaplein, five minutes away, and runs over the squares to the guild houses of the Grote Markt. On the way, the Groenplaats has the rink round the Rubens statue, and that's the rink I'd pick out of all the Belgian ones, €8 last winter plus €4 for skates.
Past the Grote Markt, the Suikerrui has light tunnels to walk through on the way down to the river, and last year Bar Brabo on the Steenplein was the place for a Belgian beer.
Liège and the Smaller Markets
Liège is worth a spare day, 58 minutes from Brussels-Central by direct train. It's nearly the size of Brussels, about 200 chalets against 238, spread over the Place du Marché and the Place Saint-Lambert, with a Ferris wheel, a Christmas pyramid and a covered rink on the Place de la Cathédrale (€12 for two hours with skates).
Beyond Liège, the smaller markets are mostly about timing, because they don't keep the big four's dates.
- Leuven puts more than 120 stands and a Ferris wheel around the university library on the Ladeuzeplein, but only from 3 to 20 December.
- Hasselt runs its Winterland, with an Austrian-style mountain hut, from 13 November right through to 3 January.
- Mons has a market on the Grand-Place and a rink by the station from 5 December, but it's closed on Christmas Day.
- Durbuy is a weekend-only market until 13 December, then opens every day from 18 December to 3 January.
What to Eat and Drink at Belgian Christmas Markets
Mulled wine is everywhere, but in Belgium it shares the counter with jenever, the juniper spirit sold by the shot and often in fruit flavours, and with the Christmas beers.
Those beers are what I'd get excited about, more than any mulled wine. Brewers put them out once a winter, darker, stronger and spicier than their regular ones, and a Belgian market evening without one is a wasted evening.
None of it will hurt your wallet much. In Bruges, at 2024 prices, you'd have paid €17 for two mulled wines, a jenever and a hot waffle, and the cup deposits are smaller than in Vienna, €2.50 in Bruges and €2 in Antwerp last December against Vienna's €4 to €5.
- Mulled wine cost €5 in Bruges, €5 to €6 in Ghent and €6 in Antwerp last December, and €4 in Brussels in 2024.
- Jenever ran from about €2.50 a shot in Brussels to €4 in Bruges in 2024.
- Hot waffles were €3.50 in Brussels, €4 in Bruges and €4.50 in Leuven in 2024.
- Seafood is the Brussels treat, from the chalets on the Place Sainte-Catherine.
- Cougnou, the sweet Christmas bread, is on the Brussels menu this year.
Paying is mostly easy. Every business in Belgium has to accept cash and offer at least one electronic payment method, but at a chalet that method can be Bancontact or Payconiq, a Belgian app you probably won't have, rather than a foreign card, and in Liège many chalets use Payconiq. So carry a contactless card and some euros, and you won't get stuck.
One Base, Four Markets
The trains are fast and frequent, so the real decision is where you sleep, and Ghent makes the best base. Bruges is 22 to 28 minutes away with four trains an hour, Brussels-Central 35 to 38 minutes and Antwerp about an hour, and you come back every night to the market with the latest bars.
You'll land in Brussels either way, because that's where the Eurostar gets in, 1 hour 53 minutes from London, from £39 each way on a return, so over four days I'd split it like this.
- Day one in Brussels, off the Eurostar, staying for the Grand-Place light show before the train to Ghent.
- Day two in Bruges, on a weekday, climbing the Belfry before the stalls fill up.
- Day three in Antwerp, skating round the Rubens statue and walking the light tunnels on the Suikerrui.
- Day four in Ghent, ending late in the bars by the Korenmarkt.
If you'd rather add Liège, Brussels works as a base too. Either way, buy train tickets before you board, because since July 2026 SNCB doesn't sell them on the train. At weekends, adults aged 26 to 64 get 30% off, which makes weekends the cheap days to travel and, sadly, also the busiest at the markets.
Christmas Markets Over the Border From Belgium
Belgium is small, so a border is never far away. Lille is about 35 minutes from Brussels by fast train, and at Christmas it feels closer to Belgium than to Paris, with beer rather than wine and a Ferris wheel over the Grand'Place.
The other way, direct ICE trains reach the Cologne Christmas market from Brussels-Midi in 2 hours 13 minutes, every hour, which turns a Belgian trip into a German Christmas market trip as well.
Is Belgium Worth It for Christmas Markets?
Yes. It's one of the easiest Christmas market trips from the UK, about two hours on the Eurostar, with four big markets within about an hour of Brussels and no flight needed.
It suits a first trip, a long weekend and, unusually, Christmas week itself, because three of the big four are open on the 25th. If you want all four, go from 4 December, and save Bruges for a weekday.
