Fill in your dates and where you are staying, and see which Christmas markets in the Netherlands and Belgium are open.
Christmas markets in the Netherlands and Belgium come in all shapes and sizes, from atmospheric one-night events and candlelit medieval towns to large festive markets that run throughout December.
Christmas markets in the Netherlands can be surprisingly fleeting, with many appearing for just a day or a weekend. Belgium is a little easier, with the larger markets often running throughout the festive season.
The graphic below shows how Christmas markets are spread across the season. The green shows Belgium’s longer-running markets, while the red peaks reveal just how concentrated the Dutch market season can be, with many events taking place over only a handful of busy weekends.
Now for the fun part. The list below already reflects the dates and the base you set above, from the big and famous markets to the small and wonderfully local.
Pick a single day to see only that day, or use the filters to narrow by country, size or type. Every listing shows the dates, the opening times, how far it is from where you are staying, and a little about what makes it worth the trip.
Ralf Peter Reimann, CC BY-SA 2.0Fills the whole Vrijthof, framed by the Sint-Servaasbasiliek and the Sint-Janskerk, with an ice rink and a big wheel among the stalls. One of the very few Dutch markets that stays open on Christmas Day.
Gimo61, CC BY 3.0Billed as the oldest and largest underground Christmas market in Europe, in the marl galleries of the Cauberg. The bigger of Valkenburg's two cave markets, and fully wheelchair accessible.
Pitlane02, CC BY-SA 3.0Runs through the corridors of the Velvet Cave directly beneath the castle ruin, past the hand-carved chapel and the sandstone wall drawings. The more atmospheric of the two cave markets, and the tighter one.
Valkenburg's above-ground market on the Walramplein, rebranded from Santa's Village to WinterGlow for 2026 and rebuilt from scratch. There is a covered drinks area, which matters in December.
Not a market, but the biggest crowd-puller of Valkenburg's above-ground season, and the reason aggregator sites keep mis-dating the caves. It has been voted the best Christmas parade in the country.
More than 950 residents dress as characters from Dickens and fill the narrow lanes of the Bergkwartier, closed to traffic for the weekend. The most atmospheric thing in the Dutch calendar, and the most crowded.
Marc Samsom, CC BY 2.0Every electric light on the Markt is switched off and the square around the 15th-century stadhuis is lit by thousands of candles in the windows instead, with the city tree lit at the end. Not a stall market, an evening.
Five weeks of winter across 44 hectares of relocated historic Dutch buildings, with an 1890 carousel, a 1920s chair swing and blacksmiths at work. The longest run in the country, and the one most likely to fill a whole day.
On published stall counts the largest street market in the Netherlands, and it is spread over twelve locations in the old centre rather than one square, so it takes a couple of hours to walk properly. Seventeen minutes by train from Amsterdam.
Traditional and very festive market laid out along the length of the Lange Voorhout, with entrances by the Kloosterkerk and by Hotel Des Indes. Runs for three weeks.
Corradox, CC BY-SA 4.0Held inside a fully reconstructed 17th-century star fortress, with close to a hundred stalls spread over the separate squares and bastions. Street theatre and light shows fill the spaces between them.
Ziko van Dijk, CC BY-SA 4.0Not a Christmas market at all, but a midwinter and fantasy festival staged across Archeon's reconstructed prehistoric, Roman and medieval villages. Costumed characters, fires, craft demonstrations, and a ticket on the gate. The 22nd edition.
Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0The whole grid-planned fortified town of 1392 is played as the year 1900, with residents in period dress, street theatre, fire baskets, an antique carousel and a steam train for children. One of the few that is genuinely better after dark.
Rosemoon, CC BY-SA 3.0Unusually well equipped for a one-day village market, with a temporary ice rink and apres-ski bar, a live nativity scene, wood carving, and Father Christmas arriving by horse and cart.
Despite what you will read elsewhere, this is not a floating market. The chalets stand on dry land beside the Hooglandse Kerk; the thing that floats in Leiden is the ice rink on the Nieuwe Rijn.
Bj.schoenmakers, CC BY-SA 3.0The fair has moved for 2026, from Kasteel de Haar to the castle gardens at Arcen, spreading across the forecourt, the tournament field and the old oak avenue. There is a fountain show after dark, and a ticket on the gate.
Not the giant it once was. The old Dordrecht market was scrapped after 2019 and deliberately replaced with something smaller, around fifty stalls through the historic harbour streets. Lovely on the water, modest in scale.
Roger Veringmeier, CC BY-SA 4.0An outdoor country and lifestyle fair in the grounds of the moated Kasteel Vorden, in the Achterhoek castle belt. The largest of the December castle fairs, and pitched squarely at the shopping end.
Hardscarf, CC BY-SA 4.0Run by Museum aan de A along the old A quays, with historic sailing ships moored alongside and lit up as venues for theatre and music. The ships are the point, more than the stalls.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 3.0Over sixty lit stalls through the historic centre of a village already known for its galleries. The organisers call it a gallery in the open air rather than an ordinary Christmas market, and they have a point.
IJsbrand Heins / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Set on a centuries-old Drenthe village green, with hands-on workshops and a curling competition running alongside the stalls. The bars stay open three hours after the market itself packs up.
Jan Sluimer, CC BY-SA 3.0 NLThe 40th edition, on the Markt and Toldam beside the old harbour arm, in the shadow of the ruined Slot Ravesteyn. Long evening hours make it one of the better after-dark options south of Rotterdam.
Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0Entirely covered and heated, in the Klein Vanenburg barn and the castle orangery, which makes it the reliable option on the Veluwe when the weather turns. The Friday evening session is the one to aim for.
Jan Dijkstra, CC BY-SA 4.0A Wednesday evening, which is almost unique here, in an old Lek shipping village beside the Vreeswijk locks. The street lights go off at six and more than 10,000 candles take over.
Steven Lek, CC BY-SA 4.0An evening-only opening night on a Tuesday, when the canals and the Markt around the Nieuwe Kerk are lit by candle. It starts the Delft Verlicht season, which then runs on until 3 January.
Renee Kools, CC BY 4.0Staged on the Markt of a former fortified town, one of the largest medieval market squares in the country. The square does most of the work; the fair itself is conventional.
Debot, CC BY-SA 3.0The street lighting in the old fortified centre goes off and roughly 10,000 tea lights in jars are lit in its place, with projected light shows on top. More than 15,000 lights in all, and best walked slowly.
Wooden chalets and stalls fill the city-centre shopping streets for one Sunday, from the Korenkwartier to the Jansplein, where Zeldzaam Mooi runs its own section. Pair it with the Open Air Museum, or with the ticketed KerstKelders market in the old cellars beneath the centre (11 to 13 December).
Rosemoon, CC BY-SA 3.0One Sunday only, in the white town, where the houses, the abbey church and the walls are all whitewashed. It makes the lighting unusually effective, and there are more than eighty stalls through the lanes.
Hanno Lans, CC BY 4.0Six consecutive days at Landgoed Duin & Kruidberg, a country house hotel on a dune estate just outside Haarlem. The nearest thing to a castle Christmas fair within easy reach of Amsterdam.
Bouke, CC BY-SA 3.0Five days in the grounds of the former royal palace at Soestdijk, with around 160 selected exhibitors rather than ordinary market stalls. Closer to a good shopping fair than a Christmas market, and priced accordingly.
Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0Two separate November weekends in a tiny walled harbour town on the Veerse Meer, with Dickens costume against 15th-century merchant houses and the huge unfinished Grote Kerk. It runs early, before most of the season starts.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 3.0The main winter event on Zuid-Beveland, and it calls itself the most convivial market in Zeeland. It is in truth a large village fair, worth a detour only if you are already in the province.
Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0An 18th-century country house with formal parkland on the edge of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, half an hour from Amsterdam by train and a short walk at the other end. It falls on the same weekend as Vorden, so you can only have one.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 3.0 NLAn early November country fair in the gardens of Kasteel Warmelo, one of the quieter Twente castles. Its appeal is the setting and the date, since it opens the Dutch winter fair season.
Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0A brocante and vintage fair rather than a craft market, held in the 14th-century vaults and courtyards of Kasteel Daelenbroeck with dealers from France, Belgium and England. Come for old things, not for gluhwein.
Marion Golsteijn, CC BY-SA 4.0On the Markt in front of Culemborg's Gothic town hall of 1539, in a compact walled old town most visitors never reach. A pleasant weekend fair rather than a spectacle.
Kris Roderburg / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Orvelte is a preserved 19th-century Saxon farming village run as a living monument, with thatched farmsteads, cobbles and no through traffic. The fair sits on the green of what is effectively an open-air museum.
Held at Buitenplaats Het Loo, a working Veluwe country estate rather than in the village itself, so you get barns, fire baskets and open ground instead of a shopping street.
Alupus, CC BY-SA 3.0A moated neo-Gothic castle in the Roerdalen countryside near the German border, lit after dusk. One of only a handful of Limburg castle fairs, and far quieter than anything in Valkenburg.
A. J. van der Wal / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Spread across the linked village greens of Zuidlaren, the same ground that holds the country's largest horse market in October. Pleasant, though a regional event rather than a destination.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0One afternoon through the small walled centre of a Rhine town, with a heavy live music programme in the churches and the streets rather than a race for stall numbers.
Paul van Galen / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Thousands of lights and Christmas trees through one of the best-preserved medieval street plans in the Netherlands, with street theatre and food trucks. In truth a shopping Sunday dressed up, but a handsome one.
C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0A skating rink with a small group of chalets beside it, on the Museumplein, between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh. Good for an hour with children, not a market to build a day around.
Staged inside the historic glasshouses at Frederiksoord, the first of the 19th-century Colonies of Benevolence and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Entirely under glass, which makes it the rare Dutch market that does not care what the weather does.
Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0Bredevoort is the Dutch book town, a small walled Achterhoek place full of antiquarian shops, and the market runs through its streets by candlelight. Midwinter horn blowers have been part of it in past years.
Dominicus Johannes Bergsma, CC BY-SA 4.0Hindeloopen is the smallest of the eleven Frisian cities, a tiny IJsselmeer port with its own painted-furniture tradition and its own historic costume, which is what the stallholders wear. Small, and quite unlike anywhere else on this list.
Thomas Dahlstrom Nielsen, CC BY 4.0The organisers cancelled the December 2025 edition in writing and said it would move to 2026. Nothing further has been published, so treat it as unconfirmed.
Willemjans, CC BY-SA 3.0Not a market at all: villagers open pop-up shops inside their own front rooms along a signposted route beside the old peat canal, with a riddle trail running between them. Unusual, and very local.
Utrecht has no Christmas market on the Domplein or on any of its main squares, which catches a lot of visitors out. What it does have is the windmill market at Molen de Ster, neighbourhood light walks and a rink at Jaarbeursplein.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0The Winters Zwolle season puts a market on and around the Grote Kerkplein alongside a wider winter festival. The 2026 dates have not been published yet.
Agnes Monkelbaan, CC BY-SA 4.0Two evenings of street theatre, music and a Christmas market through the old Hanseatic centre of Kampen on the IJssel. The theatre is the real draw, so treat the stalls as a bonus.
Rudolphous, CC BY-SA 4.0Held inside the enormous 15th-century Grote Kerk of a former Zuiderzee fishing town, twenty minutes from Amsterdam. The church and the evening hours are the draw; the market itself is modest.
Gerard Dukker / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0A small afternoon fair at De Koffietuin, a garden cafe in a Zeeland village. Included for completeness rather than because it would repay a journey.
A. J. van der Wal / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Stallholders dress fully in Victorian costume and the site is almost entirely covered, so it works whatever the weather does. Small, in a garden centre orangery in a Drenthe village, and done with more care than that suggests.
RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Built around the Protestant church in a West Friesland village, and unusually the inside of the church is part of the market. Otherwise a modest two-day local fair.
Tubantia, CC BY-SA 3.0A small Twente village market with no particular hook, listed here mainly as a warning. It does not run every year, and nothing is announced in advance.
Kvhte, CC BY-SA 3.0 NLThe closing event of the Carolus Glazen Huis charity week, held at a secondary school rather than in the town. A fundraiser with stalls attached, charming locally, but not a reason to travel.
CGP Grey, CC BY 2.0Held at Boerderijmuseum De Bovenstreek, a working Veluwe farm museum, so the draw is old trades being demonstrated in the sheds rather than the stalls outside. Small, and genuinely local.
Dickelbers, CC BY-SA 3.0A five-hour village market in a former Eems port settlement now absorbed by Delfzijl. Listed because it is real, not because it would justify the journey.
S. Faric, CC BY 2.0One Sunday of design, vintage and handmade stalls in the old gasworks halls at Westergas. An Amsterdam city market wearing a Christmas hat, which is both its charm and its limit.
pa3ems, CC BY-SA 3.0Five hours of Dickens dress-up on the village green of a Drenthe hamlet near the Havelterberg megaliths. A miniature of Deventer rather than a rival to it, but it falls on a weekend when little else is on.
G. Scanlan / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0Het Stift is a walled former convent hamlet, a handful of houses and a Romanesque church around a green with no road through it. One afternoon only, and the enclosure is the whole appeal.
Willemnabuurs, CC BY-SA 3.0A neighbourhood market at the Emiclaerhof shopping centre, out in a 1980s Amersfoort suburb. Worth a look only if you are already in the city with an hour to spare.
Gerard Dukker / RCE, CC BY-SA 4.0A five-hour hamlet market whose only claim on the outside world is the place name, made famous by the New Kids films. Otherwise a straightforward Brabant village fair.
A five-hour village market in a linear Overijssel settlement, with nothing that sets it apart. Included as a verified entry rather than a recommendation.
Erjon, CC BY-SA 3.0A modest market of a few dozen stalls through the old town centre. Note the name clash: the site kerstmarktsteenwijk.nl is a corporate hamper event for local employers, not this.
Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0Two covered days on the Waagplein, under the eye of the old cheese weigh house, with a Winter Wonderland set up alongside. It is a small market, and the 2026 dates are not out yet.
Renee Kools, CC BY 4.0Breda's December is Breda Straalt, an ice rink and catering on the Grote Markt with lights through the centre, rather than a Christmas market. Nothing market-shaped has been announced for 2026.
Roger Veringmeier, CC BY-SA 4.0The big Dickens festival that once made Bronkhorst famous has stopped. What is left is a small market around the chapel in the smallest town in the Netherlands, with a Scrooge walk alongside it.
Zuiderzeemuseum, CC BY-SA 4.0We could not verify a Christmas market at Enkhuizen for 2026. The Zuiderzeemuseum's own Christmas page advertises only a bookable schools programme, so treat this as unconfirmed.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0One of the oldest cities in the country, and it has no Christmas market at destination scale. Nothing is confirmed for 2026 beyond small neighbourhood events.
A ticketed indoor winter funfair in the RAI halls rather than a market: 4,400 square metres of ice, fairground rides and catering under one roof. It shuts for two days mid-run, so check before you travel.
J187B, CC BY-SA 4.0Not a Christmas market: a two and a half week indoor winter festival inside the Koekbouw, a converted grain and biscuit factory on the Noordkade, with DJs, live music and tastings.
A covered ice rink with catering and chalets planted in the middle of the Markt for a month. The skating is the draw here, not the stalls.
A two-kilometre trail through six squares rather than one market, from the Grand-Place to Sainte-Catherine, with 238 chalets, a big wheel and a rink along the way. Allow an evening and comfortable shoes.
Sally V, CC BY-SA 4.0Belgium's oldest Christmas market, running since 1987, across Place Saint-Lambert, Place du Marche and the opera esplanade. About 200 chalets, a wooden Christmas pyramid and a toboggan run.
Seven squares of chalets, a rink and a big wheel through the medieval centre. After several years of stopping on 31 December, the 2026 edition runs on to 3 January, covering the whole Belgian holiday.
One of the very few Belgian markets that opens on Christmas Day and closes on New Year's Day, which is the reverse of the usual pattern here. The chalets run from the Grote Markt out across seven squares.
The market is only one part of a three-month winter programme: the Wintergloed light trail runs from late November well into February, long after the chalets have gone. Two market squares, and the prettiest backdrop in the country.
Tomoaki INABA, CC BY-SA 2.0Opens in mid-November, a good two weeks before every other major Belgian market, and it is built as one enclosed winter park on the Kolonel Dusartplein rather than a chalet trail through the streets.
Michael Segers, CC BY 4.0One of the biggest in Flanders, and it finishes on 20 December, before most Belgian markets reach their peak. The 38th edition was stretched by five days so that it covers three full weekends.
LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0About seventy chalets, with the market closing on 30 December while the rink runs on into January. The city pairs it with Namur en Lumiere, which lights the citadel above the town.
ines s., CC BY 2.0Three sites, the UNESCO-listed Grand-Place, the Marche aux Herbes and Place Leopold by the station, linked by a free festive road train. The covered rink is the biggest of the three draws.
EmDee, CC BY-SA 4.0Set in a purpose-built car-free university town, where the whole centre is a pedestrian deck laid over a 4,000-space car park. The chalets sit on the Grand Place with no traffic anywhere near them.
Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0Held in a place that bills itself as the smallest town in the world, a compact stone village inside a bend of the Ourthe. The chalets fill the Place aux Foires and spill into the lanes around it.
Lucyin, CC BY-SA 4.0Around 300 artisan stalls in the wooded Parc Saint-Roch, which is far more than a town of 16,000 has any business supporting. It draws about 120,000 people across fifteen opening days.
Sd1982, CC BY-SA 4.0The only market here held inside a castle, and one of the few charging admission: a restored 14th-century keep on a crag above the Warche valley in the Hautes Fagnes, with a selected group of artisans in its rooms.
Sally V, CC BY-SA 4.0On the Grote Markt beneath the unfinished Sint-Rombouts tower, which you can climb, 538 steps, for a skywalk view straight down onto the lit market. Satellite events are spread deliberately through the town.
Spotter2, CC BY-SA 3.0Four separate zones rather than one market: the big wheel and chalets on the Grote Markt beside what the city claims is one of Belgium's largest Christmas trees, plus a children's funfair and a light trail.
Stephane Mignon, CC BY 2.0Built around the pond in the Leopoldpark, a short walk from the beach, with more than fifty wooden stalls ringing the water. The rink is fully covered, so the North Sea weather cannot spoil it.
JanV1962, CC BY 4.0The indoor rink on the Hopmarkt has a bar looking out over the ice and opens about a week before the chalets do, and the Werfplein takes a Christmas circus. Three squares in all, which is more than Aalst's size suggests.
Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0Two halves: a chalet village and covered rink on the Grand-Place beneath the five-towered cathedral and the belfry, both UNESCO listed, and a separate indoor artisans' market. Less visited than it deserves.
Tilly antoine, CC BY-SA 4.0A roller rink rather than an ice one, alongside a winter garden area and a handful of chalets, in a Kempen town known for its beguinage and its playing-card museum. The smallest of the Belgian entries.
Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 3.0Staged on the Grote Markt, the largest market square in Belgium at about 3.2 hectares, so the market occupies only a corner of it. Weekends only, which is unusual here.
Three days across four small sites squeezed between the Meuse and the cliff, from the Saint-Nicolas quarter to the foot of the citadel. About twenty artisans, in one of the most dramatic settings in Belgium.
Jmh2o, CC BY-SA 4.0Two separate sites with different closing dates: the chalet and food village on Place de la Digue finishes on Christmas Eve, while the covered rink and ice museum carry on afterwards. About forty artisan chalets in all.
The first seasonal markets usually begin in November, with the greatest choice from late November through December. Some winter events continue into the first week of January.
Most Dutch markets run for a single day or a single weekend rather than for weeks. The season concentrates mostly on two weekends, 11th to 13th December and 19th to 20th December, with 44 markets open on Saturday 12th December alone. The long-running exceptions are the Valkenburg cave markets, 13th November to 30th December, and Magisch Maastricht, 27th November to 27th December.
Not a traditional one on the scale of Maastricht or Valkenburg, but December in Amsterdam is far from empty. The Ice Village on Museumplein pairs a skating rink with around 45 chalets selling food, drink, and gifts; Amsterdam Winter Paradise fills the RAI with indoor skating and fairground rides, and the Amsterdam Light Festival lights the canals from late November to mid January, best seen on a private Light Festival cruise.
For a proper, more traditional stall-by-stall market, Haarlem is about 20 minutes away, and The Hague is around 40 minutes.
Not in the city centre. There is no market on the Domplein or any of the main squares. What Utrecht does have is the winter market at Molen de Ster, a working windmill on the edge of town with around 45 stalls, a string of neighbourhood light walks in December, and a skating rink at Jaarbeursplein. For a full market, The Hague and Amersfoort are both short trips.
Haarlem, with around 350 stalls across twelve locations in the old centre, is the largest. Dordrecht held the title until 2020, when its 250-stall market was replaced by the much smaller Decembermarkt (approx 200 stalls spread around the city centre), but many guides still name Dordrecht as the largest.
Valkenburg has two main underground markets, and they are separate markets with separate tickets. The Gemeentegrot on the Cauberg and the Fluweelengrot beneath the castle ruin. Both open on 13th November 2026 and both close on 30th December.
It depends entirely on your dates and tastes. Belgian city markets run continuously for about six weeks, so Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and Liège are open every day from late November into January. Dutch markets tend to be shorter in duration and clustered together. If you are here outside the two December weekends, a visit to Belgium will guarantee that you will experience several markets.
No. The Leidse Kerstmarkt stands on dry land beside the Hooglandse Kerk, and it runs for about ten days in the middle of December rather than all season. The ice rink floats on the Nieuwe Rijn in the centre of the city.
Most Christmas markets are free to enter, although some special events, castle markets, and attractions may charge admission or require advance tickets. Where possible, we include this information in the individual listing, as free entry or ticketed.
Some paid exceptions are the Valkenburg caves, the Deventer Dickens Festival, Fort Bourtange and a number of castle and museum fairs.
The weekend of 11th to 13th December is the peak for Dutch Christmas market and events, with the largest number open at once, including Haarlem, Gouda by Candlelight, and the Deventer Dickens Festival. It is also the busiest, so an early start matters.
Yes. We arrange private day trips from Amsterdam, from the cruise terminals and from your hotel to Valkenburg, Maastricht, Haarlem, The Hague, Deventer, and the Belgian city markets, with a driver and a guide.
Often they don’t. Many Dutch Christmas markets take place for just one day or one weekend, while larger events may run for several weeks. Always check the individual dates before planning your journey.
Generally, yes. Major Christmas markets in Belgian cities often run for several weeks, making them easier to include in a December visit. Smaller local markets may still only take place on selected dates.
Most are not, but some larger Christmas markets remain open over Christmas, particularly in Belgium, but opening hours can change on 24th, 25th, and 26th December. Check the individual listing and official event information before travelling.
In Amsterdam RAI and the Ice Village are both open on Christmas Day.
Valkenburg’s two cave markets and Bruges WinterGlow all close on 25th December. Magisch Maastricht is one of the few markets in the South that stays open, from 11am to 6pm. In Belgium, Antwerp is open on 25th December but closed on 1st January, the reverse of the usual pattern.
We check dates against official event information wherever possible and update the planner as new dates are announced. Christmas market schedules can still change, especially for smaller local events, and weather can also affect them, so we recommend checking again shortly before travelling.
We are a private tour company in Amsterdam. If you would like these markets built into a day out, with a driver and a guide who knows which ones are worth the drive on your dates, tell us your dates and we will put an itinerary together.
For a city by city look at what each market is like, read our guide to Christmas markets in the Netherlands.