USA & Canada Christmas Markets 2026: Dates and Entry Guide

Compare the announced 2026 seasons

A date range is not a promise of daily opening. Read the venue notes below for closed days, preview weekends and separate attraction calendars. All hours are local to the event.

Chicago, USA: Christkindlmarket locations

20 Nov–24 Dec; Wrigleyville to 31 Dec 2026. Daley Plaza is the downtown Chicago market; Wrigleyville is at Gallagher Way and continues later. Aurora is a separate Illinois city with its own market at RiverEdge Park. These are three venue choices with different weekly and holiday hours, not interchangeable entrances to one event.

Official dates and visitor information · Read our detailed visiting guide.

New York City, USA: Bryant Park Holiday Shops

28 Oct 2026–3 Jan 2027. Plan the Holiday Shops rather than treating the whole Winter Village as one calendar. The park’s current table ends the shops on 3 January; the rink continues until 28 February. Opening day starts at noon and Christmas Day has shorter shopping hours. An older January 2026 sentence remains elsewhere on the page: use its current season table.

Official dates and visitor information.

Bryant Park Holiday Shops: shopping hours and January closing. The detailed guide separates the Holiday Shops season from the longer rink calendar.

Philadelphia, USA: Christmas Village

Preview 21–22 Nov; main 26 Nov–27 Dec 2026. The organiser separates the preview weekend from the main season around LOVE Park and City Hall. It lists closures on 23–25 November and Christmas Day. Thanksgiving starts earlier and closes earlier than a normal trading day. Made in Philadelphia Holiday Market is a separate event; check that event’s own details if combining visits.

Official dates and visitor information.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA: Christmas City Village and Christkindlmarkt

Village 20 Nov–20 Dec; Christkindlmarkt 13 Nov–20 Dec 2026. Two different market visits share Bethlehem’s Christmas identity. Christmas City Village is the free downtown hut market; Christkindlmarkt is the ArtsQuest event at SteelStacks with ticket rules and selected free Friday-evening access. Both operate selected days, not every day within the date range.

Official dates and visitor information · Read our detailed visiting guide.

Denver, Colorado, USA: Denver Christkindlmarket

20 Nov–23 Dec 2026. The 2026 event is at Tivoli Quad on the Auraria Campus. Old Skyline Park photographs and addresses do not identify the current venue. Admission is free, but purchases are separate. Thanksgiving and the final week have special hours; the detailed guide separates vendor closing from the later festival-hall closing.

Official dates and visitor information · Read our detailed visiting guide.

Toronto, Canada: Distillery Winter Village

12 Nov 2026–3 Jan 2027. Entry requirements depend on the date and time; free periods do not make every evening free. The organiser announces a Christmas Day closure. Its cabin-opening text and general schedule disagree between 11:00 and noon, so our dedicated guide preserves that uncertainty instead of promising early shopping.

Official dates and visitor information · Read our detailed visiting guide.

Vancouver, Canada: Vancouver Christmas Market

16 Nov–24 Dec 2026. This is the ticketed market at Jack Poole Plaza. Check the entry product and timed session, especially for a family or group, before assuming walk-up access. The organiser’s published hour tables contain disagreements for selected December dates; the dedicated guide names those conflicts and the Christmas Eve limitation.

Official dates and visitor information · Read our detailed visiting guide.

Québec City, Canada: German Christmas Market

19 Nov–23 Dec 2026. The official tourism listing describes free entry across six Old Québec sites. The usual Thursday–Sunday pattern is supplemented by special trading on 21–23 December. Do not rule out those final Monday–Wednesday sessions using a general weekly summary; the dated event listing supplies the exception.

Official dates and visitor information.

Montréal, Canada: Great Christmas Market

13 Nov 2026–3 Jan 2027. This is the Quartier des spectacles market around Sainte-Catherine and Jeanne-Mance. It opens Wednesday–Sunday during the earlier part of the season, then daily from 16 December. The current visitor page and January vendor document disagree on some later hours: follow the visitor page and reconfirm the selected date. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are listed with special hours.

Official dates and visitor information.

Washington, DC, USA: DowntownDC Holiday Market

13 Nov–23 Dec 2026. The DowntownDC organiser places this market on F Street NW between 7th and 9th Streets and lists a Thanksgiving closure on 26 November. It is a distinct event from other DC holiday markets. Save the named venue with the date so that an unrelated market’s opening hours do not become part of your plan.

Official dates and visitor information.

How to choose a market trip

First choose between a public shopping stop and an event requiring admission. Vancouver uses tickets; Toronto changes entry requirements by session; Bethlehem has two different markets. Free admission covers access, not food, gifts or every associated activity. For a late-December trip, compare closing dates before choosing a city: several markets end before Christmas, while Wrigleyville, Bryant Park’s shops, Toronto and Montréal announce later seasons.

Save the venue’s full name, not just the city. A downtown market, a suburban location and a winter festival can require quite different journeys. Check an accessible entrance, transport service and the return trip with the operator or local transport provider for your intended date.

Questions to settle before booking

Which is the biggest? There is no comparable audited attendance, stall-count and site-area dataset behind this selection. Organisers use different definitions, so we do not declare a continental winner. The useful comparison is the named event, the dates and what you can actually visit.

Are all photographs from 2026? No. The image in this guide is a real, licensed archive photograph with a visible date and credit. It illustrates its named venue, not the current stall plan at every destination.

Where can I compare more detail? Open the Christmas markets collection and follow its individual city guides. Send a correction with an official source if a calendar changes.