The 2026 Berlin Christmas market season opens on Monday 23 November 2026, and most of the big markets open that same day. The earliest run from the end of October and the last close in the second week of January.
Organisers confirm exact dates late, so the city’s own directory at berlin.de is the page to check before you book. Below are the confirmed 2026 dates, the admission rules, four hotels at four price points, the Potsdam day trip and a plan that fits three nights.
Markets that open before 23 November
Seven markets open ahead of the main season, and three of them run into January.
- Christmas Fair on Landsberger Allee, Lichtenberg: 31 October to 27 December.
- Christmas Avenue and Winterdays at Nollendorfplatz, the LGBTQIA+ market: 4 November to 23 December.
- Glühwald at Uber Platz: from 6 November.
- Medieval market at the RAW compound, Friedrichshain: 12 November to 22 December.
- Humboldt Forum: 18 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.
- Christmas Garden at the Botanical Garden, ticketed: 18 November 2026 to 10 January 2027.
- Christmas in the Tierpark, ticketed: 20 November 2026 to 9 January 2027.
The Botanical Garden & the Tierpark are the two entries on this page that sell tickets. The rest take no booking.
Gendarmenmarkt is back on Gendarmenmarkt
The WeihnachtsZauber market returns to Gendarmenmarkt itself for 2026. The square’s two-year renovation finished in spring 2025, which ended two seasons displaced to Bebelplatz, and a large share of the guides online still send visitors to the wrong square. Head for the Konzerthaus between the two domed churches.
Dates & hours: 23 November to 31 December 2026, Sunday to Thursday 11:00 to 22:00, Friday and Saturday 11:00 to 23:00, Christmas Eve 11:00 to 18:00, New Year’s Eve 11:00 to 24:00. Admission is €2, and the official site carries the programme.
The other main markets and their 2026 dates
Every market below is free to enter, and every one opens on 23 November.
- Alexanderplatz: 23 November to 26 December. Daily 11:00 to 22:00; Christmas Eve 11:00 to 16:00.
- Berliner Weihnachtszeit at the Rotes Rathaus: 23 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. Monday to Friday 12:00 to 22:00, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 22:00; closed 24 December; 25 and 26 December 12:00 to 21:00. A 600 square metre ice rink & a ferris wheel.
- Charlottenburg Palace, Spandauer Damm 22: 23 November to 27 December. The palace facade is lit, a market orchestra plays and the food tents are heated.
- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Breitscheidplatz: 23 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.
- Spandau old town, Marktplatz Spandau: 23 November to 22 December.
- Lucia Christmas Market in the Kulturbrauerei courtyard, Schönhauser Allee 36: 23 November to 22 December. Nordic in theme, with Finnish mulled wine and Swedish carols.
Two more sit on the city’s official list without confirmed 2026 dates: Holy Shit Shopping, the design market in Kreuzberg, and the market at the Späth’sche Baumschulen tree nursery in Köpenick. Check both in the directory once their dates are posted.
Which markets charge admission
Only Gendarmenmarkt charges among the major markets, at €2 a head. Entry is free Monday to Friday between 11:00 and 14:00, free on 24, 25 and 26 December, and always free for children under 12, seniors and disabled visitors. Alexanderplatz, the Rotes Rathaus, Charlottenburg, Breitscheidplatz, Spandau and the Kulturbrauerei charge nothing at the gate.
Where to stay, at four price points
Four hotels cover the range, and the useful measure for each is which markets it puts on foot.
Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Unter den Linden 77, faces the Brandenburg Gate across Pariser Platz. It’s the grandest and the most expensive of the four, with 385 rooms & suites, a spa, and the Michelin-starred Lorenz Adlon Esszimmer. Gendarmenmarkt & the Humboldt Forum are a walk along Unter den Linden.
Hotel de Rome, Behrenstraße 37, is Rocco Forte’s conversion of the former nineteenth-century Dresdner Bank headquarters on Bebelplatz. It’s the second grand option and the closest of the four to Gendarmenmarkt, which sits a few minutes’ walk to the south.
Monbijou Hotel, Monbijouplatz 1, is the middle-ground choice. It sits a short walk from Hackescher Markt station, its roof terrace looks over the Berliner Dom & Museum Island, and Käthe Wohlfahrt’s shop at Hackescher Markt is close by.
Park Inn by Radisson Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alexanderplatz 7, is the easy all-rounder. Its 1,029 rooms mean it has availability when smaller houses are full, the Alexanderplatz market is at its foot, the Rotes Rathaus market is the next square over, and the Hackesche Höfe are 700 metres away. It has a rooftop terrace too.
The first two weekends of December are the busiest of the season for hotels as well as markets, so book those dates first.
We plan these trips and hold the bookings together: hotel, tables, tickets and the Potsdam day on one itinerary. Ask us anything and a person answers; the luxury weekend page shows what a booked weekend looks like.
Where to check exact dates
The city’s own directory at berlin.de is the master list. It carries district guides for the whole city and four sub-pages built for planning.
The between-the-years page lists what’s open from 26 December to 1 January. The free-admission page lists the markets with no entry fee. The international page covers markets themed on other countries, the Lucia market among them, and the design page covers makers’ markets such as Holy Shit Shopping.
visitBerlin, the tourist board, runs its own version of the list. Cross-check the two if a date on one looks off.
What happens on 24, 25 and 26 December
Christmas Eve is the day to plan around, because most markets close early or don’t open. Gendarmenmarkt closes at 18:00 on 24 December, Alexanderplatz at 16:00, and the Rotes Rathaus market doesn’t open at all that day. Several markets have already finished by then: Spandau & the Lucia market close on 22 December, Nollendorfplatz on the 23rd.
On 25 and 26 December only some reopen. Gendarmenmarkt runs on both days with free admission, the Rotes Rathaus market opens 12:00 to 21:00, and Alexanderplatz closes for the season after the 26th. Charlottenburg & Landsberger Allee run to 27 December.
Markets between the years
From 26 December to 1 January the choice narrows to the markets with January closing dates, and the berlin.de between-the-years page is the list to trust. On the confirmed 2026 dates that means Gendarmenmarkt to 31 December, the Rotes Rathaus, Breitscheidplatz and the Humboldt Forum to 3 January, the Tierpark to 9 January and the Botanical Garden to 10 January.
New Year’s Eve on Gendarmenmarkt runs until midnight.
When to go to avoid the crush
Weekday lunchtime is the quiet window, and on Gendarmenmarkt it’s also the free one, Monday to Friday 11:00 to 14:00. A trip in the last week of November catches everything already open and misses the December peak.
The season opens on a Monday, so the first four days run at weekday pace.
Getting between markets
An AB ticket covers every market inside Berlin, and an ABC ticket covers Potsdam. Gendarmenmarkt, the Humboldt Forum, the Rotes Rathaus and Alexanderplatz are all within walking distance of one another along Unter den Linden and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, so a first evening can take in four markets on foot. Charlottenburg, Spandau and the Kulturbrauerei each need a train.
Cash and the mug deposit
Many stalls take cash only, so bring notes. Card readers exist, but you can’t count on one at the stall you want.
Every mug of Glühwein carries a Pfand, a deposit. You pay it with the drink and get it back when you hand the mug in, or you keep the mug.
Sundays
The markets open on Sundays, even though the shops don’t. Berlin’s shop-opening law closes retail on Sundays and a Christmas market falls outside it, so a Sunday is a good day for the markets and a poor one for KaDeWe. The exceptions that still trade are in our guide to what is open in Berlin on a Sunday.
Shopping: Käthe Wohlfahrt and the Kurfürstendamm lights
Käthe Wohlfahrt, the year-round German Christmas decoration shop, is at An der Spandauer Brücke 7 at Hackescher Markt, open Monday to Saturday 11:00 to 19:00 and closed on Sunday. The shop’s site lists the ranges.
It opened on Kurfürstendamm at the end of October 2011 and has since moved to Hackescher Markt. Plenty of guides still send people to the old address.
Kurfürstendamm & Tauentzienstraße carry the city’s Christmas lights and hold KaDeWe, the big department store, so the west end is the shopping half of the trip. The Breitscheidplatz market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church stands at the top of Tauentzienstraße, which makes a KaDeWe afternoon & a market evening one outing.
Potsdam as the day trip
Potsdam is the strongest day trip, on the S7 or a regional train with a Berlin ABC ticket, and it holds four markets in the 2026 season.
- Blauer Lichterglanz, the historic market: 23 November to 27 December. Monday to Thursday and Sunday 11:00 to 20:00, Friday and Saturday 11:00 to 21:00; closed 24 December; 25 and 26 December 11:00 to 18:00.
- The Bohemian market: 27 November to 6 December.
- The Polish Star Market: 4 to 6 December.
- The Sinterklaas festival in the Dutch Quarter, Mittelstraße: 12 and 13 December.
The weekend of 4 to 6 December is the one date when three of the four overlap, and it falls inside the busiest fortnight for hotels in Berlin. Book the room before the train.
Spandau for a change of scene
Spandau’s old town market on Marktplatz is inside Berlin and one of the city’s largest, and it’s the market to choose when Mitte has worn thin. It runs 23 November to 22 December, so it’s gone before Christmas week, and the old town around it is low-rise and cobbled in a way the centre isn’t.
What to book before you travel
Three things need booking and everything else doesn’t. The hotel comes first, because the first two December weekends sell out across the city. The Christmas Garden at the Botanical Garden and Christmas in the Tierpark are ticketed, so buy those for a fixed evening. Restaurant tables near Gendarmenmarkt and on Alexanderplatz go early on market nights, so reserve dinner for each evening you plan to spend in Mitte.
No market except Gendarmenmarkt needs money at the gate, and Gendarmenmarkt needs two euros. Keep the rest of the trip loose enough to follow the weather.
A three-night plan
A first evening at Gendarmenmarkt, then along Unter den Linden to the Humboldt Forum, the Rotes Rathaus and Alexanderplatz on foot. A second day in the west: KaDeWe and the Kurfürstendamm lights, then the Breitscheidplatz market, then a train to Charlottenburg Palace for the orchestra and the lit facade.
A third day in Potsdam on an ABC ticket, with the Lucia market at the Kulturbrauerei saved for the last evening.
Fix the hotel first, then the Potsdam day, then the dinner tables. The markets themselves need nothing booked except the two gardens and, on Gendarmenmarkt, two euros at the gate.