27 Nov to 24 Dec 2026
Make it two visits: a midweek morning, when you have room to stop at the stalls, and an evening for the lights, when the lanes are packed. On 27 November, be in the Hauptmarkt by five for the opening.
27 Nov to 24 Dec 2026. Times are approximate and can change from year to year.
Be in the Hauptmarkt by five if you want a view of the church gallery. The square fills fast.
The city's schoolchildren carry paper lanterns up through the old town to the castle, and finish with a nativity play there.
The stalls on Rathausplatz finish a day before the main market.
The last morning, and the stalls shut at two. The children's market on Hans-Sachs-Platz carries on until 30 December.
On the opening evening the lights round the Hauptmarkt go out at half past five. The Christkind, a Nuremberg schoolgirl chosen by a jury to play the figure who brings German children their presents, opens the market with a short ceremonial speech from the gallery of the Frauenkirche. Trumpets and a children's choir go with it.
Two smaller markets sit beside the main one. The partner towns' market on Rathausplatz sells crafts and food from Nuremberg's twin cities abroad, and the children's market on Hans-Sachs-Platz has a two-tier carousel, a small steam railway and stalls where children make candles and Christmas biscuits.
The stalls sell gingerbread, fruit loaf, gold-foil angels and little figures made of dried prunes, a Nuremberg speciality. Bring cash, because many of the smaller craft stalls still do not take cards.
For a drink away from the crush, walk down to the Fleischbrücke over the river Pegnitz. Feuerzangenbowle is served there: red wine punch with a rum-soaked sugar cone burning over it.
Stay inside the old town walls or just outside them, so you can walk to the market and back after dark. Hotels fill fast in December, weekends first.
Where to base yourself, and what else is on
The Nuremberg guide has the rest of the city.
Sixteen days of beer tents and brass bands on a Munich meadow. Get there on a weekday morning and a bench is yours without a booking.
Lima's purple month: a float carried through the old centre from dawn into the night on five days in October.