Gluhwein is only half of it. The other half is driving somewhere in the dark and finding a square with a turning wooden pyramid in it. Twelve christmas markets in the US are worth the gas money in 2026: Denver, which quietly changed address this year; Bethlehem, the only one charging at the door; Bryant Park, still going when the rest have shut; and Leavenworth and Fredericksburg, whole towns rather than markets. Below: every date, every cost, and four routes that string them together.
When do US Christmas markets open in 2026?
Most open in the third week of November and close on December 23 or 24. Three break the pattern. Bryant Park opened back in October and runs into January, while Bethlehem and St Paul are both finished by December 20.
| Market | 2026 dates | Cost to enter |
|---|---|---|
| Bryant Park Winter Village, NY | Oct 28 – Jan 3, 2027 | Free |
| DowntownDC Holiday Market, DC | Nov 13 – Dec 23 | Free |
| Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem, PA | Six weekends, Nov 13 – Dec 20 | $14–$16.50 |
| Denver Christkindlmarket, CO | Nov 20 – Dec 23 | Free |
| Christkindlmarket Chicago, IL | Nov 20 – Dec 24 | Free |
| European Christmas Market, St Paul, MN | Nov 20 – Dec 20, Fri and Sun only | Free |
| Carmel Christkindlmarkt, IN | Nov 21 – Dec 24 | Free |
| Christmas Village, Baltimore, MD | Nov 21 – Dec 27 | Free, $5 tent some weekends |
| Christmas Village, Philadelphia, PA | Nov 21 – Dec 27 | Free |
| Fredericksburg, TX | Nov 24 – early Jan 2027 | Free |
| Village of Lights, Leavenworth, WA | Nov 27 – Dec 24 | Free |
| Georgetown Christmas Market, CO | Dec 5–6 and Dec 12–13 | Free |
01Denver Christkindlmarket, ColoradoIt Moved Campuses This Year
Start with the one most guides still get wrong. Denver’s Christkindlmarket is not at Civic Center Park in 2026. Civic Center and Skyline Park are both closed for renovation until spring 2027, so it has moved to the Tivoli Quad on the Auraria Campus, about a mile west of the capitol. Put that into your maps app, not the address half the roundups print.
Everything else holds: wooden stalls around a tree, brass bands and school choirs on the stage most evenings, gluhwein in a mug you pay a deposit on. Auraria is a campus, so you park in a garage instead of circling. Our one regret about the move is that you lose the capitol dome behind the stalls, which was the shot everyone came for.
2026 dates: November 20 – December 23. Free to enter.
Tip: the light rail stops at Auraria West, so you can drink the punch and still get home.
02Georgetown Christmas Market, ColoradoFour Days, 66 Years Running
Four days. That is the entire market.
Georgetown runs two weekends only, in a Victorian mining town 45 minutes up I-70 from Denver, and has done it for 66 years. Narrow streets, 1880s brick and painted wood, horse-drawn wagons doing loops while a band plays behind you. You can walk it end to end in fifteen minutes, and people drive up from Denver anyway.
We would take the Sunday. Saturday is the fuller version, but Sunday afternoon thins out and you will actually find parking.
2026 dates: December 5–6 and December 12–13. Free. Hours were not posted for 2026 when we checked in early November; last season ran 10 am to 5 pm.
03Christkindlmarket Chicago, IllinoisThree Markets, One City
Chicago runs three of these. The original sits in Daley Plaza downtown under the Picasso sculpture, and it is the one to see: German vendors who fly over for the season, hand-carved ornaments, a two-story wooden tower, and more bratwurst smoke than you would think possible. Wrigleyville and Aurora are smaller, and easier if you have children.
Daley Plaza is a working plaza in the middle of the Loop, though. Lunch hours belong to office workers and weekends to everyone else, so our advice is to go after about 7.30, when you get the plaza closer to yourself.
2026 dates: November 20 – December 24 at Daley Plaza, two blocks from both the Blue and Red lines. Wrigleyville runs to December 31, Aurora to December 24, Thursday through Sunday only. All three free.
04Carmel Christkindlmarkt, IndianaThe One With the Ice Rink
Carmel built its market to look like a German town and then kept going. A boot-shaped gluhwein mug, an ice rink, a Christkind who appears on a balcony to open the season, and a 21-and-over preview night called Wundernacht on November 19. Our favorite of the German-style markets in the country, and it sits twenty minutes north of Indianapolis.
The hours are the fiddly part, and you will want to read them twice:
- Wednesday and Thursday, 4–9 pm
- Friday and Saturday, noon–9 pm
- Sunday, 2–8 pm
- Christmas Eve, noon–4 pm
Sources disagree about December 23, so check before you build a day around it. The rink is run separately and charges its own admission.
2026 dates: November 21 – December 24, at 10 Carter Green.
Tip: the gluhwein boot is a souvenir mug with a deposit on it. Buy it once, keep the boot, and refill it cheaper at the next stall.
05European Christmas Market, St Paul, MinnesotaFridays and Sundays Only
Fridays and Sundays. That is it, and turning up on a Saturday will get you an empty plaza.
The market sets up on the East Plaza outside Union Depot, a 1920s railroad terminal in Lowertown St Paul, across five weekends. Inside the depot you will find a model train display and somewhere warm to sit, which in Minnesota in December is not a small thing!
2026 dates: November 20 – December 20, at 240 E Kellogg Blvd. Fridays 3–9 pm, Sundays 11 am–6 pm, except November 27, which runs 1–9 pm. Free.
Third-party calendars disagree about the first Sunday, so take your dates from the market itself.
06Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaThe Only One You Pay For
Bethlehem is the only market here that charges at the door, and it is the one we would pay for twice. ArtsQuest has run Christkindlmarkt for 34 years at PNC Plaza, SteelStacks, which puts the tents right beneath the old Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces: five rusted stacks lit up in color above you. Inside, around 150 juried makers and food well past bratwurst.
Admission for 2026 is reported at $14 Thursday and Friday, $16.50 Saturday and Sunday, fees included. Children five and under are free. Buy online, because the gate is where you will find the line.
The schedule is the real catch. Six weekends, then it stops on December 20, so if you planned the week before Christmas you will find this one closed and the furnaces dark.
2026 dates: November 13–15, 20–22, 27–29, then December 3–6, 10–13, 17–20. Free parking next door, at 645 East First Street.
Tip: Friday evenings from 5 to 8 pm are free. Cheapest two hours on this entire list, and the furnaces photograph better after dark anyway.
07Christmas Village, PhiladelphiaOpen, Closed, Then Open Again
Philadelphia’s dates need their own paragraph, because the market opens, closes, then opens again. A preview weekend on November 21 and 22. Shut for November 23, 24 and 25. The full season starts Thanksgiving Day and runs to December 27, closed Christmas Day.
Once it is going you get two sites a few minutes apart: wooden chalets ringing LOVE Park, more in the courtyard at City Hall, and a new 30-foot holiday pyramid this year. The turning kind, carved figures on every tier. Free, and four blocks from Suburban Station.
Hours: noon-8 pm Sunday to Thursday, noon-9 pm Friday and Saturday; Thanksgiving 9 am-5 pm, Christmas Eve to 5 pm.
Our pick: the first week of December, on a Tuesday, when every chalet is open and the crowd is mostly people stopping off on the way home from work.
08Christmas Village, BaltimorePhiladelphia’s Sister Market on the Water
If that one sounds familiar, there is a reason. Baltimore’s Christmas Village has the same operator and the layout rhymes, down to the name. It sits at West Shore Park on the Inner Harbor, water on one side of you and the skyline on the other, with a heated festival tent in the middle and a gluhwein pyramid out front.
Admission is where the two differ. The outdoor market around the pyramid is always free. The tent is free on weekdays and during the preview weekend, but on selected weekend days there is a $5 season pass for anyone 18 and over, good for unlimited re-entry all season. Under 18s go free.
Note: closed Mondays and Tuesdays, with December 21 and 22 the two exceptions.
2026 dates: November 21 – December 27, at 501 Light Street. Noon–8 pm Sunday to Thursday, noon–9 pm Friday and Saturday, noon–5 pm Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Closed November 25 and December 25.
The official site and the organizers’ press release disagree on which November weekend is the preview. Confirm that one.
09DowntownDC Holiday Market, Washington, DCSix Weeks on F Street
Come out of Gallery Place–Chinatown, walk one block, and you are in it. The market takes over F Street NW between 7th and 9th, dropping you between the National Portrait Gallery and a row of restaurants. Useful when it is 34 degrees and you want to sit down. Around 70 vendors rotate in shifts, so a second visit will not show you the same stalls.
Six weeks, longer than almost anything else here, and free, our pick if you only have one evening.
2026 dates: November 13 – December 23, on F Street NW.
Fair warning: the official hours page still said “stay tuned” in early November, so the times circulating online may be last year’s. Check the week you travel.
10Bryant Park Winter Village, New YorkThe One That Runs Into January
Bryant Park plays by different rules. The Holiday Shops opened on October 28 and stay up to January 3, 2027, with the rink behind them running to the end of February. It is the only one here you can still catch in the dead week between Christmas and New Year.
More than 180 glass-fronted kiosks, run by Urbanspace, wrap the rink on three sides. Honestly, it reads less like a German market than a very good New York design fair that sells mulled wine. Walking through costs nothing.
Skating is free if you bring your own skates. Rentals are demand-priced and move around a lot, roughly $19 to $64 with fees in 2026, so a Tuesday morning and a Saturday afternoon are nowhere near the same purchase.
2026 dates: Holiday Shops October 28 – January 3, 2027. Rink to February 28, 2027. Free entry.
Tip: book a rental slot online for a weekday morning. We would not wish the walk-up line on a December Saturday on anyone.
11Village of Lights: Christmastown, Leavenworth, WashingtonA Whole Town, Lit
Leavenworth is not a market so much as a town that commits. A Bavarian-themed village in the Cascades two hours east of Seattle, over half a million lights across every gabled roof on Front Street, mountains going black behind it. The lights come on at dusk and stay lit from 6 am to 11 pm, right through to the end of February 2027.
Village of Lights: Christmastown runs daily from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve: stalls, a sledding hill and Bavarian brass.
Looking at it costs you nothing. Parking does, and on a December Saturday the lots fill by late morning, so take the park-and-ride shuttle and skip the circling.
2026 dates: November 27 – December 24, daily. Lights to the end of February 2027.
Tip: stay the night. Leavenworth at 9 pm with the day-trippers gone is a different town, and we would not drive back over Stevens Pass in winter when tired.
12Fredericksburg, TexasA 26-Foot Pyramid on the Marktplatz
A 26-foot wooden Weihnachtspyramide turns on the Marktplatz every night of the season, carved figures going round under the lights. The lighting on November 24 arrives at the end of a ten-minute audio piece about the German families who settled the town in 1846, then a countdown, and the square comes on.
Fredericksburg is Hill Country wine country, an hour and a half from Austin, which makes it the warmest market on this list by a wide margin. The tasting rooms along Main Street stay open late and nobody is wearing a parka!
Two nights are already off: December 4 for the Light the Night parade, December 31 for the city’s New Year’s Eve countdown.
2026 dates: lighting on Tuesday, November 24. The lights then run nightly into early January 2027, but the final night is genuinely unsettled this season. The city’s calendar and the tourism site do not agree, so treat January 5 or 6 as likely and check before you book.
Four road trips that link them
The Northeast corridor, 4 to 5 days
Four markets on one line, and you only need a car for the first.
Start in Bethlehem on a Friday evening, when the gate is free from 5 to 8. Drive an hour and a quarter south to Philadelphia, leave the car, and take Amtrak from there: about an hour and a half to Baltimore, forty more minutes to Washington, every station within walking distance of the market. Add New York on either end if you have the days.
Watch the calendar here. Bethlehem is weekends only and done by December 20, and Philadelphia is shut November 23 to 25. The second weekend of December is when all four run at once.
Colorado in a weekend, 2 days
Denver Saturday, Georgetown Sunday, 45 minutes of I-70 between them. Georgetown only exists on two weekends, so this trip has exactly four possible dates in 2026: December 5–6, or December 12–13. Book your Georgetown day first and build the weekend around it.
Tip: drive up I-70 in daylight. The road climbs past 8,500 feet at Georgetown and the weather in the canyon changes faster than the forecast does.
The Midwest German belt, 3 to 4 days
Chicago to Carmel is about three hours on I-65, and we think those two make the strongest German pair in the country. St Paul stretches it into a much longer loop, six hours northwest of Chicago, worth the drive only if your dates fall on a Friday or Sunday.
Our pick with three days: Chicago on the Friday, drive Saturday morning, Carmel for Saturday evening and Sunday.
The two worth flying for
Leavenworth and Fredericksburg connect to nothing. Opposite corners of the country, each the destination rather than a stop: Leavenworth for the lights and the snow, Fredericksburg for a German Christmas market you can enjoy in a sweater, with a glass of Texas red in your hand.
How much does a Christmas market road trip cost?
Almost all of these let you walk in free. Bethlehem is the exception at $14 to $16.50 (2026), and Baltimore wants $5 for the heated tent on some weekend days.
What you actually spend money on is the mug. Expect somewhere around $10 to $14 a cup of gluhwein at the bigger city markets in 2026, usually with a few dollars of refundable deposit on the ceramic itself. Food runs roughly $8 to $16 a plate, and two things from two stalls will do you for dinner.
Hotels are what make this trip expensive, and it is the weekends doing it: a December Friday in Philadelphia, Denver or Leavenworth can cost double the Tuesday rate for the same room. If your dates bend at all, go midweek.
Parking is the quiet cost: $20 to $40 a day downtown in Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore. We would take transit in all three, cheaper and considerably warmer.
Which week should you go?
The week of December 7. It is the only stretch in 2026 when all twelve of these are open at some point: Georgetown and Bethlehem both run that second weekend, Bryant Park has been going since October, and nothing has closed down yet.
Inside that week, aim for a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Denver and Washington are all noticeably easier midweek after about 7 pm, so keep your weekend for the two that give you no choice.
Leaving it later? Most of the list is finished by December 24, and Bethlehem and St Paul shut on December 20. After Christmas exactly one market here is still standing, and it is Bryant Park, until January 3. Pick your week, pick your route, and go stand in the cold with a hot mug!
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