What date do the Belfast Christmas Markets open?

The Belfast Christmas Market in the City Hall grounds opens its season at 12:00 on Saturday 14 November 2026 and ends at 18:00 on Tuesday 22 December 2026. No other market on the map has fixed a 2026 date yet: the six smaller ones are still to announce theirs. Stalls, food and rides at City Hall are covered with the Belfast Christmas Markets.

The opening Saturday is also the evening of the Christmas lights switch-on at City Hall, from 18:30 to 19:30, with local artists and performers on stage. The switch-on is a ticketed event and the ticket release has not been announced yet. The date, the time and the ticket rule of the evening are on the council's Christmas lights switch-on page.

After its first day, the City Hall market trades on every day of its season. The remaining six are brief makers', art and vintage events in different parts of the city: the Christmas Twilight Market in St George's Market, the Cathedral Quarter Christmas Sunday Art Market in the Cathedral Quarter, the Festive Fayre at Titanic Belfast, the Frock Around the Clock Christmas Handmade and Vintage Fair at Belfast Castle, the Vault Christmas Market at Carlisle Circus and the Portview Christmas Market on the Newtownards Road. None of these six has set a 2026 date so far.

The Christmas Market Belfast calendar for 2026, in map order:

Market 1 opens on each day between its first and last date, with no closed day announced. An empty row means that market has no 2026 date yet. The council's Belfast Christmas Market event page shows the 2026 dates with the weekly stall times, and Market Place, which runs the market for the council, gives the dates and the venue on its Belfast Christmas Market event listing.

Tuesday 22 December 2026 is the final day of the Belfast Christmas Market, which shuts at 18:00 that evening. Its season ends two days before Christmas Eve, so City Hall has no market on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

No market on the map has announced a date after 22 December. The six smaller markets have not set their 2026 closing dates either, so the end of their seasons is still open.

Stall and bar times of the City Hall market for each day of the week, its opening and closing days included, are set out with the daily hours of the Belfast Christmas Markets.

Past dates of the markets on the map, by year:

The Belfast Christmas Market opened on a Saturday in mid-November in both past years, on 16 November 2024 and on 15 November 2025, and closed on 22 December each time. The 2026 season keeps that shape, from Saturday 14 November to 22 December, which fits its typical run from mid-November to just before Christmas.

In 2025 the six smaller markets ran for between two days and a series of Sundays or weekends, and none of them has announced its 2026 dates yet.