Christmas markets immediately before Christmas

Germans celebrate Christmas with their core family / friends in the evening of Dec. 24th. Therefore most businesses close around noon or early afternoon on Christmas Eve, and so likely most of the markets will do if they open up on this day.

Check the opening times next year from mid November on, then you will know when each market will open up.

I would expect from a Christmas Market which is open until Dec. 23 that the full range of stands is open - and likely they have because the costs for the stand has to be amortized.

Dec. 25 and 26 are public holidays, and in 2026 Dec. 27 is a Sunday. On all these days regular shops will be closed.

In 2026 Christmas day falls on a Friday. This makes it a bit problematic trying to guess the closing dates for markets that far out. and, as Mark has pointed out, in Germany the 26th is also a holiday. (In some other countries also, but not all of the EU.) You will need to wait until late October, at least, for the dates to start getting finalized.

Markets/Fests/Events that run through the 23rd are fully up and staffed. Most Christmas markets do not normally start the day until after 1100, so don't expect anything on the 24th, because everything shuts down around noon, normally. Some will open on the 26th, if they're planned to run after the 25th, and my feeling is that's more likely with the weekend. Markets in France, and possibly Austria and Switzerland, are more likely to continue on the 26th (at least in the major cities).

If you only have that week i recommend you pick a major city with a number of markets within a 1 hour train ride and use that as your hub. Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Bamberg, Strasbourg, all would be good. But it should be noted that's one of the reasons they're popular and expensive.

If you strike out with the German markets because of closing times, you might look at Vienna and Budapest. The larger markets in both cities are good to visit on the 24th, 25th and 26th. In addition, both cities they have other things open those days as well.

These are the hours of one of the large markets in Budapest, I believe you can find about the same hours at one or two markets in Vienna https://www.austria.info/en-gb/highlights/christmas-markets-in-vienna/ and Emily did a good post on the Vienna markets: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/vienna-christmas-markets-2025-a-local-s-take. Nothing is being closed or taken apart at the markets that stay open until the first of the year. I was at one of them this year on the 25th and was pretty impressed. Here is some info on the Budapest markets: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/budapest-christmas-markets-d26f8ab1-2048-4160-bfb3-bf13b096683e

14 November – 31 December 2025
Monday – Thursday 11.00 - 21.00
Friday & Saturday 11.00 - 22.00
Sunday 11.00 - 21.00
24. December 10.00 - 14.00
25 & 26 December 10.00 -18.00
31 December 11.00 - 05.00
01. January 11.00 - 17.00

Generally speaking, and this is only from experience, markets in bigger cities tend to run right until 23. (included) with full operations going.
Baden Baden, which is in the region, runs until Jan. 6th - including the Christmas days - but only until early afternoon on the 24th (as noted by Mark, that is the family and presents day in Germany)

I left Colmar yesterday (Dec 27) after spending four nights there- Dec 23-26. The Christmas markets were in full action on the 23rd and for much of the day on the 24th. Many of the market stalls were even open on Christmas Day. What I found most enchanting about Colmar at Christmastime is that it seems like the whole core of the town is one large market, with temporary stalls and permanent shops so nicely integrated. What wasn’t generally open on the 25th and 26th were the shops. However, we enjoyed after dark strolls through the core of the town each night we were there- the lights are beautiful even with everything closed. On the other hand, it was also quite crowded in the last few afternoons, as Colmar has become a very popular Christmas destination. Our stop prior to Colmar was Cologne, on the nights of the 21st & 22nd. There, there are several distinct markets spread around town. On Sunday and Monday from mid afternoon through evening they were incredibly packed with people. The only time we could actually see anything at the stalls was from opening time until maybe 2:00 pm. As others have pointed out, the German markets shut down after the 23rd, which is why we chose to finish our market tour in Colmar, knowing it goes into the new year. Two years ago, we spent a few nights in Vienna, including Christmas. There, some of the markets seemed to be closing early on Christmas Eve, although there was still lots of activity.

ottawanderer, thats what I would expect from a fairly large city .... even in Germany.

Get ready for crowds. Are you okay with being in crowds and not seeing much of the stalls? They can get repetitive and sell the same items as well. A friend went on a market cruise and said after awhile the markets all seemed the same except for the French ones. And the crowds and jostling really take away from the experience.

If you are picking cities, I’d try to find the more out of the way or neighborhood markets to see.

OP will find enough open Christmas Markets in the Southeastern part of Germany plus French and Swiss neighbors. There are overview pages of each town / city and the respective state tourist pages, also on the relevant public broadcaster websites, in this case https://www.swr.de/ and https://www.hr.de/.

Hmmmm, to avoid the crowds here one just needs to do the markets before about an hour after sunset. They get crowded in the evenings, but the days are okay. I suspect others are the same. If not, then ..... I do have a suggestion.

Mark, last Christmas I spent the evening of the 24th in a very nice 4 star hotel in Kaiserslautern, Germany. At about 3pm, they closed the front desk and everyone, i mean absolutely everyone went home. They returned about noon the next day.

If you go to the Frankfurt market, you can easily see Mainz, Wiesbaden and Rüdesheim, which all close on the 22nd and 23rd. Arrive a day or 2 earlier and you could go the Bad Homburg market which is only on the weekends, but for my opinion had the more hand-crafted items than any other market and the location in the Taunus Mountains is lovely.
Being in Frankfurt on Christmas Eve, you get to experience the Pealing of the Bells and the brass band playing from the gallery of the Alte Nikolai Church. The 1000s of Frankfurters gathered in the Römerberg square, sing along with the Christmas carols being played. This is a wonderful tradition that would be great for Rick Steves to add to his Christmas special. (if he ever makes a new one)
The Winter Lights are on in the Palmengarten every evening except on the 24th.

After Christmas, there are markets in Speyer, Koblenz (also the Christmas Garden here) and in Baden-Baden.

Hmmmm, to avoid the crowds here one just needs to do the markets before about an hour after sunset. They get crowded in the evenings, but the days are okay. I suspect others are the same. If not, then ..... I do have a suggestion.

Mark, last Christmas I spent the evening of the 24th in a very nice 4 star hotel in Kaiserslautern, Germany. At about 3pm, they closed the front desk and everyone, i mean absolutely everyone went home. They returned about noon the next day. Outside there was a work crew, who by 3pm had managed to roll up all of the streets and stuff them into the back of a 1968 VW Micorbus. Those also got returned about noon, but not much along the streets was open

It's not a good idea to try and guess what days any market will run next year based on this years schedule. As I pointed out Christmas in 2026 falls on a Friday, which makes a big difference in how Germans will be planning the weekends. This year some markets stayed open because Saturday was not a holiday, and that allowed them to work another weekend. But next year the 26th, which is a holiday in many places, will be on Saturday, which means the stores will be closed from Thursday afternoon until Monday. And Monday everyone will be expected to be back at work, so yes, I can see a lot of the festivities ending on the 23rd, and not going longer, so the tear down can get started first thing Monday (or earlier). And yes, there's also a good possibility some will run through the Sylvester (New Years) weekend. But that holiday on Saturday is really going to be a factor.

KGC, you have a point and I checked the dates at a number of the markets in Germany and my point of view would be that if you can get to them before the 20th of December, maybe best to wait for a year when you can. If someone is tied into the dates that close to Christmas they might want to look for a location that runs a market or two through Christmas until New Year. Also locations where they dont roll up the streets on the 24th, 25th and 26th.