When Do Christmas Markets In Paris Start?

When Do Christmas Markets In Paris Start?

The short answer for 2026 is mid-November: La Défense, the largest market in the Paris area, is confirmed to open on November 12, 2026 and run to December 31, with its Le Sommet zone continuing to January 3, 2027. The Notre-Dame parvis market is confirmed from November 26 to December 27, 2026. A Champs-Élysées market is planned from November 22, 2026, but no operator has been selected, so treat it as proposed, not booked. Several other markets, including Tuileries, have not announced 2026 dates.

Paris has no single official calendar covering every market, and the smaller markets tend to confirm their dates in late September or October, sometimes later. The result is that any article promising a full, fixed schedule for the whole city is guessing. This page separates what is confirmed on official sources from what is planned, and from what simply has not been announced yet. Once you have the dates pinned down, the question becomes crowds, and our guide to how crowded Paris really gets at Christmas tells you which weekends to avoid and when the city empties out.

The pattern from past seasons is consistent enough to plan around, though. The big markets open in the second or third week of November, the lights on the Champs-Élysées switch on around the same time, and everything runs into the first days of January. If you can travel between roughly November 20 and December 20, you will land in the heart of the season without the peak Christmas-week crowds. And if you're thinking about pairing your market visit with a day trip, Versailles's holiday opening hours and December schedule explain exactly which days the palace welcomes visitors.

For travelers who want the lights rather than the shopping, the roster on this site has a good fit: the "Small-Group Walk, Hot Chocolate" walking tour, a 2-hour guided walk from $78 per person rated 4.7 from 13 reviews, which runs through the decorated center while the markets are setting up or in full swing. There is also the "Tastings Walk, Champs-Élysées", from $68 per person, which pairs the avenue's illuminations with food tastings, and the "Reims Christmas Market, Minivan" day tour for anyone who wants a proper Alsatian-style market in one long day trip.

Which Paris Christmas Markets Are Confirmed For 2026?

Two Paris markets have confirmed 2026 dates: La Défense, running November 12 to December 31, 2026 with the Le Sommet zone to January 3, 2027, and the Notre-Dame parvis market at Square René-Viviani, running November 26 to December 27, 2026. Both are free to enter. A Champs-Élysées market is planned from November 22, 2026, but no operator has been selected, so it is proposed, not confirmed.

La Défense is the big one. It sits on the wide esplanade of the La Défense business district, a short metro ride west of the Arc de Triomphe, and it is the largest Christmas market in the Paris area, with hundreds of chalets spread across the parvis. Entry is free, and the market runs Thursday November 12 to Thursday December 31, 2026, with the Le Sommet zone staying open to January 3, 2027. The organizer's site, xmasparisladefense.com, carries the confirmed dates and the practical details. Expect special hours on December 24, 25 and 31.

The Notre-Dame market is the opposite in scale: about 40 chalets of French artisans on Square René-Viviani, on the Left Bank directly across from the cathedral, running November 26 to December 27, 2026. It is small, free, and easy to combine with a cathedral visit, since Notre-Dame itself is open and free to enter with a reservation on the official site.

The Champs-Élysées situation deserves a careful explanation, because it is the one people most often get wrong. The avenue has had no Christmas market since around 2017. For 2026, the City of Paris has published a call for projects for a market on the lower avenue from November 22, 2026 to January 4, 2027, on the official paris.fr projects page. The city explicitly reserves the right not to proceed, and no operator has been named. Until an operator is announced, write it down as planned, not open.

If you are planning around the market calendar rather than a specific market, our full guide to Paris Christmas markets goes deeper into what each one is actually like, and the comparison piece which Christmas market in Paris is the best ranks them for different kinds of visitors.

Here is the start-date picture in one table:

The "not announced" rows are not code for cancelled. They mean exactly what they say: in early October 2026, no official 2026 dates exist for those markets. Last season the Tuileries fair ran November 15, 2025 to January 4, 2026, roughly 11:00 to 23:45 daily, and it has been the major central market in recent years. But a past season is a pattern, not a promise, and the honest position is that Tuileries dates for 2026 have not been published.

When Do The Champs-Élysées Lights Switch On Relative To The Markets?

The 2026 switch-on date for the Champs-Élysées lights has not been announced. Last season the avenue was lit from November 16, 2025 to January 4, 2026, with 400 illuminated trees, lights on from 17:00, and a daily son et lumière show at 18:30. That timing sits right between the two confirmed market openings, which is why mid-to-late November is the practical start of the whole Paris Christmas season. If you are planning an evening around the illuminations, our guide to the Champs-Élysées switch-on dates covers what has been confirmed so far and the best ways to take in the display.

The lights and the markets are separate productions with separate organizers, but they cluster in the same two-week window. La Défense opens first, the avenue lights follow within days, and the smaller neighborhood markets trail behind in late November. If your whole goal is "Paris at Christmas", arriving from about November 20 onward gives you the lights plus at least two open markets, without waiting for the stragglers.

One detail worth knowing from last season: the Champs-Élysées lights stayed on all night on December 24 and 31, and the garland installation on the avenue began in early September, weeks before anything is lit. So the physical infrastructure appears long before the season does. The 2026 switch-on date, and who performs it, has not been announced on official Paris sources.

The department-store windows follow the same rhythm. Galeries Lafayette Haussmann ran its Christmas windows and giant tree from November 12 to January 4 last season, with a rooftop ice rink from December 1 to January 4. The 2026 dates and theme have not been announced, though the store has already named a designer for the holiday windows, which signals the machine is moving. Printemps Haussmann has no official 2026 information out yet either.

For travelers who want the avenue's illuminations explained rather than just walked, the "Tastings Walk, Champs-Élysées" is built exactly for this: about 1 hour 30 minutes, from $68 per person, rated 5.0 from 15 reviews, meeting at the Statue of General Charles de Gaulle, with tastings included. It departs from the top of the avenue, so it pairs naturally with an evening when the lights are on from 17:00.

What Time Do Paris Christmas Markets Open Each Day?

Market hours vary by operator, and only La Défense has published approximate daily hours for 2026: roughly 11:00 to 21:00 on weekdays, later on Friday and Saturday evenings to about 23:00, from 10:00 on Saturdays, and until about 21:30 on Sundays, with special hours on December 24, 25 and 31. The Notre-Dame market runs about 10:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and Sundays, and to 21:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Hours matter more than people expect, because a December market visit is an evening activity by design. Sunset in Paris falls around 16:55 to 17:02 in December, so by 17:00 the chalets, garlands and mulled-wine steam are at their most photogenic, and the crowd builds accordingly. Arriving at opening time, around 11:00 at La Défense, means a quieter browse and shorter food lines; arriving after 18:00 means the full atmosphere and the full queues.

The day-by-day pattern also shifts near the holidays. December 24 is typically a shorter trading day, December 25 is a partial or closed day at some markets while others run special programming, and December 31 runs into the evening with NYE-specific events at some sites. The 2026 specifics for each market are not all published, so the practical advice is to check the organizer's page for your exact date once the season is underway.

Here is how the two confirmed markets compare on the practical details:

Do The Markets And The Lights Overlap Enough For One Trip?

Yes, comfortably. The confirmed La Défense opening on November 12, 2026 and the typical Champs-Élysées switch-on in mid-November mean that by about November 20 the city has open markets, lit avenues and decorated windows all at once. A visit any time from late November through December 20 catches the full season, with the trade-off that early December is colder and darker but noticeably less crowded than Christmas week.

The overlap is the whole point for most visitors. The markets give you the chalets, the food and the crafts; the illuminations give you the long walks between them. The route almost writes itself: La Défense in the afternoon, metro line 1 back toward the Champs-Élysées for the 17:00 lighting and the 18:30 son et lumière show if that returns, then dinner in the 8th or a cruise on the Seine. On a separate day, the Notre-Dame market plus the Latin Quarter, or the Galeries Lafayette windows if the 2026 dates land as they did last season.

Weather shapes how this feels. December in Paris averages a high of 8.0 C (46 F) and a low of 3.8 C (39 F), with 11.4 days of rain in the month, so the evening market visit is a coat, scarf and gloves affair, and an umbrella is not paranoia. Snow is rare. The cold is part of the atmosphere at the chalets, but it is also why the indoor anchors, the department stores, the cabarets and the dinner cruises, fill up so fast in the same weeks.

This is also where the guided options earn their keep. The Christmas In Paris roster includes the "Small-Group Walk, Hot Chocolate", a 2-hour walk from $78 per person rated 4.7 from 13 reviews, which handles the route-finding in the cold and ends with a warm drink; you can Check availability on the live listing. Free cancellation applies per the listing, which matters when December plans shift.

What If You Want A Christmas Market Before Mid-November?

You cannot get one in Paris, because nothing in the city opens before November 12, 2026. The earliest option is to leave Paris for the day: the Reims Christmas market, about 45 minutes by TGV, traditionally opens in late November, and the "Reims Christmas Market, Minivan" day tour from $371 per person runs there and back in one day. The tour is new on the roster and has no rating or reviews yet.

Reims is the closest thing to a proper Alsatian-style market within day-trip range of Paris. The 2026 dates for the Reims market itself have not been announced yet, so check with the organizer before you go; the pattern in recent seasons has been a late-November start running to the end of December, but you should confirm the dates on the organizer's page before booking anything around them. The day tour departs from 38 Boulevard de Bercy, at the exit of Bercy metro, and includes minivan transport with a full day at the market.

The same logic applies to Strasbourg and Colmar, further east. Colmar's 2026 market dates are announced for November 23 to December 29, 2026, and Strasbourg's are not fully published yet, but both are overnight or very long day trips rather than casual outings. Our guide to the Strasbourg Christmas market from Paris covers the train options and timing in detail.

For readers who would rather stay in Paris and accept the calendar, the honest framing is this: Paris is a November-and-December destination for markets, full stop. Before November 12, the city is in autumn mode, with garlands going up on the Champs-Élysées but nothing lit and no chalets open. If your travel dates are fixed in early November, plan around the lights and windows instead, and treat any market time as a bonus if a date slips later than expected.

How Should You Plan Around Dates That Are Not Announced Yet?

Book the flexible things first, and let the unannounced dates come to you. Reserve accommodation and any non-refundable tours for dates after about November 20, keep free-cancellation options open where the listing offers it, and check the official organizer pages in late October, when the remaining markets typically publish. Never build an itinerary around a market whose 2026 dates are not announced, because a past-season pattern is not a schedule.

The order of operations looks like this. First, fix the dates you can travel. Second, book the anchors that do not depend on market calendars: the walking tours, the lights experiences, the cabaret or cruise evenings, all of which run through the season regardless of which chalets are open. Third, in late October and early November, check the organizer pages for Tuileries, Montmartre, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the rest, and slot in the markets that have confirmed. Fourth, leave one evening deliberately unplanned, because Paris in December produces spontaneous options, from church concerts to rinks, that no calendar fully captures.

Cancellation policies are the quiet hero of December planning. The walking tours and the Reims day tour on this roster all carry free cancellation per their listings, so they can be booked early without betting the trip. The dinner cruises and cabaret dinners are largely non-refundable per their listings, so those should be booked only once your dates are locked. That asymmetry is worth more than any start-date table.

One last planning note on the year-end edge of the season: markets that run past December 31, like the Le Sommet zone at La Défense to January 3, 2027, give early-January travelers a small window of Christmas atmosphere after the holidays, usually with thinner crowds. If you are traveling in the first week of January hoping for markets, check which zones are still open before you go, because most of the city's decorations come down in the first days of the month.

Common Questions About Paris Christmas Market Start Dates

When Do Christmas Markets In Paris Start?

For 2026, La Défense opens first on November 12, running to December 31 with its Le Sommet zone to January 3, 2027. The Notre-Dame parvis market follows on November 26. A Champs-Élysées market is planned from November 22, 2026, but no operator has been selected, so treat it as proposed rather than confirmed. Several other markets, including Tuileries, have not announced 2026 dates.

Is The Champs-Élysées Christmas Market Open In 2026?

Not confirmed. The City of Paris has issued a call for projects for a market on the lower avenue from November 22, 2026 to January 4, 2027, but no operator has been selected and the city reserves the right not to proceed. The avenue has had no Christmas market since around 2017. Until an operator is announced, plan around La Défense and the Notre-Dame parvis market instead.

What Is The Biggest Christmas Market In Paris?

La Défense, on the Parvis de La Défense, is the largest Christmas market in the Paris area, with hundreds of chalets and free entry. It is confirmed for November 12 to December 31, 2026, with the Le Sommet festive zone continuing to January 3, 2027. It sits one metro stop from the Arc de Triomphe end of the Champs-Élysées on line 1.

Do Paris Christmas Markets Stay Open After Christmas?

Some do. La Défense runs to December 31, 2026, and its Le Sommet zone continues to January 3, 2027, giving early-January visitors a short window of market atmosphere. The Notre-Dame parvis market closes December 27, 2026. Check each market's end date before planning a post-holiday visit, because most of the city's decorations come down in the first days of January.

When Do Christmas Markets In Paris End?

The confirmed 2026 end dates are December 31 for La Défense, January 3, 2027 for its Le Sommet zone, and December 27 for the Notre-Dame parvis market. Last season the Tuileries fair ran to January 4, but its 2026 dates are not announced. In general, expect most markets to close between December 24 and the first days of January.

Can You Visit A Christmas Market Near Paris Before They Open In The City?

Not before November 12, 2026, when the first Paris market opens. The alternative is a day trip: the Reims Christmas market, about 45 minutes from Paris by TGV, traditionally opens in late November, and a minivan day tour from $371 per person runs there and back in one day. Colmar's 2026 market dates are announced for November 23 to December 29. Confirm the market dates on the organizer's page before booking around them.