Christmas Countdown › UK Christmas Markets › Edinburgh

By Linda Garrould · Part of our guide to Christmas markets across the UK

Edinburgh Christmas Market dates and opening times

The organisers, Unique Assembly, have confirmed a run of Saturday 14 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027. Mind the end date: several guides still say 4 January, which was the 2025 market’s final day. The official market listing gives 10am to 10pm daily, except Christmas Day, with the caveat that times are subject to change.

Festive-day hours are not yet published. Below is the last day-by-day schedule we can find, from 2024: a guide, not this year’s times.

Hogmanay: from 8pm on Thursday 31 December the organisers list the ticketed Hogmanay Street Party on Princes Street (from £10, ages 12+), so be out of the market by late afternoon. The Torchlight Procession leaves the Meadows at 6.30pm on Tuesday 29 December; expect a crowded centre that evening.

Bank holidays: Boxing Day is observed on Monday 28 December, and Scotland adds St Andrew’s Day on Monday 30 November.

Where is Edinburgh Christmas Market? The layout in brief

The market fills East Princes Street Gardens (Princes Street, EH2 2DG), the sunken garden between Princes Street and the Old Town, with the Scott Monument at its eastern end and Waverley station below. The organisers’ access page names three gates worth knowing: Waverley Bridge on the east side, two minutes from the station; Market Street on the south side, below the Old Town; and the gate between the two galleries on the Mound at the western end. West Princes Street Gardens, across the Mound beneath the castle, holds the family attractions and Santa’s Stories, near the Ross Fountain. The organisers had published no 2026 site map as of 2 October.

Do you need tickets? Free entry, cards only, and a queue at the gate

There is no ticket, booking or timed slot for the market itself; the official FAQ says entry to both gardens is free. Bring a card rather than cash: every site is cashless. But the gardens are fenced and gated, and at peak times the organisers control the way in.

Rides can also be paid for on the spot, by card. Residents with an EH postcode get 20% off all three attractions (up to four tickets per event, while the allocation lasts). The 2025 George Street ice rink and Polar Ice Bar are not in the organisers’ 2026 listings as of 2 October, though the council’s visitor site still describes them.

The stalls, the food and what the market is actually like

The City of Edinburgh Council’s visitor site puts the Traditional Christmas Market at around 70 stalls in decorated chalets — clothing, jewellery, handmade gifts for the home, and local and international food and drink. Above them turn the 80-metre Starflyer and the 46-metre Big Wheel, which the council calls Scotland’s largest Ferris wheel. The West Gardens had a funfair in 2025.

No 2026 trader list has been published. On opening day in 2025 the Evening News found soap, sweets, cheese and chutneys, with food from macaroni cheese and salt-and-chilli chicken to crêpes. In 2024, the organisers say, three-quarters of the traders were local or Scottish. Scale is not in doubt: on Saturday 25 November 2023 the organisers counted more than 80,000 visitors to these gardens in twelve hours.

Getting there and parking

By train: Waverley sits directly below the gardens; the Waverley Bridge exit is step-free. LNER runs to Edinburgh from London King’s Cross, York and Newcastle. Trams stop at St Andrew Square, Princes Street and the West End.

By Park & Ride: Lothian Buses lists sites with free parking (the bus or tram fare is extra) at Ingliston (by the airport, served by tram as well as bus), Hermiston (A71), Sheriffhall (A7) and Wallyford (A199). Avoid Straiton: buses stopped calling there in September 2025.

There is no event parking, and the organisers warn that city-centre car parks will be busy. The train or Park & Ride takes the LEZ question off the table.

Best time to go: missing the crush and catching the lights

• Best: a Monday to Thursday morning in the second half of November. The organisers say all gates are open on weekdays, and their advice in 2023 was to avoid Friday afternoons and evenings and Saturdays. One exception, in our view: Monday 30 November, St Andrew’s Day, may be busier than a normal Monday.
• Arrive near 10am, when the market opens. The rides are listed as 10am to 10pm, but the organisers’ event cards show a 12 noon start, so check your ticket.
• For the lights, stay into the dusk. In mid-December the sun sets in Edinburgh at about 3.40pm, so a weekday visit from early afternoon gives you the stalls by daylight and the gardens lit after dark. No city Christmas lights switch-on had been announced for 2026 as of 2 October.
• Treat any December Saturday as a queue, above all 12 and 19 December. If it must be a Saturday, be at the gates for 10am.
• Mind the school holidays. Edinburgh’s schools break up on Friday 18 December; from then until 3 January, every day behaves like a weekend.
• Waterproofs, not an umbrella. The sites open in all weather unless winds make them unsafe, and the organisers ask visitors not to bring umbrellas or glass.

Food, drink and shopping

With no 2026 stallholders named, we recommend none. The rules are on the record: the bars run Challenge 25, you cannot bring your own alcohol, bags may be searched, drinks bought on site must be finished there, and sealed bottles bought as gifts can go home with you. Mulled wine in the gardens is part of the point; for the rest of December our ten-minute mulled wine recipe costs a fraction as much. Shopping to a list is quicker with our Christmas gift guide; and check when Black Friday falls before buying anything big.

With children, and with less mobile visitors

The gardens lie in a valley, so the ground slopes and some approaches are steep. The organisers’ access guide (last updated for the 2025 season) is candid that, on a temporary site, ramps to stalls “may occasionally be steeper than 1:12”. From that guide:

• Step-free entrances to the East Gardens are the Mound gate between the galleries and the Waverley Bridge gate; Market Street serves the south-side attractions. At peak times some gates may close.
• The West Gardens are reached by ramped paths from Princes Street, which the organisers warn are quite steep and partly cobbled; they name King’s Stables Road as the other accessible route in.
• Toilets: an accessible toilet sits near the Big Wheel (ask security for the key), and every site has one with baby change. A full Changing Places toilet is in the travel hall at Waverley station — ask station staff.
• The Big Wheel takes manual wheelchairs. Other rides are judged case by case by the operator. Essential companions get a free ticket to any ticketed event via access@unique-assembly.co.uk.
• Sensory backpacks can be borrowed from the East Gardens information point, and Santa’s Stories runs relaxed sessions with smaller groups and lower sound.
• Buggies: there are no buggy parks, except outside Santa’s Stories, where prams are not allowed in.
• After 8pm, under-18s must be with a responsible adult.
• Blue Badge holders park free with no time limit in pay-and-display bays on Frederick, George and Hanover Streets.

What else to do while you are there

• The Scottish National Gallery. Free, daily 10am–5pm, with its Turner in January display (also free) running through January 2027.
• Christmas at the Botanics. The Royal Botanic Garden’s illuminated evening trail runs 19 November to 30 December 2026, with timed tickets sold separately. Our guide to Christmas light trails has others.
• La Clique Noël. For grown-ups: the Olivier-winning cabaret plays a Spiegeltent in Bristo Square, in the Old Town, from 20 November to 3 January.

Is Edinburgh Christmas Market worth it?

From central Scotland or North East England, yes: on a weekday, by train, it is an easy half-day. Visitor opinion is genuinely split, though; Tripadvisor’s summary of its own forum threads notes that some travellers find the market not very Christmassy or representative of Edinburgh.

From further south, be clear what you are travelling for. Around 70 stalls is a good market rather than an enormous one; it is the setting, and a city that rewards a full day, that justify the journey. Come for Edinburgh at Christmas with a market in it, and come on a weekday. If you would rather a shorter trip, York’s market opens on 12 November, though it closes on Tuesdays this year.

Frequently asked questions

Dates, opening hours, ride prices and access information on this page were checked on 2 October 2026 against the official Edinburgh’s Christmas and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay listings run by Unique Assembly; the City of Edinburgh Council’s Forever Edinburgh, Low Emission Zone and school-term pages; the Scottish Government’s LEZ guidance and GOV.UK bank holidays; Lothian Buses; Network Rail; National Galleries of Scotland; the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; and Edinburgh Evening News and Edinburgh Reporter coverage from 2023 and 2025; the 2024 day-by-day hours come from Newsquest’s report of that year’s schedule, and the visitor-opinion line from Tripadvisor’s forum summary. Festive-day hours for 2026 had not been published; the 2024 times shown are prior-year only. Access arrangements come from the organisers’ access page, which was last updated for the 2025 season. Christmas markets change their plans; please confirm with the organisers before you travel, particularly if you are relying on a specific opening time or an access arrangement. We have not been paid or hosted by anyone mentioned here.