European Christmas Markets 2026: Vienna and Birmingham Open, Strasbourg on 27 November, Mulled Wine Near 5 Euros
Vienna's palace market and Birmingham's Frankfurt market are open, the Rathausplatz follows on 13 November, and a German price check finds mulled wine mostly unchanged.
Wednesday, November 11, 2026/3 min read
The first European Christmas markets are already open, and the price of a mug of mulled wine looks set to hold steady. Vienna's palace and cathedral-square markets opened on 6 November, Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market opened on 5 November, and the big names, Vienna's Rathausplatz on Friday 13 November and Strasbourg on 27 November, have confirmed their dates.
This is a planning guide as it stood on Wednesday 11 November, drawn from organisers' announcements and dated news reports. Dates can move, so check each market's own site before you book travel.
Which Christmas markets are open now?
In Vienna, ORF Wien reported on 6 November that the city has 814 stalls in total, about 200 of them food stands. Schönbrunn Palace opened on 6 November and runs to 6 January, the Stephansplatz market also opened on 6 November and runs to 26 December, and the Rathausplatz market runs from 13 November to 26 December. A winter market at the Riesenradplatz opens on 20 November, and the Christmas village at Maria-Theresien-Platz reopens on 20 November after a year's break.
In Birmingham, the Frankfurt Christmas Market was scheduled to run from Thursday 5 November to Thursday 24 December, according to a JustPark guide dated 14 October. The guide says there are no stalls on part of New Street because of public realm works on Bennetts Hill and Temple Street, and that extra craft stalls have been added on High Street.
When do the big markets open?
Vienna's Rathausplatz market opens on Friday 13 November with the lighting of a 31-metre spruce from Damüls in Vorarlberg, vienna.at reported on 28 October. Opening hours are 10am to 10pm daily, closing at 6.30pm on 24 December. It is the first time the market is run as an "EcoEvent PLUS", with a mandatory share of organic, vegetarian and vegan food, and the family Christmas World has been redesigned with 17 themed stations.
Strasbourg's market opens on Friday 27 November, according to the city's official site as summarised by the travel site Onivapp on 17 October. Eight markets are planned in the historic centre, and the closing date had not been published at that time. The same page says motor vehicles are banned from the Grande Île during opening hours, with checks at the bridge entrances. In Cologne, t-online reported on 5 November that the Stadtgarten and Schokoladenmuseum markets open on 13 November.
Are Christmas market prices going up this year?
Largely not, in Germany. BILD and Coupon.de, in a report dated 10 November and republished by HeadTopics, found that only one of 20 markets checked in 16 cities had raised its mulled-wine price. A Coupon.de study of 59 cities put the average cup at 4.60 euros, up about 1 percent. The industry body BWS put the 2025 average at 4.54 euros. Munich's Christkindlmarkt is the dearest mentioned, at up to 7 euros.
In Cologne, t-online found a cup costs 5 euros at the Dom, Neumarkt, Schokoladenmuseum and Mediapark markets, 4.90 euros at Heavenue and 5.60 euros at the Stadtgarten, the dearest in the city. At Neumarkt, a two-litre thermos of mulled wine carries a 20 euro deposit.
On security, we found no published change to the rules for 2026, and none of the organiser pages we read described new measures. The next milestones are Vienna's opening on Friday, the Cologne markets later this month, and Strasbourg on 27 November, when most of the Franco-German markets begin the run to Christmas Eve.
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