Christmas Holidays in Germany 2026-2027: Dates by Land

1. The calendar of the 16 Länder for Christmas 2026-2027

Three markers help place the period. Nine Länder out of sixteen start on Wednesday 23 December 2026, and Thuringia the same day according to the KMK table, without confirmation from the Land. Five start on Monday 21 December: Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, whose start date is the subject of a detailed caveat below. Bavaria starts on Thursday 24 December, the very day of Christmas Eve. On the return side, the holidays end between Thursday 31 December 2026 (Saarland) and Tuesday 12 January 2027 (Hesse), the longest.

The table below lists the dates Land by Land. Durations are counted in calendar days, both ends included, weekends included.

Source: the education ministries of each Land (full list at the end of the article), and for Thuringia, the Kultusministerkonferenz table, checked on 13 October 2026. Duration: our own calculation.

What to check before you book

There is no national German school calendar: each Land has its own regulation, and several have particularities. The points below deserve a check on the website of the Land concerned before you fix a departure date.

• Hesse: floating days. The ministry announces four floating days for 2026/27 without dating them: the school offices set them district by district. In Kassel, 21 and 22 December 2026 are floating days, according to the Staatliches Schulamt Kassel.
• North Rhine-Westphalia: three floating days. The ministry announces them, but the dates are not on the page consulted. Ask the school.
• Saarland: an extract only. The official HTML page was not accessible. The dates come from the Official Gazette of the Land published on saarland.de.
• Saxony-Anhalt: document not read in full. The dates come from an extract of the ministry document « Ferientermine 2024 bis 2030 ».
• Berlin: regulation extract. The dates of the 2024/25 to 2029/30 regulation were read in an extract of the official PDF.

Holidays from 11 to 21 days

Fifteen of the sixteen Länder have holidays of 11 to 18 days. Hesse is the only one above that threshold, with 21 days, since it starts on 23 December and only ends on 12 January. The differences in length mostly come from the end date: Saarland sends pupils back on 31 December, while Hesse does not until 12 January. For a family travelling with a child at school in a particular Land, the calendar of that Land is what counts, not the German average.

These durations are those of school holidays. They do not take into account floating days, which are added locally, nor the holidays of private schools, which may differ.

The neighbouring calendars: France, Belgium, Switzerland

The academic zones A, B and C in France share the same Christmas dates. Classes end on Saturday 19 December 2026 and resume on Monday 4 January 2027, according to an extract of the Éducation nationale calendar. For the other zones in the table, the sources are more fragile, as the last column indicates.

Source: Éducation nationale, canton of Zug, canton of Schwyz, jeminforme.be, checked on 13 October 2026.

The overlap is real but partial. The French holidays, from 19 December to 3 January, cover the start of all the Länder holidays. The Länder endings are spread on either side of that date: eight finish before 3 January, eight after, up to 12 January in Hesse. According to the published calendars, Flemish pupils leave on 21 December (no official Flemish document was found). The Wallonia-Brussels Federation starts on 21 December according to jeminforme.be.

For the canton of Basel-Landschaft, the official PDF gives the semester dates, not the Christmas ones. For Zurich, no reliable date had been found at the time of checking: do not rely on a third-party calendar without a cantonal source.

2. The Christmas markets: dates, closures and opening hours on 24 December

The markets follow their own calendar, which does not always match the holidays. The big cities open between 20 and 27 November 2026 and mostly close on 23 or 24 December. Nuremberg and Dresden publish a 2026 municipal document that sets the closing date as 24 December, and Munich gives the same date through agreement between several sources: none of these three cities closes on the 23rd. For the day after Christmas Day, no information has been verified for 2026: do not assume that a market opens on 25 or 26 December. To compare with other European markets, our complete guide to Christmas markets in Europe 2026 places them in the wider picture.

Source: Nuremberg, Dresden, Munich, Berlin, Cologne, checked on 13 October 2026.

Munich: the Marienplatz market, 20 November to 24 December

Free entry 35 days 24 December: 10 am to 2 pm (2025) 20 November to 24 December 2026

The Christkindlmarkt on Marienplatz opens on 20 November 2026, the Friday before Totensonntag according to the City of Munich, and runs until 24 December 2026 (closing set by several sources in agreement). Entry is free. The City announces about 137 approved stalls for 2026. The hours published for 2025 (Monday to Saturday 10 am to 9 pm, Sunday 10 am to 8 pm, 24 December 10 am to 2 pm) are not yet confirmed for 2026: check muenchen.de before you go. The Gothic town hall serves as the backdrop to the stalls.

To discover the market with a guide, the food tour below takes you past the stalls and through the tastings. As of 13 October 2026, the product shows departures on 27 of the 28 days in the window from 27 November to 24 December 2026: 24 December is not open for booking.

Highlights

• A free market at the entrance, with stalls selling Bavarian food and mulled wine
• A guided tour that includes tastings, for anyone who prefers to taste rather than wander alone

Pixidia tip: on 24 December, the market closes at 2 pm according to the 2025 hours. If your stay falls on that day, plan your visit before noon, as the stalls empty quickly as Christmas Eve approaches.

Munich’s Original Christmas Market Food Tour, all tastings included From €150 to €295 per person (based on 2 adults) depending on the option, checked on 13 October 2026 for departures from 27 November to 23 December 2026 · ★ 4.9 (56 reviews)

Book my food tour

Dresden: the Striezelmarkt, 25 November to 24 December

216 stalls for 2026 30 days 24 December: 10 am to 2 pm 25 November to 24 December 2026

The Striezelmarkt in Dresden is in its 592nd edition in 2026, according to the City, which counts 216 stalls and 47 groups of traders for this edition. The market opens on 25 November and closes on 24 December. From 26 November to 23 December, it is open from 10 am to 9 pm. On 24 December it closes at 2 pm. On the first day, the opening time differs between documents: 4 pm on the main site, 4:30 pm in the official tender. This point still needs to be confirmed before you plan a visit on 25 November.

Highlights

• Hours published in the City’s official tender, except the time on 25 November, which is still to be confirmed
• A large number of stalls, with a share of regional products

Pixidia tip: from 26 November to 23 December, the market opens from 10 am to 9 pm; on 24 December, from 10 am to 2 pm.

Nuremberg: the Christkindlesmarkt, 27 November to 24 December

28 days 24 December: 10 am to 2 pm More than 2 million visitors a year (undated figure) 27 November to 24 December 2026

The Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg opens on Friday 27 November 2026, the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent, and closes on 24 December. The official document published by the City for 2026 gives these dates. Christmas Eve is therefore the last day: plan a visit on the morning of the 24th if it is your only option, as the stalls close at 2 pm. The figure of more than two million visitors a year comes from germany.travel, with no reference date.

Highlights

• Official dates confirmed by the City, with no ambiguity about the closing date
• A city to visit alongside the market

Berlin: the Gendarmenmarkt, 23 November to 31 December

39 days Free entry at certain times, about €2 otherwise 23 November to 31 December 2026

The WeihnachtsZauber on the Gendarmenmarkt is the Berlin market whose dates are confirmed by the official page of the City, from 23 November to 31 December 2026. Certain time slots offer free entry; outside those slots, entry costs about €2. The exact price and the free slots vary depending on the event page: check them on site. Berlin has more than sixty markets according to germany.travel, an undated figure. Other markets in the capital are not detailed here, for lack of dates confirmed by the City.

Highlights

• A market that stays open after Christmas Eve, until 31 December
• A window for a weekend in Berlin between late November and New Year’s Eve

Cologne: the Old Town market, in the shadow of the cathedral

Old Town market 49 days, to be confirmed 23 November 2026 to 10 January 2027

The Cologne market spreads through the Old Town. The City announces a period from 23 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, the longest in this overview. These dates come from a search result and have not been read in full: do not treat them as certain until you have checked the koeln.de page. Opening hours have not been checked.

Pixidia tip: if you visit Cologne for the festive season, the cathedral can be visited outside market hours. Allow half a day for the market and the centre, not counting the train journey from France or Belgium.

3. The effect of the holidays on prices: what is dated and what is not

The overlap is real. From 23 December, most Länder are on holiday, and France is from 19 December. The concentration of departures plausibly weighs on flight and accommodation prices during this period. But no open source we consulted quantifies this effect for December 2026, or for December 2025. This article therefore publishes no percentage increase.

The dated figures concern the price of a mulled wine and transport fares. The values below do not measure the effect of the holidays. They give an order of magnitude, to be read with their date.

Source: Web.de, T-online, DLR Monitor Luftverkehr 1/2026, consulted on 13 October 2026.

What this does not tell you

The DLR data shows a price gap depending on how far ahead you book with Eurowings, but it covers spring 2026 and a low-cost airline: it cannot quantify the gain for December 2026. The dates overlap, so flight and accommodation prices could be tighter over this period, with no published figure.

No train fare for the 2026 Christmas holidays was found. Deutsche Bahn had not published a specific Sparpreis for this period at the time of checking. The effect on train prices therefore remains unknown for these dates.

4. Getting to Germany from France, Belgium and Switzerland

The travel options split between the train, the plane and the night train. The fares below were noted at the time of checking: they guarantee no price and must be checked again on the operator’s website when you book.

Source: Finanztip, Hessenschau, Fluege.de, Eurowings, Railmarket, checked on 13 October 2026.

The train: a new timetable on 14 December

Deutsche Bahn brings a new timetable into force on 14 December 2026, and ticket sales for this new timetable start on 15 October 2026, according to the regional press and the DB press release for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. If your journey goes through Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate or Saarland after that date, book with the new timetable in mind: a connection may change. A DB statement quoted by ZDFheute, dated 10 October 2025, says the entry prices of Sparpreis and Flexpreis fares will not rise. That statement concerns the 2026 timetable, not the Christmas holidays: it says nothing about last-minute bookings.

The direct Paris-Berlin train: to be confirmed

We cannot say that a direct Paris-Berlin train runs in December 2026, because the sources read contradict each other. One announces a new high-speed service stopping at Frankfurt South, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg, from €59.99 in 2nd class, with no confirmed start date. Another mentions the suspension of the direct ICE since the end of July 2026, with no return date. Before building an itinerary, check on sncf-connect.com and bahn.de.

In the meantime, the European Sleeper night train links Paris and Brussels to Berlin, three times a week (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday), in about 16 hours. The Brussels-Berlin fare is announced from €79.99, but it is a launch price.

By plane, and from Belgium and Switzerland

For Paris-Berlin, the comparison site shows €99 for a window from 7 to 10 December 2026. For Germany to Paris, Eurowings announces December 2026 as the cheapest month to depart from Germany, from €58.79 on its German page and €59.99 on its Austrian page. No fare for December 2026 was found for Paris-Frankfurt or Paris-Munich: the comparison sites only show summer, autumn or January dates.

From Belgium, Brussels is the departure point for the night train to Berlin. From Switzerland, Zurich-Frankfurt and Basel-Freiburg im Breisgau are common routes; no Christmas 2026 fare was found for these connections.

What other guides don’t tell you

Four points, checked on 13 October 2026 on the pages cited, complement sections 1, 2 and 4.

• Nuremberg and Dresden close on 24 December 2026, and so does Munich, by agreement of sources. According to the municipal document of Nuremberg, the Dresden 2026 tender and, for Munich, the closing on 24 December rests on the agreement of several sources, including muenchen.de (consulted on 13 October 2026).
• Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein start on 21 December 2026. According to the City of Hamburg page and the Land page, updated on 17 August 2026 (consulted on 13 October 2026). The table on allemagnevoyage.com reproduces the 2022 edition and gives 23 December for Hamburg: it does not match 2026/27.
• Kassel adds floating days on 21 and 22 December 2026. According to the Schulamt Kassel, consulted on 13 October 2026. These days are set district by district. They do not appear in any of the general Hesse calendars consulted for this article.
• The new Deutsche Bahn timetable takes effect on 14 December 2026, with sales from 15 October. According to the Deutsche Bahn press release for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, consulted on 13 October 2026. The release only covers these three Länder; it says nothing about the others.