Pairi Daiza at Christmas: Christmas Time

In Brugelette, between Mons and Ath, Pairi Daiza at Christmas turns its animal park and gardens into a life-size winter setting: light sculptures, artificial snow and video projections dress the lake and the tower of the former abbey for the Christmas Time season. The exact dates of the 2026 season are still to be confirmed, with the park placing Christmas Time in December, in the spirit of previous winters. The park stays open to visitors throughout, animals included, which sets this outing apart from a town-centre Christmas market.

The Christmas Time programme at Pairi Daiza

Pairi Daiza keeps its animals and gardens open in winter, with seasonal decorations covering a large part of the grounds. The 2025-2026 edition featured more than a hundred light sculptures of the park’s animals, spread along the paths, as well as an illuminated Christmas train that runs through several areas. After dark, a video mapping show was projected onto the lake and the tower of the former abbey, with plays of colour and light that change as the evening goes on. An area called “Terre du Froid” (Land of Cold) offers artificial snow, designed for children who rarely get the chance to see it fall.

A Christmas market takes up part of the route, with chalets and seasonal products, although no figure has been published for the number of stallholders. A gospel choir performed every day from 2pm to 7pm during the 2025-2026 edition, a regular show that sets the pace of the visit with no need to book. During the 2025-2026 edition, a Father Christmas post office opened in the Dôme from 20 December: children dropped off their letters there and could meet Father Christmas, while Saint Nicholas appears earlier in the park’s avenues, around his feast day on 6 December. More than a million lights illuminate the paths at nightfall, a figure announced by the park for the previous edition. Pushchairs and wheelchairs can get around most of the main paths, something to check case by case for the more remote areas of the grounds.

The difference from a traditional Christmas market lies mainly in the scale: the enclosures, the pandas, the elephants and a large share of the animals stay on view throughout the season, on top of the Christmas decorations. Christmas Time is a ticketed Christmas event built around an animal park and gardens, a world away from the town-centre market, designed for a full family day out rather than an evening wandering between chalets.

Dates and opening hours of Pairi Daiza at Christmas 2026

The park announces a season from 7 February 2026 to 31 January 2027 and places Christmas Time in December, with no exact dates published on the official website. Over the holidays, the calendar shows the park open every day from 10am to 6pm, 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January included, with no late opening; it is published up to 3 January 2027. A useful benchmark: the 2025-2026 edition ran from 29 November 2025 to 4 January 2026, 37 days in all, with late openings until 8pm from 20 December to 4 January. On 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January, the park closed earlier, at 6pm, without closing completely on those days: a family can therefore consider a visit on Christmas Day itself.

No 2026 late opening has been published yet: as long as the official calendar shows a 6pm closing time, the time spent among the illuminations after dark stays short. To be safe, check the calendar online before booking a dated ticket, since Pairi Daiza’s ticketing works by day and time slot rather than with open tickets.

Prices, tickets and budget for a family of 4

The 2026 price list shows an adult ticket (12 to 64 years) from €43, rising to €52 depending on the date chosen, the price charged every day from 19 December 2026 to 3 January 2027 (prices checked on 5 October 2026 on the official website), plus six Journées du Cœur at €25 for everyone, children included, bookable online only: 21, 27, 28 and 29 November, then 2 and 11 December 2026. The child ticket (3 to 11 years) starts at €37 and goes up to €46. Entry is free for under-3s. Parking costs €13 per car, and a supplement of €7 applies for Edenya, an additional area of the park. Tickets sold at the gate cost €5 more than online: booking in advance on the park’s website remains the rule.

For two adults and two children, the budget for a day at Christmas Time comes to between €170 and €210, including tickets and parking, but excluding food on site and overnight stays. The amount varies mainly with the date chosen in the price list: school holidays and weekends remain the busiest days, and often the most expensive. The official website remains the safe bet for booking a dated slot.

From France: getting there, parking and train

Pairi Daiza is about an hour by road from Lille, via the A27/E42 to the Brugelette exit, and barely 50 minutes from Valenciennes. From Paris, allow about 2h30 via the A1 and then the A2/E19. The route is straightforward, with no need to go through a big city, which makes a day trip from northern France quite manageable. The park’s car park absorbs most of the weekend traffic; arriving before opening time avoids queues at the ticket desks during school holidays.

By train, Cambron-Casteau station, on the Mons-Ath line, serves the park via a signposted footpath to the entrance: an option if you would rather leave the car behind, as long as you check the evening return times, which are less frequent than during the day. For a family coming from Lille or Valenciennes without a car, travelling out by train and heading back before closing time is simpler than a string of late connections.

For a family with young children, aiming to arrive at the very start of the afternoon leaves time to see some of the animals in daylight before night falls on the illuminations, usually at the end of the day at this time of year. With a 6pm closing time, arriving at the very start of the afternoon leaves about an hour and a half of the visit after dark.

Where to stay and practical tips

The resort offers several types of accommodation within the park itself, some with views over the enclosures, designed for spreading the visit over two days without a late drive home. Nearby, Mons and Ath offer a choice of more traditional hotels for a one-night stop, a few minutes from the park. For a family travelling from afar, pairing park entry with an overnight stay lets you split the visit between a day with the animals and an illuminated evening, rather than cramming everything into a few hours.

• Book your ticket online before you set off: prices vary by day, and the most popular slots fill up quickly during the Christmas holidays.
• Bring warm, waterproof shoes and several layers: much of the Christmas route is outdoors, on paths that can be damp in the evening.
• Mons Christmas market can be visited the same day, less than an hour’s drive away, to round off the outing with a town-centre atmosphere before or after the park.
• Tournai Christmas market is another nearby option on the Belgian side, for an extra stop on the way back to France.
• From Lille, Lille Christmas market lets you enjoy both atmospheres over the same weekend, between city chalets and an illuminated animal park.