Leiden Christmas Market

Around the Hooglandse Kerk, the great church in the centre of Leiden, the Leiden Christmas market, the Leidse Kerstmarkt, opens its wooden chalets over two periods in December 2026: from Friday 11 to Sunday 13, then from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20. This winter village of chalets, terraces and food trucks is part of the Winter Wonder Weken, a programme that runs from the arrival of Sinterklaas in November to early January, with a floating ice rink, an old-fashioned funfair and a big illuminated tree, in a university city next door to The Hague.

The Leiden Christmas market around the Hooglandse Kerk

The official website describes a “winter village”: wooden chalets, terraces and food trucks on the Hooglandse Kerkgracht, the Hooglandse Kerkplein and the Nieuwstraat, in other words all around the church. This layout dates from 2025. Until then, the chalets were confined to the Hooglandse Kerkgracht; by spreading onto the church square, the market almost doubled in size and now forms a circuit around the Hooglandse Kerk, according to the local newspaper Centraal+. The number of stalls is not published.

One useful clarification, because travel websites keep repeating the opposite: the market does not float. There are no stalls on boats on the Nieuwe Rijn; the organisation places it around the church, on dry land. The floating installation of the Winter Wonder Weken is the ice rink.

2026 dates and opening hours: two separate periods

The 2026 edition runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 December, then from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 December. In between, from Monday 14 to Wednesday 16, the chalets are closed. The 2026 opening hours have not yet been published; check them on leidsekerstmarkt.nl before you set off. In 2025, the market followed the same pattern, from Friday 12 to Sunday 14 December then from Thursday 18 to Sunday 21. No entry fee appears on the official website.

Floating ice rink, Sinterklaas and funfair: the Winter Wonder Weken

The market is one piece of a larger whole, the Winter Wonder Weken: the ice rink is organised by the Stichting Sport in Beeld with many volunteers, and Centrummanagement Leiden coordinates everything, according to Centraal+. The programme runs from the arrival of Sinterklaas in November to early January: Sinterklaas’s house at the start of the season, a floating ice rink in the city centre, a nostalgic funfair, the Christmas market and the Rotary Santa Run. In 2025, the ice rink opened on Friday 5 December for a month, and a new 4 km winter walk, the Winter Wonder Wandeling, was added to the programme from 14 December to 4 January.

• 2026 dates: from 11 to 13 December, then from 17 to 20 December; closed from 14 to 16.
• 2026 opening hours: to be confirmed on the official website.
• Location: Hooglandse Kerkgracht, Hooglandse Kerkplein and Nieuwstraat, around the Hooglandse Kerk.
• On the Winter Wonder Weken programme: floating ice rink, nostalgic funfair, Sinterklaas’s house before 5 December, illuminated tree.
• Entry fee: not indicated by the organiser.

Getting to Leiden from France

The Eurostar links Paris-Nord to Rotterdam Centraal in about 2h37, with up to 13 departures a day, and also serves Schiphol airport. From either station, an NS train takes you to Leiden Centraal; the journey time depends on the connection. By car, allow 481 km and about 5h35 from Paris, 263 km and a little over 3 hours from Lille, without traffic. Car parks and shuttles specific to the market are not described by the organiser.

Leiden is next door to The Hague, whose Royal Christmas Fair, The Hague Christmas market, can be visited on the same day. To the south, the Antwerp Christmas market marks the road from France, and the Efteling park is meanwhile preparing its winter setting.