Christmas markets in Christmas Markets in Corsica

Corsica celebrates Christmas with its own produce and rituals. Five towns set up a market in December: Ajaccio and Bastia on their main squares, Bonifacio in its Haute-Ville, Porto-Vecchio around Place de la République, Calvi on Place Christophe-Colomb. On the stalls, figatellu, fresh brocciu and chestnut flour take centre stage.

The island’s Christmas markets

The Ajaccio Christmas market, Natali in Aiacciu, opens from 4 to 24 December 2026 on Place Campinchi and Place Foch. In 2025, it had 58 chalets and an ice rink; the council has announced three late-night openings until midnight for 2026. The Bastia Christmas market, Mercatu di Natale, reserves its chalets for Corsican craftspeople and farmers, on Place Saint-Nicolas, from 10 to 23 December 2026. In 2025, it lined up 67 chalets, a big wheel and an ice rink around the bandstand.

In the south, the Bonifacio Christmas market, Festi di Natali, lines up 40 chalets in the Pisan quarter of the Haute-Ville from 9 to 20 December 2026, and opens with a fireworks display. The Porto-Vecchio Christmas market, U Marcatu di Natali, takes over the town centre from 8 to 31 December 2026. The Calvi Christmas market, Natale in Calvi, is the most modest: four municipal food chalets, the shopkeepers’ chalets and a covered ice rink, on Place Christophe-Colomb. The council had not published its 2026 dates as of 8 October; the 2025 edition ran from 18 December to 4 January.

Other towns light up a market for a few days. In 2025, Propriano gathered craftspeople and entertainment in its town centre from 11 to 23 December, Sainte-Lucie-de-Porto-Vecchio expanded its market from 13 to 21 December, and Corte held one for a week on the esplanade of the Tuffelli car park. None of these towns had announced its 2026 dates as of 8 October.

The Fiera di a Castagna in Bocognano

The Bocognano chestnut fair opens the month of December. The U Castagnu rural community centre has organised it since 1982; the 2026 edition takes place on 4, 5 and 6 December. It is the only December fair in the 2026 calendar of the Federation of Corsican rural and craft fairs. There you buy AOP chestnut flour and eat, at the fair’s restaurant, a pulenta with figatellu and brocciu. We do not give it a page of its own: the fair pairs with the Ajaccio market, which opens the same weekend.

Specialities to try

December is the season for figatellu, the winter sausage that families grill in the fireplace on Christmas Eve, and for the three AOP cured meats: prisuttu, coppa and lonzu. Fresh brocciu also returns with the cold; it is the base for fiadone and for fritters. Chestnut flour gives pulenta and nicci, Corsican honey carries an AOP, and the IGP Corsican clementine is picked from November to January: the 2025-2026 harvest reached 36,500 tonnes. At the markets you will also find canistrelli, cheese migliacci, Corsican Christmas beers such as Pietra di Natale and knives from the Corsican knifemakers. In Bonifacio, the chalets serve grilled figatellu and oysters; in Porto-Vecchio, mulled wine, roasted chestnuts and canistrelli.

Christmas traditions in Corsica

On the evening of 24 December, many villages light a Christmas fire in front of the church. Its name changes from one micro-region to another: rocchiu, capifocu, fucareccia or fucone. Children collect the wood from house to house, shouting “Ô Rocchiu!”. In the morning, each family takes home ashes or an ember, u ceppu di Natale, for its own hearth. Brotherhoods and town councils keep this rite alive, in Calvi or in Santu Petru di Tenda.

In the home, a decorated strawberry tree once stood in for the Christmas tree, and children found an orange in their shoes. The nativity scene, u prisepiu, is dressed with moss and olive branches; in front of it sprouts the wheat sown on St Barbara’s Day. Christmas Eve supper brings together charcuterie, grilled figatellu, pulenta, cheeses and frappe fritters. At midnight, the mass mixes Corsican, Latin and French singing, then Corsicans wish each other “Pace è Salute”. 8 December, the island’s feast day, opens the season: in 2025, a procession, a mass and a blessing inaugurated the Porto-Vecchio market that day.

Getting to Corsica and travelling between the markets

Public service flights link Paris-Orly, Marseille and Nice to the island’s four airports, Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Figari, all year round, and a return trip in a day is possible. By ferry, Corsica Linea sails overnight from Marseille to Ajaccio and Bastia, in around thirteen hours; Corsica Ferries links Toulon to Ajaccio, Bastia and Porto-Vecchio, and Nice to Bastia in six hours. We have not checked the sailing days for December 2026: ask the ferry companies.

On the island, the Chemins de fer de la Corse train links Bastia to Ajaccio in nearly four hours, and Bastia to Calvi in three hours with a change at Ponte-Leccia. No railway serves Porto-Vecchio or Bonifacio. By road, allow two and a half hours between Ajaccio and Bastia, two hours between Bastia and Calvi, and forty minutes between Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio. These times come from a calculation without traffic: leave plenty of margin on Corsican roads.

Practical tip

From 10 to 20 December 2026, the markets of Ajaccio, Bastia, Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio are open at the same time. A stay in the south combines Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio, 30 km apart, with Figari airport between the two. The train links Ajaccio and Bastia without a car. On the first weekend of December, you can combine the Bocognano fair with the opening in Ajaccio.