Christmas markets in Nuremberg, Dresden and Cologne: how they differ and who announces the dates

The short answer

The three cities do not run the same kind of event. In Nuremberg and Dresden, the market this guide covers centres on one square and publishes its dates on one official site: the Christkindlesmarkt on the Hauptmarkt from 27 November to 24 December 2026, and the Striezelmarkt on the Altmarkt from 25 November to 24 December 2026.[7][1] Cologne has several markets run by different companies, each publishing its own season, and in 2026 they do not all open on the same day.[13][12][11]

The table restates the organisers' pages.[13][12][11][7][2][1] These are dated facts for 2026 only. Last year's dates are history, and the next year's are what each site publishes next; only Nuremberg had already published 2027 (26 November to 24 December) when XTOUR read it.[1]

Nuremberg: the Christkindlesmarkt, opened by the Christkind

The Christkindlesmarkt's own site calls it "the little city of wood and cloth", with wooden booths selling traditional, often handmade decorations, Lebkuchen and other sweets.[1] The site is published by the Congress- und Tourismus-Zentrale Nürnberg, the city's convention and tourist office.[2]

Its dates follow a rule the site states: the market opens "always on Friday before the first Advent".[3] In 2026 the site lists the opening ceremony for the evening of 27 November.[1] XTOUR's reading is that the rule is a guide for years not yet published, but the site's own dates are what count.

Around the main market, the site describes a Children's Christmas Market on Hans-Sachs-Platz and a Sister Cities' Market on the Rathausplatz, north of the main square, whose proceeds go to charities in Nuremberg's partner cities.[4] On food, the site's own emphasis is local: Nuremberg bratwurst, including two or three in a bun as a "Weggla", Lebkuchen, mulled wine with an alcohol-free version for children, and "Original Regional" booths near the Church of St. Sebald.[6]

The site's account of the market's age shifts from page to page. One page says the market "can be traced back to the middle of the 16th century".[4] The history page says it "dates back to the 17th century", with a first written mention in 1678, and in the next paragraph that "its roots date back to 1530" and it was "first explicitly mentioned in 1678".[5] The history page's date for the first written mention is 1678; the other page gives no year.

Dresden: the Striezelmarkt and its 1434 privilege

The Striezelmarkt site is run by the City of Dresden; XTOUR read its German pages, which link English, Czech and Polish versions. It gives the 2026 market as the 592nd, from 25 November to 24 December, on the Altmarkt opposite the Kulturpalast. The city lists more than 200 traders, show workshops for Erzgebirge crafts and for the Dresdner Christstollen, a 14.61-metre Erzgebirge step pyramid and the Pflaumentoffel, an edible figure made of dried plums that the city calls a good-luck charm and a symbol of Dresden's Christmas. Its published 2026 hours are shorter on the opening day and on 24 December than on the days between.[7]

The city's market chronicle explains the name and the founding date. In 1434 Elector Friedrich II and Duke Sigismund granted Dresden a free market each week, including one "on the day before Christmas Eve" on today's Altmarkt; the chronicle says this was at first a meat market, where citizens chose their festive roast after the pre-Christmas fast, and that it was later extended to other goods. By 1500, the chronicle says, it was called "Striezelmontag" because it was held on the Monday before the feast, and Dresden households bought their festive Striezel there, the Christmas loaf the chronicle also calls Stollen; it was later lengthened from the Monday to Christmas Eve.[8]

The chronicle does not smooth over the twentieth century. It records that in the 1930s a "back to tradition, back to the centre" movement was promoted by the Heimatwerk Sachsen and by the Nazi city leadership, which recognised the propaganda value of such markets, and that after 1945 the market was held elsewhere as a "Weihnachtsmesse". It has been on the Altmarkt permanently since 1977, and was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.[8]

Cologne: several markets, several organisers

Cologne's tourist board, KölnTourismus, says the city opened its first Christmas market "rather late, in 1820", and now has a market at the cathedral and many themed markets, with Heinzelmännchen, angels, fairy-tale figures or mariners.[9] Its German page names the cathedral market as the "Markt der Herzen".[10]

The markets are run by separate companies, and their own pages carry the dates:

• The market at the cathedral, on the Roncalliplatz, is run by KW Kölner Weihnachtsgesellschaft mbH, which announced on 3 March 2026 that it had again won the contract to run it for five more years; it lists over 140 stands and more than 100 free stage events.[11]
• The Markt der Engel on the Neumarkt is run by CityProjekt Veranstaltungs-GmbH.[12]
• Heinzels Wintermärchen, run by Heinzel GmbH, spreads over the Alter Markt and the Heumarkt with an open-air ice rink, and says most of its demonstrating craftspeople are in the Handwerkergasse on the Alter Markt.[13]

Here the tourist board and the organisers disagree on timing. KölnTourismus says the city's markets open "around November 16".[9] That matches the cathedral market and the Markt der Engel, but Heinzels Wintermärchen lists its 2026 opening as 23 November, a week later.[13] Both the cathedral market and the Markt der Engel list themselves as closed on Sunday 22 November 2026, Totensonntag. And the end dates differ: the cathedral market, the Markt der Engel and the Alter Markt part of Heinzels close on 23 December, while the Heinzels Heumarkt stays open until 10 January 2027, with rest days on 24 and 25 December.[13][12][11]

Which is the oldest?

Each organiser tells its own story, and they do not agree. Dresden's city site calls the Striezelmarkt "der älteste Weihnachtsmarkt Deutschlands", Germany's oldest Christmas market, and dates it to the privilege of 1434.[8][7] Nuremberg's site calls the Christkindlesmarkt "one of the oldest" and gives its first written mention as 1678.[5] Cologne's tourist board makes no such claim and dates the city's first market to 1820.[9] XTOUR reports the claims as the organisers make them and does not rank the markets.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not know how crowded any market is on a given day, what anything costs, or what each market's opening hours on a particular day will be beyond what its site publishes. It has no routing data, so it gives no travel times between the three cities or between Cologne's markets. Dates for 2027 and later are the organisers' to announce, apart from Nuremberg's already published 2027 dates.

Outside the market, the Kaiserburg guide, the Frauenkirche guide and the Cologne Cathedral guide cover the main sights in each city. Germany's protected food names are the subject of the German food names guide. For the cities, see Nuremberg, Dresden, Cologne and Germany.