Reims Christmas Market 2026: Dates, Opening Hours and Events
The Reims Christmas Market runs from Wednesday 25 November to Sunday 27 December 2026, on the Hautes Promenades Jean-Louis Schneiter and the esplanade of the Porte de Mars. Around 150 chalets sell food, crafts and Christmas goods. The market drew a record 1.1 million visitors in 2024, then one million in 2025, according to Les Vitrines de Reims, the city’s retailers’ association.
Opening hours, events and access details were checked on 9 October 2026 on the pages of the City of Reims (updated between 13 August and 8 October), the Reims Tourist Office and Champagne Parc Auto, the car park operator.
Reims Christmas Market: dates, location and opening hours
The market covers two sites in the city centre: the Hautes Promenades Jean-Louis Schneiter and the esplanade of the Porte de Mars. It opens on Wednesday 25 November 2026 and closes on Sunday 27 December 2026. The City of Reims and Les Vitrines de Reims organise it together.
Opening hours, 25 November to 20 December
- Monday: 2 PM to 8 PM
- Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: 11:30 AM to 9 PM
- Friday: 11:30 AM to 10 PM
- Saturday: 10 AM to 10 PM
- Sunday: 10 AM to 8 PM
Opening hours, 21 to 27 December (French school holidays)
- Monday: 11 AM to 8 PM
- Tuesday and Wednesday: 11 AM to 9 PM
- Thursday 24 December (Christmas Eve): 11 AM to 6 PM
- Friday 25 December (Christmas Day): closed
- Saturday: 10 AM to 10 PM
- Sunday: 10 AM to 6 PM
These hours date from 9 October 2026. One Tourist Office page still shows slightly different times (opening at 11 AM instead of 11:30 AM on weekdays); it seems to mix several editions, and the City’s information takes precedence. Check the official Christmas market page on reims.fr (in French) before you go.
What you will find at the Christmas market
The 150 or so chalets sell food, crafts and decorations from several regions and from abroad; the local weekly l’Hebdo du Vendredi sees it as a chance to find out about other countries’ Christmas traditions. In 2025, the market highlighted hundreds of local products, from beers and jams to soaps, ceramics and handmade candles, according to Le Parisien. For Reims specialities, the regional daily L’Union listed in 2019 the biscuit rose, the pink Reims biscuit, and the bouchon au marc; the French Wikipedia adds champagne, mustard and the pink biscuits of the Fossier bakery, alongside specialities from Alsace.
You will also find a craftspeople’s village, the Boutique #rémoise, a small train for children and the Village des Oursons (the teddy bear village). The City publishes the list of stallholders online, with their location on a map.
The City does not mention any entry fee. A guide to the 2025 season (Carrefour Location) states that entry to the market is free: you only pay for what you buy and for some attractions, such as the Ferris wheel.
History of the Reims Christmas Market
The market dates back to the 1990s. Les Vitrines de Reims counted 28 editions in 2025. For its first 19 years, it was held on Place d’Erlon.
In 2016, it moved to the square in front of the cathedral: after security measures were tightened because of the terrorist threat, Place d’Erlon and its many entrances had become too expensive to secure. In 2022, the chalets left the cathedral square for the Hautes Promenades and the Porte de Mars esplanade. The Hautes Promenades had already hosted the art craftspeople’s village since 2021.
Attendance reached 725,000 visitors in 2022 and more than one million in 2023, then a record 1.1 million in 2024. With one million visitors in 2025, it fell slightly, according to l’Hebdo du Vendredi, but a single day drew up to 70,000 people, a first according to the local radio station ici.
Events around the market
The Ferris wheel on Place d’Erlon
The Ferris wheel stands 55 metres high according to the City (50 metres according to the Tourist Office), on Place d’Erlon, from Saturday 14 November 2026 to Sunday 10 January 2027, every day from 10 AM to 10 PM. It has 36 enclosed, heated cabins with music. By day you see the city and the nearby vineyards; by night, the Christmas lights. A ride costs 8 € for adults and 6 € for children.
The Christmas and Epiphany funfair
The fairground rides set up on Chaussée Bocquaine from 5 December 2026 to 3 January 2027, according to the City’s funfair page (the Foire de Noël et des Rois, named after Epiphany, the feast of the Three Kings). The City’s Christmas market page gives 4 January as the closing date, so confirm before you go. On 9 October 2026, the City said full details would be published soon.
Regalia, the sound and light show on the cathedral
Regalia is a free sound and light show, with no booking required, lasting about 10 minutes, with one screening per evening. Over the festive season it is projected onto the cathedral façade on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, from 27 November 2026 to 2 January 2027, except Saturday 12 December.
The studio Moment Factory created the show in 2019. It has two parts, one on Notre-Dame Cathedral and one on the Basilica of Saint-Remi, both UNESCO World Heritage sites. The cathedral part brings back the day a king was crowned. It opens with an interactive game: the audience tests its history knowledge on their phones, using clues projected on the façade. The original music is by Guillaume Brière, with local composers and the Maîtrise de la Cathédrale de Reims, the cathedral’s choir school. To visit the cathedral before the show, read our guide to Reims Cathedral from above.
The big Christmas tree and the Christmas lights
The big Christmas tree stands on Place d’Erlon. The City also announces a trail of Christmas lights, with sound and light shows on landmark buildings. In 2025 they ran every day from 5 PM to midnight until 4 January, according to the City: on the church of Saint-Maurice (Place Museux), on the Fontaine des Boucheries (Place Jules Lobet) and on the rear façade of the Palais du Tau (Square Henri Deneux). The exhibition “Mosaïque en lumière” was projected onto the Champagne Jacquart mansion (Boulevard Lundy). The 2026 list had not been published by 9 October.
Getting to the Reims Christmas Market
By tram and bus
The tram serves the market: lines T1 and T2 stop at Gare Centre and Opéra-Cathédrale, among others, every 5 to 6 minutes. The Tourist Office lists four entrances to the market: near the Gare Centre stop, near the Schneiter stop, in front of the Porte de Mars and opposite Rue du Général Sarrail. The market is accessible to people with reduced mobility, according to the French government’s disability portal Mon Parcours Handicap (November 2025). Timetables are on grandreims-mobilites.fr (in French). Coming from Paris? See how far Champagne is from Paris.
Four park-and-ride car parks (P+R) are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: Thillois, Neufchâtel, Hôpital Debré and Belges. Parking there is free if you hold a Grand Reims Mobilités bus or tram ticket. Validate your ticket when you board the tram or bus, then show it at the exit terminal. SMS tickets and Presto passes do not open the exit barrier. The barrier has a height limit of 2.10 m.
In previous years, Grand Reims Mobilités ran a free 20-seat Christmas shuttle to the funfair (7 to 29 December 2024, then 6 to 28 December 2025, every 30 minutes). It served the Manège and Bocquaine stops and the Auguste-Delaune stadium, where you could park. No announcement for 2026 had been published by 9 October. In 2024, the P+R exit barriers were left open over the holidays; this has yet to be confirmed for this year.
By car: city-centre car parks
According to the Tourist Office, the nearest car park is Erlon (Boulevard du Général Leclerc), a 4-minute walk from the market. Next come République (6 minutes), Hôtel de Ville (8 minutes), Buirette (12 minutes) and Cathédrale (15 minutes). The railway station car park, Clairmarais-Effia, is a 9-minute walk away and costs 1.90 € an hour.
Champagne Parc Auto, which runs these car parks, lists for Erlon, Hôtel de Ville, Cathédrale and Buirette: first 30 minutes free, then 0.60 € per quarter-hour up to 2 hours and 0.50 € per quarter-hour from 2 to 8 hours, capped at 17 € for 24 hours. At République, the free 30 minutes are followed by 0.60 € per quarter-hour up to 3 hours, capped at 21.50 € for 24 hours. These prices are a guide only: the rates displayed in the car parks apply. Maximum height is 1.90 m. Watch out on Sundays and public holidays: the entrances of the Hôtel de Ville, Cathédrale and Buirette car parks are closed on those days, while the market is open. Use Erlon or République instead, or the park-and-ride car parks.
On-street parking in the paid zones is free from 12 to 2 PM, from 7 PM to 9 AM, and on Sundays and public holidays. This does not apply to multi-storey and underground car parks. For coach groups, the City had not published specific instructions for the market by 9 October 2026 (“coming soon”).
Father Christmas and the little train
The City mentions the children’s train and the Village des Oursons, without giving 2026 times. The Tourist Office describes an enchanted forest at the heart of the market, with automatons telling stories, a meeting with Father Christmas and a free ride on the little train, on the Porte de Mars esplanade. It gives Father Christmas’s hours as 3 PM to 7 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 11 AM to 1 PM then 2 PM to 7 PM on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. L’Union gave 11 AM to 7 PM on those three days in 2025: 2026 times still to be confirmed.
What else to do in Reims at Christmas?
For more ideas, see our list of the best things to do in Reims.
