Guide
Plan your Christmas 2026
The dates that matter, what the Christmas Oratorio, The Nutcracker and a Christmas show for children are, what suits children and what costs nothing.
The dates of 2026
The Christmas season runs from the 1st Advent to Epiphany. Many Christmas markets open a while before Advent starts.
- 1st Advent: Sunday 29 November
- Sinterklaas and 2nd Advent: Sunday 6 December
- 3rd Advent: Sunday 13 December
- 4th Advent: Sunday 20 December
- Christmas holiday in Flanders: Monday 21 December to Sunday 3 January
- Christmas Eve: Thursday 24 December
- Christmas Day: Friday 25 December
- New Year's Eve: Thursday 31 December
- Epiphany: Wednesday 6 January 2027
Concerts and oratorios
In Advent and around the holidays it is high season for choirs and orchestras.
- Christmas Oratorio: Bach's six cantatas for the feast days from Christmas to Epiphany, usually cantatas I to III in one evening.
- Advent concerts: choirs, church music and orchestras with carols and well-known pieces, often free or by donation.
- Sing-alongs: you need no sheet music and no experience.
- Gospel and pop concerts around Christmas in halls and churches.
With children
With children it pays to look at the recommended age, which is on every event when the organiser gives it.
- Christmas performances for children in theatres and cultural centres, recommended from a certain age, for example 'from 4 years'.
- The Nutcracker as a ballet with orchestra, as a concert or as a narrated programme for children.
- Family concerts and puppet theatre often last only about an hour, just right for small audiences.
- Making and baking workshops for families: stars, wreaths and biscuits.
- Sinterklaas parties are not in this guide: they belong to 6 December and have their own programme.
Markets, ice rinks and lights
The Christmas markets, ice rinks and light trails of your city have their own pages with their own hours. Evenitto does not keep a calendar for them in Belgium yet.
- Look at the official page on the day itself: hours change with the weather.
- Winter Wonders in Brussels runs from 27 November to 3 January according to its official site; the other big cities open from late November or early December.
- Many markets close before Christmas Eve, others run into early January.
- Markets that Evenitto knows as an event are under 'Markets and winter fairs'.
Free and good value
Christmas does not have to be expensive.
- Entry to most Christmas markets is free; food, drinks and rides you pay for separately.
- Advent concerts in churches are often free or by donation.
- Many theatres and cultural centres have children's and family prices; they are on the event's page when the organiser gives them.
