Guide
Plan your Christmas 2026
The dates that matter, what the Christmas Oratorio, The Nutcracker and a Weihnachtsmärchen are, what suits children and what costs nothing.
The dates for 2026
The Christmas season runs from the 1st Advent to Epiphany. Many Christmas markets start a week earlier.
- Totensonntag (Sunday of the Dead): Sunday 22 November
- 1st Advent: Sunday 29 November
- 2nd Advent and St Nicholas Day: Sunday 6 December
- 3rd Advent: Sunday 13 December
- 4th Advent: Sunday 20 December
- Christmas Eve: Thursday 24 December
- 1st and 2nd Christmas Day: Friday 25 December and Saturday 26 December
- New Year's Eve: Thursday 31 December
- Epiphany (Heilige Drei Könige): Wednesday 6 January 2027
Concerts and oratorios
Advent and the holidays are 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.
- The boys' choirs of Leipzig and Dresden, the Thomaner and the Kreuzchor, sing motets, songs and vespers through Advent and at Christmas.
- Sing-along evenings such as the Rudelsingen: you need no sheet music and no experience.
With children
With children, look at the recommended age, which is given with each event when the organiser states it.
- Weihnachtsmärchen: fairy-tale plays at many city theatres, recommended for age groups such as “from 4 years”.
- The Nutcracker as a ballet with orchestra, as a concert or as a musical story 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.
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 of them for Germany yet.
- Look at the official page on the day itself: times change with the weather.
- Many markets open in the week before the 1st Advent and end before Christmas Eve; some run to the end of the year.
- On Totensonntag, 22 November, some markets open later or not at all.
- Markets Evenitto knows as an event are under “Markets and winter magic”.
Free and cheap
Christmas does not have to be expensive.
- Entry to most Christmas markets is free; food, drinks and rides cost extra.
- Advent concerts in churches are often free or by donation.
- Many theatres and concert halls have children's prices or family tickets; they are on the event page when the organiser states them.