Broad Street's market runs from Saturday 21 November to 31 December. Free entry, a carousel, and stalls open to 8pm Thursday to Saturday. Hours in full.

Oxford Christmas Market opens on Saturday 21 November 2026 and runs to Thursday 31 December, on Broad Street. Entry is free. It closes for one day only, on Christmas Day, and finishes early on Christmas Eve.

That is six weeks, which is longer than most people expect, and it is why the market is quiet on a wet Monday in early December and unbearable on the Saturday before Christmas.

Opening hours

The market runs two sets of hours, one for the stalls and a longer one for the bar, food and entertainment area.

Stalls Bar, food and entertainment
Sunday 10am to 6pm 10am to 8pm
Monday 10am to 6pm 10am to 8pm
Tuesday 10am to 6pm 10am to 10pm
Wednesday 10am to 6pm 10am to 10pm
Thursday 10am to 8pm 10am to 10pm
Friday 10am to 8pm 10am to 10pm
Saturday 10am to 8pm 10am to 10pm

Two exceptions: everything closes at 5.30pm on Thursday 24 December, and the market is closed on Christmas Day. It then reopens and runs to 31 December.

What is actually there

The organiser lists wooden stalls selling handmade gifts and artisan goods, a stage with live music, an Après-Ski Bar, and a Christmas carousel. Food runs to churros, mulled wine, hot chocolate and street food. Assistance dogs are welcome.

The address is Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BS. It is pedestrianised apart from the cycle lane, so the market occupies the road itself rather than a square, which is what makes it feel narrow when it is busy.

Getting there without a car

Broad Street has no parking and the city centre has very little. Oxford station is a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute cycle away, with direct trains from London Paddington and Birmingham New Street. The Oxford Tube runs 24 hours from London, about 100 minutes, stopping on George Street and Magdalen Street West.

If you are driving, park and ride is the sensible answer and is signposted off the ring road. Since 17 August 2026 there has been a £3 combined ticket covering up to 16 hours’ parking and the bus in and out for up to five people, which is less than an hour in Gloucester Green. Full tariffs are on our parking page.

Check what is dug up before you set off: our roadworks and travel page tracks live closures, and Botley Road is due back on 20 September, before the market starts.

The Christmas Light Festival is a different event, a week earlier

People search for an Oxford “Christmas lights switch-on” and find the market. They are not the same thing.

Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival runs 13 to 15 November 2026, the weekend before the market opens. The festival’s own site confirms the dates and nothing else yet: “Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival is back for 2026 from 13th-15th November”, with a request to bookmark the page “for updates on how you can get involved in the weeks before and during the festival”.

The festival is led and funded by Oxford City Council with a partnership of cultural organisations, and in past years has run lantern parades, illuminated trails and community events across the city rather than a single switch-on moment. The 2026 programme has not been published. We expect it in October, and will add it here and to our things to do page when it appears.

What is still to be confirmed

  • The stall list. The organiser has trailed returning traders on social media but has published no full list for 2026.
  • The Light Festival programme, expected October.
  • Whether there is a big wheel this year. Third-party listings mention one; the organiser’s own pages name only the carousel and the Après-Ski Bar, so we are not carrying it as fact.

Sources