Oxford Christmas Market 2026: Broad Street Dates Announced

Most people arrive expecting something on the scale of Bath or Manchester, and the Oxford Christmas Market is not that. It is one street of stalls, a bar and a couple of rides, framed by honey coloured college walls that no other market site can match. I would come for the city and treat the market as the reason to stay out after dark.

Oxford Christmas Market 2026

Dates

Status: Confirmed
Dates: 21st November to 31st December 2026
Last checked: August 2026

Update: Dates were announced in August. Sign up for our newsletter for future updates.

Source: Verified by Ultimate Christmas Markets via Oxford.

Plan Your Visit

Location and Times

Location: Broad Street
Opening times:
Market Stalls:
Sunday to Wednesday: 10am to 6pm
Thursday to Saturday: 10am to 8pm
Bar, Food, Entertainment:
Sunday and Monday: 10am to 8pm
Tuesday to Saturday: 10am to 10pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Christmas Day: Closed

Travel and Accommodation

Recommended tour: City Walking Tour, worth it for first time visitors.
Public transport: Train, bus, bike or on foot. Bus stops on George Street and Magdalen Street West.
Parking: Park & Ride at £3 is the easiest option. Council car parks are also available
Where to stay: Malmaison near Broad Street.

Amenities and Attractions

Admission: Free
Attractions: Après-Ski Bar, carousel, Ferris wheel and live music.
Santa: TBA
Payments: Cash and card accepted, card preferred.
Reason to visit: The setting, and the chance to buy from local makers and food producers.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian: Plenty of options.
Vegan: Some options.
Gluten-free: Limited. Ask individual vendors, but beware of cross-contamination.
Food specialties: Bratwurst, hot roast rolls, artisan fruit mince pies

Accessibility

Accessible: Broad Street is pedestrianised and flat. See the Oxford disability information page.
Pet friendly: Dogs are welcome but must stay on a lead. Assistance dogs are welcome.

Convenient Hotels

Oxford city centre is easy to explore on foot, but if walking is a challenge, the bus service can get you where you need to go. There isn’t a single best area to stay in Oxford, but the Malmaison is a good option if you want to stay centrally near Broad Street.

Read our complete guide to the UK Christmas Markets.

Visitor Feedback

What Visitors Loved

• The setting does most of the work. Visitors consistently say the lit college fronts along the street are what make the evening, not the stalls themselves.
• Stall quality gets more praise than at bigger UK markets, with reviewers noting genuine handmade goods rather than the mass produced imports they expected.
• The two storey bar is a favourite. A generous mulled wine at around £6 last season, drunk on the upper deck while a choir performs below, comes up again and again.
• The carousel and Ferris wheel gave families a reason to stay longer, and the run through to New Year’s Eve takes the pressure off visiting during December’s busiest fortnight.

Common Complaints

• Size is the single biggest gripe. Visitors who travelled several hours specifically for the market described it as tiny and felt the promotion oversold it.
• The move away from wooden chalets in earlier years still gets raised, with traders and visitors saying it reads more like a street food market than a Christmas one.
• Food and drink pricing divides opinion. Some found it fair for what it is, others thought the prices belonged at a far bigger market.
• Entertainment can be thin outside the scheduled slots, with several visitors arriving to find one performer rather than the choirs and bands they were expecting.

The Bottom Line

Oxford is a day out with a market attached rather than a market destination, and the people who enjoy it most are the ones who arrive knowing that. Come mid afternoon on a weekday, walk the colleges while it is light, and be back on the street once the lights and the choir take over.

What to Expect

This is a compact market, one street of stalls with a bar at either end, so plan around it rather than for it. The colleges, the Covered Market and the museums fill a day easily, and the stalls are at their best after dark once the lights are on and there is a choir on the stage.

Stallholders are mostly independent makers and Oxfordshire food producers rather than the mass produced ornaments you find at bigger markets. This makes it a better bet for gifts than for a full day out. Weekday afternoons are the calmest window, while Thursday to Saturday evenings are busiest and worth timing your visit around if you want the music.

Oxford Christmas Events & Activities

• Community gift wrapping
• The Christmas Orchestra
• Carol services
• Festive workshops
• Oxford Botanic Garden Christmas Fair
• The Covered Market
• Independent Oxford Christmas Market
• Meet and Greet
  • Pingu
  • Wallace & Gromit
  • The Grinch
  • The Gruffalo

Read the complete list of events.

Food Specialties

• Hog roast rolls: Oxfordshire pork with apple sauce and stuffing, usually the longest queue on the street.
• Oxford sausage: a skinless pork and veal mix seasoned with lemon zest, sage and nutmeg, a city recipe that predates the market by a couple of centuries.
• Bratwurst: the German import that turns up at every UK market, done well here in a fresh roll with fried onions.
• Artisan fruit mince pies: made by small Oxfordshire bakers rather than bought in by the tray, and worth the price difference.
• Banbury cakes: flat spiced currant pastries from north Oxfordshire, closer to an Eccles cake than anything else you will find on a stall.
• Oxford Blue: a soft, creamy blue cheese developed in Burford, milder than Stilton and easier to eat standing up.
• Mulled wine and spiced cider: the two storey bar is the warm spot, with cider pressed from Oxfordshire orchard fruit alongside the usual mulled wine.
• Churros: the reliable sweet snack.

What to Buy

• Witney blankets and Cotswold wool: Witney supplied England with blankets for three hundred years, and woollen throws and scarves from Oxfordshire mills are the most regionally honest thing on the street.
• Oxfordshire ceramics: thrown mugs, jugs and small dishes from county potters, priced well below gallery rates.
• Linocuts and screen prints: the spires and the Radcliffe Camera printed by local artists, flat enough to fly home with.
• The Oxford Artisan Distillery spirits: rye whisky and gin distilled from heritage grain grown on farms within a short drive of the city.
• Preserves and honey: Oxfordshire honey, chutneys and marmalade, in the city that gave its name to Frank Cooper’s Oxford Marmalade back in 1874.
• Small batch skincare and candles: several Oxfordshire makers have traded here for years, and the scents are less generic than the chain shop versions.
• Turned wooden decorations: the one ornament category on the street that is actually made by the person selling it.

Sustainability Tips

• Come by train: Oxford station is roughly a 15 minute walk from the market, so there is no case for driving unless you are coming from somewhere the rail network ignores.
• Use Park & Ride if you must drive: at £3 it undercuts the council car parks, and it keeps you clear of the city centre Zero Emission Zone, where petrol and diesel vehicles are charged daily between 7am and 7pm.
• Take the bus for the last leg: Oxford’s city buses have largely been electrified, and roadside nitrogen dioxide across the city dropped by around 10 per cent between as a result.
• Shop the Covered Market too: trading since 1774 and full of independent butchers, bakers and gift shops, it is a two minute walk away and your money stays in the city.
• Second hand counts as a gift: Oxfam opened its first permanent shop on Broad Street in 1948 and it is still there, along with some of the best second hand bookshops in England.