Lyon Christmas Market 2026 Dates & the Festival of Lights

The Lyon Christmas Market fills one tree-lined square at the southern end of the city centre with around 100 wooden chalets. It’s as much a place to eat as to shop, with tartiflette, melted raclette and slices of pink praline brioche at almost every turn. Give it an evening, and if you can, come in early December when the whole city lights up with the Festival of Lights.

Lyon Christmas Market 2026

Dates

Status: Confirmed
Lyon dates: 20th November to 24th December 2026
Festival of Lights: 5th to 8th December 2026
Last checked: October 2026

Update: Dates were announced in October. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified of changes.

Source: Verified by Ultimate Christmas Markets via City of Lyon.

Plan Your Visit

Location and Times

Location: Place Carnot
Opening times:
Monday to Thursday: 11am to 8pm
Friday: 11am to 10pm
Saturday: 10:30am to 10pm
Sunday: 10:30am to 8pm
Christmas Day: Closed

Travel and Accommodation

Recommended tour: This 4-hour Lyon food-tasting tour is a great way to start your trip.
Public transport: Widely available and accessible.
Parking: Please take public transport to help limit congestion.
Travel tips: Plan your visit to include the Festival of Lights.
Where to stay: Hotel De Verdun 1882 is 2 minutes from Place Carnot.

Amenities and Attractions

Admission: Free
Lights: Festival of Lights
Croix-Rousse Christmas: Lights until early January.
Santa: Yes, proceeds from photo sales go to charity
Ice skating: TBC
Reason to Visit: Lyonnaise gastronomy, traditional wooden chalets, Fête des Lumières.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian: Yes, plenty of options.
Vegan: Yes, plenty of options.
Gluten-free: Limited. Ask individual vendors, but beware of cross-contamination.
Food specialties: Lyon’s famed saucisson, Praluline brioche, tartiflette, Saint Marcellin cheese, marrons glacés.

Accessibility

Accessible: Yes
Pet-friendly: Dogs are allowed if they wear a muzzle.

Where to Stay

The Carnot-Gailleton area in Lyon’s 2nd arrondissement makes an ideal base, right beside the market and central enough to walk to most of the Festival of Lights sites, cafes and restaurants.

In this area, I recommend the Hotel De Verdun 1882 for its quality service and excellent facilities. It’s a short walk from the chalets and an easy tram ride from the light shows.

For a drink before dinner, my favourite memory of Lyon is watching the sun go down over cocktails with my family at the top-floor bar of the Sofitel.

Tours You Might Like

If you’re visiting Lyon for the first time, you might like this pedicab tour (the guide pedals while you sit in the back) that takes in many of Lyon’s highlights.

Alternatively, this 4-hour food tasting tour offers an interesting look at Lyon’s culture through its celebrated cuisine.

Read the complete guide to the French Christmas Markets.

Visitor Feedback

What Visitors Loved

• An easy evening: visitors like the lights and music after dark and find a couple of hours is about right.
• The hot food: tartiflette and raclette are what people remember most, and the smell of melting cheese follows you around the square.
• Gifts with a regional flavour: shoppers rate it for local produce and crafts, and the chalets selling santons (Provençal nativity figures) get a special mention.

Common Complaints

• Prices: food prices draw the most grumbles, and several locals call the hot food overpriced for the portion, so share a dish and graze.
• Trinkets: some locals feel the stalls have drifted towards cheap gadgets, so head for the Fabriqué à Lyon chalet if you want something genuinely local.
• Crowds during the lights: the square gets packed and fenced off during the Festival of Lights, and weekends are busy too, so a weekday afternoon is far calmer.
• Size and decoration: visitors who know the big markets of Alsace or Germany find it small and fairly light on decoration.

Event Location

Lyon Festival of Lights

The Festival of Lights (Fête des Lumières) grew out of a single night in 1852, when Lyon’s residents lit candles in their windows to mark the unveiling of the gilded Virgin Mary statue on Fourvière Hill. The custom has never stopped: on the evening of 8 December, families still line their windowsills with lumignons, small candles in coloured glass.

Today it runs over four nights, with artists from around the world projecting light shows onto the city’s cathedral, squares, riverbanks and parks. Expect to walk a lot, and expect company, because the whole city comes out for it.

Status: Confirmed
Festival of Lights: 5th to 8th December 2026
Source: Fête des Lumières

What to Expect

The chalets fill Place Carnot, a tree-lined square at the southern tip of the Presqu’île (the peninsula between the Rhône and the Saône), with Perrache station rising behind it. It’s one compact square rather than a sprawl, and your nose does the navigating, with melting cheese on one side and spiced wine on the other. Between the food stalls you’ll find decorations, regional produce, wooden toys and handmade gifts, and carols drift over the speakers once it’s dark, which comes early in Lyon in December.

I’ve been to Lyon several times in winter, and I’d rank it among France’s biggest food cities. It’s a large city with plenty on in December, so the market works best as one part of the evening: an hour among the chalets, then dinner in a bouchon, the traditional Lyonnaise bistro.

Food Specialties

• Tartiflette: potatoes, lardons, onions and reblochon cheese from nearby Savoie, baked until bubbling and served by the tub. It’s the market’s signature smell.
• Raclette: semi-hard cheese melted and scraped over bread or potatoes, often sold as a sandwich you can eat on the move.
• Ravioles du Dauphiné: tiny cheese and herb ravioli from the hills south of Lyon, served gratinéed or in broth.
• Truffle aligot: mashed potato beaten with melted cheese until it stretches, finished with shavings of truffle.

At the Market Stalls

• Praluline: created in 1955 by Lyon pâtissier Auguste Pralus, it’s a brioche studded with pink sugared almonds. I like it with butter, but you can also eat it on its own.
• Saucisson chaud: a quintessential Lyonnaise street food, a warm sausage served in bread.
• Vin chaud: mulled wine comes in red and white here, and hot cider turns up at a few stalls too.

What to Buy

• Fabriqué à Lyon: a dedicated chalet showcases makers carrying the city’s Made in Lyon label, with ceramics, candles, illustrations and leather accessories.
• Lyon silk: the city was France’s silk capital for centuries, and silk scarves and ties still make a light, packable gift.
• Guignol puppets: the cheeky puppet character was born in Lyon, and his hand puppets are a local favourite with children.
• Santons de Provence: hand-painted terracotta nativity figures from the south of France.
• Regional food: jams, honey, foie gras, local wine and liqueurs travel well, and the city’s own cured sausages too.

Sustainability Tips

• Shop the approved list: the city publishes a list of products stallholders may sell, caps imported goods at a small share of the crafts and bans fur, so most of what you see is French or regional.
• Dress for the cold: stall heaters are capped at one kilowatt and heating customers isn’t allowed, so there are no patio heaters to huddle under.
• Visit the Responsible Christmas Market: usually on a Saturday in late November, City Hall on Place des Terreaux fills with upcycled design, fair trade jewellery, zero-waste homewares and organic food.
• Take metro line A: Perrache and Ampère Victor Hugo stations are both a few minutes’ walk from the chalets, and Vélo’v bike share docks are dotted across the Presqu’île.