Aarhus Christmas Market 2026: Dates for 3 Venues

Every house at the open-air museum in Aarhus is dressed for Christmas in its own era, from the 1600s right up to a 1974 flat that’ll look oddly familiar. The stalls are woven through cobbled lanes, old homes and working shops rather than set up in one square, and I haven’t seen that anywhere else. The Aarhus Christmas Market doesn’t stop at the museum gates, either. An old riding hall fills with Danish makers, and an amusement park turns its tallest tower into a giant tree.

Aarhus Christmas Market 2026

Dates

Status: Confirmed
Den Gamle By: 14th November to 31st December 2026
Ridehuset Art & Christmas Market: 27th November to 20th December 2026
Christmas at Tivoli Friheden: 14th November to 30th December 2026
Last checked: October 2026

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

Source: Verified by Ultimate Christmas Markets via Visit Aarhus.

Note: Ridehuset dates are verified via Aarhus Kunst and Julemarked. The details below cover all three venues.

Plan Your Visit

Location and Times

Location: Den Gamle By
Opening times: 10am to 5pm
Christmas Eve: 10am to 3pm
Christmas Day: Open
Boxing Day: Open
New Year’s Eve: 10am to 3pm

Location: Ridehuset Equestrian Hall
Opening times:
Monday to Friday: 12pm to 6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 11am to 5pm

Location: Tivoli Friheden
Christmas Eve: Closed
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: Closed

Travel and Accommodation

Recommended Tour: Viking village to metropolis walking tour
Parking: Please take public transport to help limit congestion.
Where to stay: Hotel Oasia is a well-rated, centrally located hotel.

Amenities and Attractions

Admission: Den Gamle By adult: 205 DKK. Ridehuset: Free.
Tivoli Friheden tickets: Book online (in Danish).
Lights switch-on: 14th November at Tivoli Friheden.
Santa: At Tivoli Friheden.
Ice skating: Musikhuspark. Free access. Skate rental: 50 DKK.
Reason to visit: Several central locations. Traditional experience at the museum.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian: Yes, plenty of options.
Vegan: Yes, plenty of options.
Gluten free: Yes, but limited.
Food specialities: Traditional Danish pastries, warm wine, seasonal treats.

Accessibility

Accessible: Yes
Pet-friendly: No

Convenient Hotels

Indre By is Aarhus’s inner-city district and generally the best place to stay. It’s very close to Ridehuset and the Musikhuset Aarhus ice skating rink, as well as many other places of interest in Aarhus. Hotel Oasia is the best choice in this area, and it’s also conveniently located near the train station. There aren’t many well-rated hotels in Aarhus, so I don’t think you’ll find anything better than this.

Recommended Tours

Three hours walking from the Viking settlement buried under the modern streets out to the harbour, so you get the whole arc of the city in one go. It’s longer than most city walks, and Aarhus has enough in it to carry that. The Viking village walking tour fits easily into the same day as Den Gamle By.

Visitor Feedback

What Visitors Loved

• Den Gamle By feels like time travel. Costumed hosts, musicians and houses decorated for their own era win the most praise and the lantern-lit evening openings get a special mention.
• The food from the old bakeries and stalls is what people remember: apple slices fried the old way, honey hearts, vanilla rings and a cup of gløgg to carry round.
• Tivoli Friheden is where Christmas in Aarhus feels biggest, and families keep coming back for the thousands of lights, open fires and Santa’s grotto.

Common Complaints

• Den Gamle By gets very crowded on Advent weekends, with queues at the entrance and inside the houses. Arrive at opening time or come on a weekday.
• Gløgg and æbleskiver at the museum feel expensive on top of the entry ticket, and several visitors bought less because of it.
• Some repeat visitors feel the Christmas programme has thinned, with fewer houses open and fewer costumed staff than in earlier years.

Location

What to Expect

Aarhus spreads its Christmas across the city rather than packing it into one square, so each venue makes a different outing. At Den Gamle By, you follow a lantern-lit route through four centuries of Danish Christmas, ducking into merchants’ houses, workshops and the old bakery as you go. Brass bands from the Royal Danish Academy of Music play at weekends, and children can climb into the elves’ attic or wander through a miniature elf village.

Ridehuset is the place for gifts. The old riding hall holds around 80 Danish makers, and most stalls change every week, so a second visit turns up different things. Tivoli Friheden goes bigger and brighter, with a tunnel of 50,000 lights at the entrance, the Sky Tower dressed as a 55-metre Christmas tree, Santa and a Ferris wheel. In the centre, free skating takes place on the outdoor rink in front of Musikhuset, the concert hall, and a new market of local traders on Klostertorv square.

Local Specialties

• Gløgg: Danish mulled wine, with raisins and chopped almonds stirred into the cup.
• Æbleskiver: Round pancake puffs usually topped with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam.
• Apple slices: Apple rings dipped in batter and fried in pork fat at Den Gamle By, to a recipe from 1616. It’s how æbleskiver were made before they turned into round puffs.
• Honey hearts (honninghjerter): Spiced honey biscuits covered in chocolate.
• Vanilla rings (vaniljekranse): Buttery piped biscuits from the museum’s old bakery.
• Christmas beer (juleøl): Den Gamle By pours its own dark Christmas beer.
• Roast pork sandwiches: Danish roast pork with crackling in a bun, sold alongside duck sandwiches and wild boar sausages.
• Frikadeller: Danish meatballs, usually made of pork.
• Rice porridge (risengrød): Warm and filling, served in the Ridehuset café alongside cake and æbleskiver.

Gifts and Stocking Fillers

• Ceramics: Pieces frequently feature minimalist designs and neutral colours, and Ridehuset’s rotating makers mean the selection changes week to week.
• Wooden figures (træfigurer): Local artisans carve intricate wooden figures.
• Crawling elves and glass baubles: The Christmas shop on Den Gamle By’s market square sells the classic crawling nisser (Danish Christmas elves) and hand-painted glass ornaments from family workshops in Thuringia.
• Old-fashioned sweets: The museum’s historic shops sell homemade sweets and biscuits, wrapped to take home.

Sustainable Travel Tips

• Walk between the markets: Den Gamle By, Ridehuset, Klostertorv and the rink outside Musikhuset are all an easy walk apart in the centre, so you’ll only need a bus to get to Tivoli Friheden.
• Return your coffee cup: Many city centre cafes serve takeaway drinks in ReUsable cups for a 5 DKK deposit. Drop the cup into any collection machine around town and tap your card or phone to get it back.