Dortmund Christmas Market 2026: Trees, Beer and Fritters

The Dortmund Christmas Market is full of food and drink, as befits this beer city. Come hungry for potato fritters, ham roasted over a wood fire and a mug of mulled beer, then walk it off between the squares. You’ll spot the tree long before you reach the stalls, and it’s far bigger than any photo suggests. Up close, you can see it’s around 1,200 spruces from the Sauerland hills, fixed to a steel frame and topped with an angel. The market spills out through the old centre from there, so I’d give it an evening and wander from square to square.

Dortmund Christmas Market 2026

Dates

Status: Confirmed
Dortmund dates: 19th November to 30th December 2026
Last checked: October 2026

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

Source: Verified by Ultimate Christmas Markets via Weihnachtsstadt.

Plan Your Visit

Location and Times

Location: Hansaplatz and the surrounding squares in the city centre.
Opening times:
Monday to Thursday: 11am to 9pm
Friday and Saturday: 11am to 10pm
Sunday: 12pm to 9pm
Snack stalls close 1 hour later.
Sunday of the Dead: Closed
Christmas Eve: 11am to 2pm (limited stalls)
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: 12pm to 9pm
27th and 28th December: 11am to 9pm
29th December: 12pm to 9pm
30th December: 11am to 9pm

Travel and Accommodation

Parking: Please take public transport to help limit congestion.
Where to stay: Coffee Fellows Hotel is just 1 minute from the event.

Amenities and Attractions

Admission: Free
Lights: No switch-on date announced.
Santa: Yes, in the Christmas Village, where children can bake and craft with him.
Ice skating: No
Reason to visit: The largest decorated tree in the world, built from around 1,200 Norway spruces from Germany’s Sauerland forests. It’s covered in 138,000 LED lights and topped with a 4 metre angel.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian: Yes, plenty of options.
Vegan: Yes, but limited.
Gluten-free: Yes, but limited.
Food specialities: Glühwein (mulled wine), glühbier (mulled beer), reibekuchen (potato fritters) and Dortmunder Salzkuchen (a caraway and salt bread roll).

Accessibility

Accessible: Yes.
Pet-friendly: Yes, dogs are allowed on a lead.

Convenient Hotels

Consider staying in the City West district, a short walk from the market, with plenty of accommodation options, shops, restaurants, and other tourist attractions. The Coffee Fellows Hotel is a good option here, and it’s right across the road from Hansaplatz.

Read my guide to hotels in Dortmund if you’re looking for an alternative place to stay.

Read our complete guide to the German Christmas Markets.

Visitor Feedback

What Visitors Loved

• The tree lives up to its billing. Even visitors who knew what to expect say the scale only sinks in when you’re standing underneath it.
• The market winds through the whole centre rather than sitting on one square, so there’s always another cluster of stalls around the corner.
• The food gets plenty of praise, with more variety than many people expect, from grilled ham to sweet stalls and mulled wine.

Common Complaints

• Hansaplatz gets very crowded around the tree in the evenings and at weekends. The squares around the churches are easier going, so wander off once you’ve seen the light show.
• Food and drink prices feel high to a lot of visitors, and the bill adds up quickly if you’re grazing your way round.

Event Location

What to Expect

The tree is the centrepiece, all 45 metres of it, and it’s worth seeing twice. In daylight you can make out the individual spruces on their frame, and once it’s dark a light show rolls across its LEDs every half hour.

Beyond the tree, more than 250 stalls spread across around ten squares and the shopping streets linking them. St Reinold’s Church has a fairy-tale forest beside it, and there’s a Ferris wheel and a 16 metre Christmas pyramid on the nearby squares.

Families have plenty to do. Kids will love the carousel and the Christmas Village, where they can bake biscuits and make crafts with Santa; there’s also a traditional puppet theatre and free magic shows. Adults tend to settle in with live music and a glühwein in this year’s mug. The design changes every season, and plenty of people take theirs home as a souvenir.

Food Specialties

• Reibekuchen: The Ruhr’s favourite potato fritters, fried until crispy and served with apple sauce. They’re not always vegetarian, so ask before you buy.
• Westphalian grilled ham: Ham roasted over a wood fire, sliced to order and piled into a bread roll.
• Dortmunder Salzkuchen: The city’s own round bread roll, crusted with caraway and coarse salt and often filled with seasoned raw minced pork and onion.
• Glühbier (mulled beer): Warm beer with honey and spices, which makes sense in a city that built its name on brewing.
• Christmas City beer: A seasonal beer from Dortmund’s Hövels brewery, poured only at one stand near St Peter’s Church.

Sustainability Tips

• Renewable power: Every stall, the light installations and the tree run on green electricity from DEW21, the city’s own energy supplier and the new lighting is all LED.
• Leftover food goes somewhere: Foodsharing Dortmund collects unsold food from the stalls, and some traders list their surplus on Too Good To Go, so check the app towards closing time.
• Fair trade gifts: The Ganesh Nepalhilfe stall on Kampstraße sells fair trade handicrafts and has been a fixture of the market for years.
• Leave the car outside the centre: The Park and Ride sites at Hauptfriedhof, Westfalenpark, Hafen and Schulte-Rödding let public transport users park for free for up to 24 hours. Reinoldikirche U-Bahn station drops you right in the middle of the stalls.