Lillehammer Christmas Market 2026: 200 Historic Houses

I’d come to Lillehammer for the snow alone, which is all but certain by December, and for the painted wooden buildings of the pedestrian street. The Lillehammer Christmas Market is small and friendly rather than grand. The real reason to plan ahead is the open-air museum up the hill, which opens its decorated historic houses for one weekend only.

Lillehammer Christmas Market 2026

Dates

Status: Confirmed
Lillehammer dates: 5th to 6th and 12th to 13th December 2026
Maihaugen Open-Air Museum: 28th to 29th November 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 Norway.

Plan Your Visit

Location and Times

Location: Stortorget
Opening times: 2pm to 8pm
Christmas Day: Closed

Travel and Accommodation

Parking: Please take public transport to help limit congestion.
Where to stay: Aksjemøllen is 1 minute from Stortorget.

Amenities and Attractions

Admission: Free
Santa: Yes
Ice skating: No
Reason to visit: Old wooden buildings as backdrop, proximity to historical Maihaugen.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian: Plenty of options.
Vegan: Some options.
Gluten free: Limited.
Food specialities: Traditional pastries, pickled fish, smoked meats, hot mulled wine, local cheeses.

Accessibility

Accessible: Yes.
Pet-friendly: Yes.

Convenient Hotels

Lillehammer is a small city, so staying anywhere in the city centre should be fine. A good option is Aksjemøllen, as it’s in the centre, near the pedestrianised street with shops and market stalls.

Visitor Feedback

What Visitors Loved

• Maihaugen’s decorated houses are the highlight, letting you walk from a medieval farmhouse to a 1950s living room in one afternoon.
• The crafts are a step above typical market stock, and exhibitors have reported record sales at Maihaugen in recent seasons.
• Families rate it highly, with pony and sleigh rides, farm animals and children’s workshops to fill the day.
• Snow on the wooden buildings of Storgata gives the town centre the look many visitors come to Norway hoping for.

Common Complaints

• Maihaugen opens for a single weekend and now draws close to 12,000 people, so the paths and the most popular houses get busy.
• Parking at the museum is limited, and drivers often end up in car parks around town.
• The town centre market is small, closer to a local weekend fair than a big chalet village, so pair it with Lillehammer’s shops and museums.
• It’s cold and dark by mid-afternoon, and ice grips must come off before you enter the historic houses.

The Bottom Line

Maihaugen is the reason to make the trip, so plan your weekend around it and arrive mid-afternoon to see the houses before the lanterns are lit at dusk. If you can’t make that weekend, the town centre market and the decorated shopfronts along Storgata still make a pleasant snowy weekend away.

Location

What to Expect

The town centre market is small and local rather than a big chalet village. Stalls line Storgata, the pedestrian street of old wooden buildings, and spill onto Stortorget square, selling festive food, produce from farms in the surrounding valleys and gifts. There are sleigh rides along the street, and Santa usually makes an appearance.

Maihaugen, the open-air museum on the hill above town, is the bigger draw. It has around 200 historic buildings, from a medieval open-hearth house and the Garmo stave church to Queen Sonja’s childhood home, and on market weekend actors in period dress show how Christmas was kept in each of them. More than 100 stalls sell crafts, homemade food and decorations, and there are pony and sleigh rides, animals in the barns and carol singers around the grounds. Entry is by ticket, which you can buy online in advance. It’s a 15-minute walk uphill from the centre, or a few minutes on the bus from Lillehammer Skysstasjon, the bus and train station.

If you’d rather buy straight from the makers, Fabrikken, a creative hub with around 30 studios for glassblowers, ceramicists, jewellers and textile designers, holds its own Christmas sale. Lillehammer Art Museum is in the town centre, and the Olympic ski slopes at Hafjell and Kvitfjell are within easy reach if you want a day on the snow.

Specialties

• Pinnekjøtt (salted lamb ribs): Salted and dried lamb or mutton ribs, steamed over birch sticks, which gives them a distinct flavour.
• Lefse: Soft flatbread, often made with potato and usually spread with butter and cinnamon sugar.
• Gløgg (mulled wine): Norway’s mulled wine, served with raisins and almonds in the cup.
• Koldtbord (cold table): A buffet of cold dishes. If it’s not at the market, ask where to find it at a local restaurant.
• Rakfisk (fermented trout): An inland speciality, served with flatbread and sour cream.
• Riskrem (rice cream): Cold rice pudding folded with whipped cream and served with red berry sauce.
• Pepperkaker (gingerbread biscuits): Thin, crisp spiced biscuits.
• Kransekake (almond ring cake): Almond cake rings stacked into a tower.
• Klippfisk (dried cod): Salted and dried cod, a staple of the Norwegian winter table.
• Svele: A thick, fluffy pancake spread with butter and sugar or Norwegian brown cheese.

Gifts and Stocking Fillers

• Handmade baubles: Decorations with snowflake, reindeer and Norwegian landscape motifs.
• Marius sweater (Mariusgenser): Norway’s best-known knitwear pattern, in red, white and blue.
• Wood carvings: Animal figures and abstract pieces, sometimes made to order.
• Rosemaling (rose painting): Traditional decorative painting on wooden boxes, bowls and trays.
• Books: Norwegian folktale collections, or a novel by Sigrid Undset, the Nobel Prize-winning writer who made her home in Lillehammer.
• Pewter: Brooches, candlesticks and tableware.
• Wool socks: Knitted from Norwegian sheep’s wool, and genuinely useful if you’re out in the snow.
• Smoked salmon (røkt laks): Smoked using traditional methods.
• Norwegian cheese: Look for Gudbrandsdalsost, the sweet brown cheese named after this valley, alongside flavoured hard cheeses.

Sustainable Travel Tips

• Arrive by train: Lillehammer is on the main line from Oslo and Oslo Airport Gardermoen, so you can reach both markets without a car.
• Take the bus to Maihaugen: On market weekend buses run from Lillehammer Skysstasjon to the museum every 15 minutes, and parking at the museum is limited.
• Or walk up: Signposted routes lead from the town centre past the hospital to Maihaugen, and the museum’s outdoor paths are sanded in winter.
• Eco-Lighthouse museum: Maihaugen holds Eco-Lighthouse (Miljøfyrtårn) certification, Norway’s national environmental certification for businesses.