Copenhagen Christmas at Tivoli 2026: Dates, Tickets and How to Do It Right

Tivoli tickets and time-slots

Tivoli Gardens is the only major market in Copenhagen that charges admission, and it is the centre of the city's Christmas. Entry costs kr 210 to kr 230, or kr 115 for ages three to seven. Entry with unlimited rides costs kr 359 to kr 409. Book the time-slot in advance for weekends in December.

The old wooden rollercoaster Rutschebanen stands on one side of the market and Nimb's white Moorish palace facade on the other. Strings of fairy lights run over the chalets and out across the lake. Keep 24 December for something else, because the gardens are shut that day. Parties of 10 or more go through dedicated group-ticket sales, and Tivoli's restaurants take group dining bookings.

Free markets a few minutes from Strøget

Julemarked Nytorv & Gammeltorv opens the season on 6 November 2026 and runs to 21 December, so it is trading while the rest of the city's Christmas is still being built. Stalls wrap around the gilded Caritas Fountain on Gammeltorv; on Nytorv the lit wooden booths stand under the heavy neoclassical colonnade of the old courthouse. Entry is free and the food and drink stalls charge kr 40 to kr 120. Two squares give a crowd somewhere to go.

Jul på Højbro Plads (Højbro Plads) opens 14 November and closes 20 December 2026, under new management this year. A double row of red-and-white wooden huts fills the cobbles. Bishop Absalon's green-bronze equestrian statue points out over the stalls, and the Christiansborg Palace tower and the canal bridge close the view. Gløgg is kr 50 to kr 70 and æbleskiver kr 45. Entry is free. It is the closest thing Copenhagen has to a German-style market, and it sits a two-minute walk from Strøget. The aisles between the stalls narrow at weekends, so come on a weekday afternoon if your dates allow it.

Skating at Kongens Nytorv and on the harbour

Copenhagen Winter Wonderland (Kongens Nytorv) lays an oval open-air rink inside the Krinsen ring of bare lime trees, the bronze equestrian statue of Christian V at its centre and Hotel d'Angleterre's white lit facade behind. Wooden market huts ring the edge, and walking the market itself costs nothing. Ice time is kr 70 per hour with rental skates included, bookable online by the hour. The rink runs 13 November to 30 December 2026 and closes on 24, 25 and 31 December. It is the most central rink and the one that photographs best. The ice is small and it fills from 16:00, so skate in the early afternoon.

Broens Skøjtebane (Christianshavn quay) has been open since 30 October and runs to 21 February 2027, closed on 24 December and 1 January, which covers the shoulder weeks when the markets have packed up. The 600 m² rink sits beside the Inderhavnsbroen cycle bridge, Nyhavn's painted gable houses straight across the water, timber food shacks and bar counters round the ice. Skating is kr 65 per hour with rental skates, kr 20 with your own, and helmets are kr 25. You cannot reserve a table, so find a spot when you arrive.

An indoor market and a railway yard

Christiania Julemarked (Den Grå Hal) trades 8 to 20 December 2026, daily from 12:00 to 20:00. Bare bulbs hang over trestle stalls of hand-made ceramics and sheepskin inside the vast graffiti-covered concrete former riding hall; outside, wood-smoke and cargo bikes fill the muddy lanes. Entry is free, craft stalls run kr 100 to kr 800 and gløgg is kr 50. Of the city's markets this is the one that feels most like Copenhagen, and the only indoor option on a wet night. Respect Christiania's no-photography rule on Pusher Street on the way in.

BaneGaarden (10 minutes from Enghave Plads metro) opens at weekends only, 21 November to 20 December 2026. Festoon lights run between black tar-painted 19th-century wooden railway barns in a disused goods yard, gløgg comes off an open-fire stall, and makers set out their tables inside the hay-smelling timber halls. Entry is free, gløgg is kr 60 and craft prices run kr 150 to kr 1,000. Check the day's hours before you set out: Saturdays often close at 14:00. The on-site restaurants take bookings.

Gløgg and the julefrokost table

Hviids Vinstue (corner of Kongens Nytorv), Copenhagen's oldest bar, pours its home-made gløgg from 11 November each year. A glass is kr 60 to kr 80, out of a copper pot behind a cramped bar in a 1723 cellar of dark wood panelling and low smoke-stained beams. No music plays and there is no kitchen. It takes no bookings and will not fit a party of more than six, and it will tell you so at the door. Go early in the afternoon. One glass here beats any market stall.

Torvehallerne (Israels Plads by Nørreport) hosts the Danish Gløgg Championships in November and pours the winning recipe through December. Fish and produce counters fill two glass-and-steel halls under bright industrial lighting, and December pop-up stalls sell gløgg and marzipan between them. Gløgg is kr 50 to kr 70 and a plate of food kr 100 to kr 200. Entry is free, and the halls open all year, Monday to Friday 10:00 to 19:00 and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 to 18:00.

Restaurant Kronborg (Brolæggerstræde) serves the classic Danish julefrokost in a basement dining room on a narrow cobbled street: white linen tables under a low white-painted ceiling, platters of open rye sandwiches, a frosted bottle of aquavit on each table. The season runs 23 October to 23 December and 27 to 30 December 2026. It costs kr 575 per person Sunday to Thursday and kr 675 Friday and Saturday, and two people is the minimum. Parties of nine or more book by phone or email with the menu pre-ordered, and the room takes private parties up to 70. Book weeks ahead for December Fridays. This is the sit-down meal that turns a market crawl into a proper day.

The Nutcracker on the Old Stage

Det Kongelige Teater, Gamle Scene (Kongens Nytorv) stages George Balanchine's The Nutcracker with the Royal Danish Ballet from 20 November to 22 December 2026. Seats cost kr 130 to kr 855, under-12s get 50% off, and the recommended age is six and up. Inside the 1874 neo-renaissance house the tiers are gilded horseshoes in red plush, and Balanchine's Christmas tree grows to fill the proscenium in a snow of stage glitter. Of everything indoors this is the one worth booking before you fly, and weekend matinees sell out first.

The Swedish church bazaar in Østerbro

Svenska Gustafskyrkan (Østerbro) runs its Christmas bazaar on 20, 21 and 22 November 2026, a tradition since 1912. Volunteers staff trestle tables of Swedish crafts in the parish hall, there are saffron lussekatter and a tombola, and Advent stars glow in the windows of the red-brick neo-gothic church on its quiet street. Entry is free, and baked goods and crafts run kr 20 to kr 300. Three days is all you get, so put it in the diary early.

Day trips by train and bus

Frilandsmuseet keeps its Christmas season from 27 November to 25 December 2026, 30 minutes from the city by S-train. Tickets are kr 150 for adults, kr 135 online, and under-18s are free. Thatched half-timbered farmhouses stand scattered over open parkland, candles burn behind small leaded window panes, costumed farmhands work the yards and a horse-drawn wagon crosses a frosted gravel track. Book the guided Christmas tours ahead. The open-air museum shows what a Danish Christmas looked like, and on a family trip it is the strongest of these day trips.

Dyrehavsbakken (Bakken) runs Jul på Bakken at weekends, 21 November to 20 December 2026, reached on the Klampenborg S-train through the deer park. Park entry is free and ride passes cost extra. Light tunnels hang over the sawdust paths of the world's oldest amusement park in the bare beech woods of Dyrehaven, Pjerrot the white-faced clown works in his ruff, and a gingerbread-themed lane runs past a small open-air rink. Bakken's restaurants run classic julefrokost sittings at kr 300 to kr 500 per head. It is rougher and funnier than Tivoli.

Jul i Dragør opens at weekends from 21 November to 20 December 2026, 12:00 to 17:00, and sits 35 minutes from the centre. Bus 250S from Copenhagen gets you there, and parking in the village is tight. Ochre lime-washed cottages with red pantile roofs line the cobbled lanes of the 18th-century fishing village, stalls and a grill hut stand in the Hollændergårdene courtyards, and masts from the small harbour show behind the roofs. Entry is free, with pancakes and gløgg kr 30 to kr 70. Dragør is the escape from the Strøget crush.

Kronborg Castle Christmas Market opens on three weekends only, 5 and 6, 12 and 13, and 19 and 20 December 2026, 46 minutes by train from Copenhagen Central. Stalls fill the vaulted stone rooms and the cobbled inner courtyard of Hamlet's renaissance fortress, copper-green spires above and the Øresund and the Swedish coast grey beyond the ramparts. Adult tickets are kr 150, kr 135 online, and children go free, but every visitor needs a timed ticket bought ahead, children included. Organise this one as a fixed day out, and expect lots of stairs and no lift.

Dates and bookings to fix before you go

Tivoli Gardens closes on 24 December, Copenhagen Winter Wonderland on 24, 25 and 31 December, and Broens Skøjtebane on 24 December and 1 January. Before you travel, book Tivoli's December weekend time-slot, a timed ticket for every person going to Kronborg Castle, a table at Restaurant Kronborg and your Nutcracker seats.

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