Christmas Markets in Amsterdam 2026

Festival

• 📷 Marion Golsteijn · CC BY-SA 4.0
  

  📷 Erik Zachte · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 📷 Kitty Terwolbeck · CC BY 2.0 · 📷 Marion Golsteijn · CC BY-SA 4.0

  Festival · Amsterdam

  Amsterdam Light Festival

  An annual light-art festival: international artists make light artworks especially for Amsterdam's canals, to be seen from the water and from the quays.

  ✨ Date night🎉 With friends

  What's there

  • ★Light artworks along and above the canals
  • ★On foot or by canal cruise
  • ★Lights on daily from 4:30pm to 11pm
  • ★15th edition in 2026–27

  What visitors sayGoogle 3.1 ★ · 186 reviews

  Visitors who walk the route (about 6.5–8.5 km) recommend the app and find the artworks easier to see from the quays than from a boat; a cruise gives you the stories behind the works, but with reflections on the windows. Some editions disappointed (artworks far apart, little spectacle), while for other families it is a yearly Christmas tradition.

  The best-known light event of the Dutch Christmas season — weekday early evenings are the quietest.

  2026

  26 Nov 2026 – 17 Jan 2027

  Last season

  27 Nov 2025 – 18 Jan 2026

  Cost

  Watching from the quays is free; for the water route you buy a canal-cruise ticket from a boat operator.

  Getting there and parking

  • From Amsterdam Centraal you walk straight into the centre.
  • By car: park in a garage or at one of the city's P+R sites.

  Worth knowing

  • On 31 December the lights go off at 9pm.
  • Not every cruise operator is wheelchair-accessible — ask before booking.

  Canals in the city centre, AmsterdamOfficial site