Colmar Christmas Market Food Guide 2026: Dates, What to Eat & Prices

Colmar’s Christmas market is six small markets across the old town, running 23 November to 29 December 2026: 11:00–19:00 Monday to Thursday and 10:00–20:00 Friday to Sunday. Only place Jeanne d’Arc and the Gourmet Market are mainly about food, and the stalls stay open on 25 and 26 December.

Colmar’s Christmas market is really six small ones, laid out across the pedestrian old town around half-timbered houses and the River Lauch. The tourist office counts about 180 stalls in total, mostly run by exhibitors from Alsace, which makes it far smaller than Strasbourg’s and easier to cover in a day. Only some of the six are about food. This guide separates them, and covers the official 2026 dates and hours, the Alsatian specialities the tourist office lists, and the few prices that have been published with a date.

Dates checked on 15 October 2026 against the official sources – always re-check the market’s own website before you book.

Colmar Christmas market dates and hours for 2026

The official Colmar Christmas site, run by the area’s tourist offices, gives the 2026 season as 23 November to 29 December 2026. Standard hours are 11:00 to 19:00 from Monday to Thursday and 10:00 to 20:00 from Friday to Sunday. The markets close exactly at the stated time, which the organisers put down to security.

Christmas week has its own hours:

• Thursday 24 December: 11:00 to 17:00.
• Friday 25 December: 10:00 to 20:00.
• Saturday 26 December: 10:00 to 20:00.

That is a real difference from Strasbourg, where the market is expected to end on Christmas Eve. In Colmar the stalls are open on 25 and 26 December. The Gourmet Market, the Ferris wheel and the Christmas fair on place Rapp run longer, to 3 January 2027, daily from 11:00 to 22:00, except 31 December when they close at 17:00. The Ferris wheel costs 10 EUR for adults and 8 EUR for children under 1.20 m, according to the official page.

The six markets, and which ones are for eating

The tourist office describes each market as its own small village. Four are mainly crafts and decorations, so skip them if you came for the food. Here is how they split.

• Place Jeanne d’Arc. The one for edible shopping. The official text says it is dedicated to local products: foie gras, cold meats, wine, schnapps and bredele biscuits.
• Gourmet Market, rue de la Montagne Verte. Nine cabins run by nine chefs, with oysters and Alsatian dishes served as plates you can eat at a standing bar or take away, plus cooking demonstrations. It is the only one of the six that stays open past 29 December.
• Place des Dominicains. Around sixty chalets in front of the Dominican church, with decorations and gifts. A guide reports vin chaud here too.
• Place de l’Ancienne Douane. About fifty chalets around the Schwendi fountain, crafts and tree decorations.
• Petite Venise. The children’s market, where the tourist office mentions mulled apple juice rather than wine.
• Koïfhus. An indoor craft market with about twenty local makers. No food, but it is warm.

What to eat and drink

The tourist office’s own list of Christmas specialities is the most reliable guide to the region’s food. Prices are thin on the ground, so most of the items below come without one.

• Vin chaud. Mulled wine, made with white wine or Pinot noir and flavoured with clove, cinnamon, star anise, lemon, orange and a spoon of honey. The markets also sell non-alcoholic versions made with apple, orange or strawberry juice. No dated price for the wine itself has been published.
• Tarte flambée (flammekueche). The thin, crisp Alsatian base with crème fraîche, onions and bacon. One travel blogger who visited on 8 December 2025 reported 10 to 14 EUR depending on the topping, and 12 EUR for the gratinée version. The tourist office’s own page does not list it, so treat availability as a stall-by-stall question.
• Bretzel. The Alsatian pretzel. The same blogger split one for 2.50 EUR in December 2025.
• Bredele. Little Christmas biscuits, in several dozen varieties from cinnamon stars to vanilla crescents. No reliable price for Colmar.
• Sprengerle. Anise-flavoured biscuits pressed in carved wooden moulds, listed separately from bredele by the tourist office.
• Pain d’épices. Alsatian gingerbread, sold plain, iced, honeyed or filled. Prices vary.
• Manala. A butter brioche shaped like a small man, eaten from early December and traditionally linked to St Nicholas on 6 December, often with hot chocolate.
• Berawecka and kougelhopf. A fruit bread macerated in kirsch, and the raisin-studded sweet bun, also soaked in kirsch.

The tourist office also names the dishes that belong on a sit-down menu rather than a market stall: baeckaoffe, a dish of three marinated meats and potatoes cooked in white wine, along with choucroute, matelote du Rhin (a fish dish), coq au Riesling and Munster cheese. The Gourmet Market is the market-side route to some of these.

Where to eat best

For a first lap with a budget, start at place Jeanne d’Arc for a hot drink and biscuits, then walk to the Gourmet Market for a proper plate. The same blogger called the Gourmet Market’s food dearer than a standard tarte flambée but still reasonable, though the menu prices appeared only in photos, so there is no figure to quote. If you want a seated meal, the tourist office publishes lists of restaurants open at Christmas and on New Year’s Eve, which is worth downloading before you plan a Christmas Day lunch.

For Alsace as a whole, including Strasbourg’s food and its own market rules, read our Strasbourg Christmas market food guide.

Practical tips

• Cup deposit. The blogger who visited in December 2025 paid 2 EUR per cup, refundable at any mulled-wine stall in Colmar. Another guide, undated, says 1 EUR. Ask at the stall.
• No cars in the centre. The old town is closed to vehicles from 23 November to 29 December.
• Weekend park and ride. It costs 5 EUR a day, with the bus into town included, from the Parc des Expositions on 28 and 29 November and 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20 December.
• Christmas Eve. Stalls close at 17:00 on 24 December, so lunch is the plan.
• Crowds. The official site has an attendance forecast calendar, which is worth a look before you pick a day. As a general point, weekday afternoons are usually calmer than weekends.
• Payment. The official pages do not say what stalls accept, so carry some cash as well as a card.

Other Christmas markets near Colmar

The same site lists the villages around Colmar, each with its own calendar. In 2026, Eguisheim and Turckheim run from 27 November to 30 December and Riquewihr from 27 November to 20 December. Kaysersberg is on weekends only, 27 to 29 November and the three following weekends to 20 December. A second day could cover one of them.

A short note before you go

Colmar is a market to graze at, not to plan a long lunch around. The official dates and hours are set, the dishes are well documented, and the weak point is prices, which are largely missing for 2026. If you would like someone to explain the Alsatian dishes in person, a guided tasting in the region is an easy way to do it. Check the tourist office’s site shortly before you travel, as hours can change.

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