Florence Christmas Market 2026: Santa Croce Dates, Hours and a Festive Day Plan

Piazza Santa Croce, 14 November to 20 December

Weihnachtsmarkt Firenze, the Mercato di Natale di Piazza Santa Croce (Piazza Santa Croce) is the city's flagship and the only Alpine-style market inside Florence. Two rows of gabled shingle roofs and string lights run the length of the long rectangular piazza. Hours are 10:00 to 22:00 Monday to Thursday and 10:00 to 23:00 Friday to Sunday.

Nothing is ticketed and there is no door policy. Weekends bring a crush. Meet at Dante's statue, which stands to one side of the piazza, and work the two rows in one direction. A weekday evening gives you the lit chalets without the weekend press, and the market trades until 22:00 on those nights.

Plan around the closing date. Put Santa Croce in late November or in the first three weeks of December, and if you arrive on 21 December or later, plan a different day out.

La Fierucola, two piazzas and two single days

La Fierucola (Piazza SS. Annunziata and Piazza Ognissanti) is the Florentine alternative to the tourist chalets, run across several piazzas by the same long-standing association. Honey jars, raw wool and chestnut flour sit on trestle tables under white canvas gazebos, pitched on the gravel of Piazza SS. Annunziata directly below Brunelleschi's arcaded loggia of the Innocenti.

It trades on 8 December 2026 at SS. Annunziata and on 20 December 2026 at Ognissanti, 09:00 to 19:00 on both days. Entry is free, outdoors, and nothing is booked. These are one-day events: miss the date and there is no second chance in the same week.

The aisles between the gazebos are narrow. Walk them in twos and buy on the first pass, because turning a party around in the middle of a row does not work. Chestnut flour and honey travel home better than anything you will carry out of a chalet market.

Palazzo Corsini, Lungarno Corsini 8

Nataleperfile (Lungarno Corsini 8) lays its stalls across four frescoed Baroque salons on the Arno embankment. Crystal chandeliers hang over the parquet and gilt mirrors line the walls, and this is the one Florence market where the room matters as much as the stock.

The 23rd edition runs 11 to 13 December 2026, 10:00 to 19:00. Entry is free and you walk in from Lungarno Corsini 8. The vintage room is the best stocked, and the takings fund palliative care.

Four rooms swallow a large party without anyone queueing on the pavement, so this is the easiest stop to open a day with. Go through the salons in order and leave the vintage room for last, when you know what you have already bought.

Piazza dei Ciompi makers' market

Creative Factory Urban Market (Piazza dei Ciompi) is Heyart's monthly market, held on the second weekend of the month. White open-fronted stalls ring the small gravel square beside the Loggia del Pesce, with screen prints and ceramics pegged up at eye level.

The November edition ran 14 to 15 November 2026, 10:00 to 20:00, and a December edition falls in the usual second-weekend slot. Confirm the December dates on the organiser's site before you promise anyone a Saturday here.

Buy here when you want a gift made by the person handing it over. The workshops are paid and booked online in advance. Entry to the square itself is free and unrestricted.

Mercato Centrale and the San Lorenzo programme

Mercato Centrale Firenze (San Lorenzo) is a nineteenth-century cast-iron-and-glass hall, and through December it carries the city's festive programme. Garlands and lights hang along the first floor above long communal tables set between the food counters, with the butchers and greengrocers trading on the ground floor below.

The programme covers a tree lighting with the historic San Lorenzo market, panettone-and-wine tastings and gospel choirs in the piazza. Most of it is free. The full December calendar is posted in late November, so check it once you have your dates.

The hall opens daily and takes no booking, which makes it the place to sit a group down and eat between markets. The cookery-school sessions and the tastings do need reserving.

Building one day in the centre

Start on the Arno embankment at Palazzo Corsini, where four rooms take less walking than any open-air market. Cross to Piazza dei Ciompi if your weekend matches the makers' market. Eat at the communal tables in the Mercato Centrale, then finish at Santa Croce after dark. On 8 December, open the day at the Fierucola in Piazza SS. Annunziata and pick the rest up from there.

Arezzo, Pisa and Empoli by train

Villaggio Tirolese (Piazza Grande, Arezzo) is the largest Tyrolean village in Italy, now in its 11th edition, and it runs 14 November to 27 December 2026. More than 30 alpine wooden chalets stand on the sloping, lopsided Piazza Grande, and after dark 360-degree light-and-music projections are thrown across the medieval palazzo facades. Entry is free and Arezzo is an hour from Florence by train. The organisers run coach and group packages, which handles parties of 20 or more. Stay for nightfall; the projections are the reason to make the journey.

Mercatini di Natale di Pisa (Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, Pisa) runs 5 December 2026 to 6 January 2027, with 17 traders in the arcaded Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and under the open brick arcade of the Logge dei Banchi beside the Arno. An artisan nativity scene sits among the chalets. Extra markets fill Piazza Garibaldi and Via San Francesco from 13 to 24 December. The route is flat and riverside, and the loggia keeps it trading in rain. Pisa is an hour from Florence, so choose it if you are travelling between Christmas and Epiphany, when the Florence chalets have gone.

Empoli Città del Natale (Piazza della Vittoria, Empoli) sets 76 wooden chalets around a 33-metre lit tree, with a Ferris wheel, an outdoor ice rink and a little tourist train circling the historic centre. It runs 14 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, with market days on selected weekends plus 22 to 24 December. Attractions are sold individually or as a €25 Red Package of five experiences. Florence's own Fortezza wheel and ice rink are blocked by the heritage authority this year, and Empoli is 30 minutes away by train. Check which weekend you are aiming at before you buy tickets.

Lucca, Siena and Montepulciano

Lucca Magico Natale (Piazza Napoleone, Lucca) runs 22 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, with chalets spread across the broad Piazza Napoleone inside the intact Renaissance walls. Il Desco's food fair under the brick cloister arcades of the Real Collegio gives this market the strongest food and wine content of any in Tuscany, and a skating rink stands by the Cavallerizza. The market is free. The Real Collegio fair and Santa's village charge separately and are bookable in advance.

Il Mercato nel Campo (Piazza del Campo, Siena) has been extended to five days for 2026, 4 to 8 December. Friday and Monday run 11:00 to 20:00. Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday run 08:00 to 20:00. A continuous ring of white-canopied stalls follows the shell-shaped brick curve of Piazza del Campo under the Torre del Mangia, spilling into the vaulted Cortile del Podestà. It is a medieval market re-staged, free, and the most photogenic entry here. Go early. Midday on the Immacolata weekend is shoulder-to-shoulder.

Natale a Montepulciano (Via San Donato, Montepulciano) runs 21 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, 10:30 to 19:30, closed on 25 December. Wooden chalets line the steep stone climb of Via San Donato up to Piazza Grande, and Vino Nobile cellars are open under the same streets. Inside the medieval Fortezza, the Castello di Babbo Natale follows a candlelit indoor route of decorated rooms and ends in a throne room. That castle costs €10 for adults and €8 for children aged 3 to 9, entry is timed and booked online through Vivaticket, and it opens on selected dates only. Confirm your date before you travel, because the market runs when the castle does not.

Tempio di Babbo Natale in Montecatini Terme

Tempio di Babbo Natale (Montecatini Terme) is built inside the colonnaded Art Nouveau Tettuccio thermal baths, with marble halls, painted ceramic panels, fountains strung with lights and elves' workshops set between the columns. It runs 14 November 2026 to 6 January 2027 as part of the wider Destinazione Natale programme, and it is the most polished children's offering in Tuscany.

Tickets are €15 for an adult and €12 for a child, and entry is strictly ticketed and timed. The Ora Magica slots are capped at 20 families, so a party has to book rather than turn up. Sunday lunch with Santa is €39. This is a paid attraction, priced at €€€, and the browsing is incidental to the booked slot.

Dates, closures and booking

Santa Croce stops trading on 20 December and Montepulciano shuts on 25 December, while the Fierucola gives you one day at each piazza. Book the Montepulciano castle and the Montecatini slots online, reserve the Mercato Centrale cookery and tasting sessions, and confirm the Creative Factory December weekend before you build a day around it.

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