The Christkindlmarket turns 30 this year. It opens on Daley Plaza on Nov 20 2026 and trades through Dec 24, entry free, with the anniversary flute mug at $10. German American Events runs it, and runs two more markets on the same winter calendar.
Daley Plaza, Nov 20 to Dec 24
Steam lifts off the glühwein mugs between wooden huts with red-and-white striped canvas roofs, packed tight around the rust-steel Picasso sculpture. The glass Daley Center tower and a lit tree stand behind them. Christkindlmarket Chicago (Daley Plaza) grills sausages and pours glühwein and hot chocolate, $8 to $16.
Stammtisch tables take reservations, and the heated Half and Full Timber Tent and the wooden Timber Haus hold receptions for up to 120 guests. Those reception slots run Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or 5 to 8 p.m.
The second market trades in Wrigleyville and stays open to Dec 31. The third and largest is the Aurora market. All three carry the same name and the same German operator, so treat the other two as alternative addresses for the same thing.
Millennium Park for one weekend
White peaked vendor tents run in a double row down Chase Promenade North under bare pollarded trees, with the city's official Christmas tree and the steel ribbons of Pritzker Pavilion behind. The Millennium Park Holiday Market (Chase Promenade North) is a city event timed to the 113th tree lighting, and it trades on Nov 20, 21 and 22 2026 only.
Entry is free and stall goods run mostly $10 to $60. Nobody takes reservations. Put it in the same weekend as the Daley Plaza opening, because it will not be standing the following week.
Markets for the things you keep
One of a Kind Holiday Show (Merchandise Mart) brings more than 600 artists to the art-deco building's seventh-floor hall, where white-walled booth aisles run under an industrial ceiling grid and tall arched windows look onto the Chicago River. It opens Dec 3 and closes Dec 6 2026. One $15 ticket online is valid for all four days.
Randolph Street Market Festival (1341 W Randolph) fills the old Plumbers Union Hall in the West Loop, behind a brick frontage, with chandelier-lit dealer stalls heaped with mid-century glass, furs and neon signs, all of it genuinely old. The holiday market has two runs, Nov 14 to 15 and Dec 12 to 13 2026. A weekend pass is $19 online and $20 at the gate, under-12s free, and the charity Early Buy hour at 9 a.m. Saturday costs $35 to $40. They sell group and family ticket packages online.
Chicago Artisan Market (Morgan MFG, Fulton Market) sets long rows of maker tables under hanging bulb lights in a whitewashed brick loft with raw heavy-timber beams. More than 115 Chicago and Midwest makers sell on Nov 15 and Dec 13 2026, and the same operator runs a Ravenswood edition at Artifact Events on Nov 28 and 29. Entry is $8 in advance and $10 at the door, with four advance tickets for $20 and under-12s free. One visit gets you the whole roster.
Renegade Craft Chicago Winter (Bridgeport Art Center) takes two storeys of a 1900s brick warehouse, freight elevator and scarred timber floors, booths of screenprints and ceramics under exposed ductwork. More than 200 artists show from Dec 18 to 20 2026, with a night-market slot on the Friday evening. Entry is a $5 suggested donation, an elevator connects both floors, leashed dogs are welcome and seating is thin. This draws the youngest crowd of these markets and lands latest in the season.
Julmarknad and the Driehaus mansion
Glögg steams in paper cups on Clark Street, among tables of red Dala horses, straw goats and saffron buns, under blue-and-yellow Swedish flags. Julmarknad at the Swedish American Museum (Clark Street) is an Andersonville institution and the Nordic counterweight to the German market. The bazaar is free and runs Dec 4 to 6 2026, and the Chicago Swedish Mixed Chorus sings on the Saturday. The rooms are small and a coach party will not fit; the Friday preview sale from 4 to 7 p.m. is the calm slot.
Drie-cember Holiday Market at the Driehaus Museum (50 E Erie) puts vendor tables between the period rooms of the Gilded Age Nickerson Mansion, past the marble staircase, stained glass and gilt panelling, with Victorian garlands up and live music and cocoa on. Refine Collective curates it across two December weekends. Entry is free, and the museum galleries are ticketed separately. Confirm this year's exact dates with the museum, whose listing still shows the previous season's weekend pattern. Registration is optional but helps them plan, and the rooms are narrow.
Two indoor halls for a cold afternoon
A four-storey tree stands under the coffered dome of the great rotunda at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, ringed by about 50 smaller trees, each one decorated by a different country's community. Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light is in its 84th year and runs from Nov 7 2026 to Jan 3 2027. General admission covers it, $25.95 adults and $14.95 ages 3 to 11, and tickets and signs now read Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. The rotunda absorbs crowds easily.
Wintrust Winter WonderFest at Navy Pier (Festival Hall) lays a real indoor ice rink across 170,000 square feet, ringed by oversized candy-cane arches and inflatable trees, the pier's Centennial Wheel lit up through the windows. It opens Nov 27 2026 and closes Jan 3 2027. Admission is $27 online 24 hours ahead and $32 at the door, under-2s free, skating included. Dec 1 and 2 are closed to the public for pre-booked groups, and choirs, schools and dance troupes can apply to perform.
ZooLights on a north-side evening
Illuminated animal silhouettes and walk-through light tunnels mirror in the zoo's South Pond, with the Gold Coast skyline stacked up behind the bare trees. ZooLights at Lincoln Park Zoo runs from Nov 20 2026 to Jan 3 2027, 4:30 to 9 p.m., presented by Invesco and ComEd. Fixed-date tickets are $7 to $12 and a flexible any-night ticket is $20. Four Mondays are free with registration: Nov 23, Nov 30, Dec 7 and Dec 14.
Tickets are tied to a date, so book everyone onto the same night. The Wrigleyville Christkindlmarket sits on that same north-side evening.
German tables in the Loop and up north
White-jacketed servers carry steins and schnitzel platters across the mosaic tile floor at The Berghoff (17 W Adams), past the dark carved-oak bar and the stained glass of an 1898 Loop dining room. Chicago's oldest restaurant has been family-run since 1898 and brews again on site as Adams Street Brewery. It opens daily, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mains are $20 to $35 and the beers $8 to $10. They take reservations and private-event bookings, and it is two blocks from the plaza.
Prost! pulls litre steins of German draught from imported taps in Lincoln Park, under blue-and-white Bavarian diamond banners, along long communal wooden tables behind a roll-up garage front. Steins and plates are mostly $9 to $25. It opens daily from 11:30 a.m. and runs to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Reservations and group events go through 773-880-9900.
Laschet's Inn (2119 W Irving Park Rd) has kept a tiny dark corner of North Center's pocket Germantown since the 1970s, German pennants out, a wall of steins above the bar and Hofbräu and Bitburger signs over red-checked tables. The German beer list is a serious one and plates are $15 to $25. It trades Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 2 a.m. and Sunday from noon to midnight, closed Mondays, with the kitchen shutting at 10 p.m. Six to eight people fit; call ahead for more.
Tall weizen glasses come out from 4 p.m. at Resi's Bierstube, a wood-panelled 1960s bar hung with enamel brewery signs across Irving Park from Laschet's. The back beer garden is heated and covered under a canopy of trees strung with bulbs, which is why it still works in December. Beers are $6 to $9 and plates $12 to $20, and they don't really take reservations. The two bars make a short German crawl.
Dovetail Brewery (Ravenswood Malt Row) keeps the open brewhouse and a copper-topped coolship visible behind glass, with polished steel tanks and long high communal tables in front. A decade in, it makes the most accurate German beer in the city: Helles, pilsner, Vienna lager, plus lambic-style fruit beers. Pours are $7 to $9. Hours are noon to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday. Walk in.
Dates and booking
Laschet's Inn closes on Mondays, Navy Pier's festival shuts to the public on Dec 1 and 2, and the Driehaus dates need confirming with the museum before you build a weekend around them. Book the One of a Kind ticket, a dated ZooLights slot, a Berghoff table and any Christkindlmarket tent reception in advance. See the Chicago guide and the Chicago hotel search.
Questions
When does Chicago Christkindlmarket run in 2026?
The Daley Plaza market runs from Nov 20 to Dec 24 2026, its 30th season. The same operator's Wrigleyville market stays open to Dec 31.
How much does it cost to get in?
Entry is free and you just walk in. The 30th-anniversary flute mug is $10, and gluhwein, hot chocolate and sausages run $8 to $16.
Can you reserve a table at Christkindlmarket?
Yes. You can book a Stammtisch table, and the heated Half and Full Timber Tent and the wooden Timber Haus take receptions of up to 120 guests on Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or 5 to 8 p.m.
What are the three Christkindlmarkets?
German American Events runs the Daley Plaza market, the Wrigleyville market and the larger Aurora market. Same name, same operator, so pick whichever address suits your evening.
What else is on during the same weeks?
The Millennium Park Holiday Market trades Nov 20 to 22. Christmas Around the World at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry runs Nov 7 2026 to Jan 3 2027, and ZooLights Nov 20 2026 to Jan 3 2027. Winter WonderFest at Navy Pier opens Nov 27.
First published on chicagocitybreak.com, the Chicago guide.
