Brighton Christmas Market

Brighton’s Christmas market is the centrepiece of the city’s festive season: wooden chalets in the green spaces around St Peter’s Church at the northern end of Valley Gardens, with food, drink, gifts and fairground attractions alongside.

The 2026 dates

The 2026 market has been reported as running from Wednesday 18 November to Thursday 24 December, centred on St Peter’s Square. Those dates fit the calendar, but we have not yet found them on Visit Brighton or another official source, so we are showing them as provisional. We will confirm or correct them as soon as the organisers publish.

It is worth knowing that the Valley Gardens area has been through a long programme of redevelopment, and the market’s exact layout has shifted from year to year. Check the official map before you go.

What to expect

A mix of craft and gift chalets, street food, bars and rides, aimed as much at an evening out as at Christmas shopping. Brighton being Brighton, the food and drink end is strong, and the crowd is livelier than at most cathedral-close markets.

Getting there

St Peter’s Church is about ten to fifteen minutes’ walk downhill from Brighton station, and many city buses stop alongside. Parking in central Brighton is expensive and limited; the train is much easier.

Make a day of it

The Royal Pavilion, the Lanes and North Laine’s independent shops are all within a short walk, and the seafront and Palace Pier are a little further down the hill. Glow Wild, a lantern trail at Wakehurst in West Sussex, runs over the same season and is a separate ticketed outing.

Whatever the dates turn out to be, dress for standing still outdoors in the cold — see our guide to what to wear to a Christmas market.