Brussels Winter Wonders

Brussels runs its festive season as Plaisirs d’Hiver — Winter Wonders — and it is a city-wide event rather than a single square. Around two kilometres of chalets run from the Grand-Place down through the Bourse to the Sainte-Catherine quarter, taking in an ice rink and a big wheel on the way.

The light show is the thing to time your visit around

Several times each evening, a free sound-and-light show is projected onto the guildhalls of the Grand-Place — the gilded seventeenth-century facades that make the square one of the most spectacular in Europe. It is genuinely impressive and costs nothing. Check the schedule and plan your evening around it rather than stumbling on it by accident.

What to eat and buy

Belgium does this well. Speculoos biscuits, waffles (the dense sugary Liège kind rather than the lighter Brussels one), chocolate from producers with a serious claim to being the world’s best, and a vast quantity of beer — the Christmas ales are a seasonal speciality and considerably stronger than they taste. The chalets around Sainte-Catherine lean more towards craft and food than the tourist-facing ones by the Grand-Place.

Getting there

Brussels is under two hours from London by Eurostar, arriving at Bruxelles-Midi, which is a few stops on the metro or about twenty-five minutes’ walk from the Grand-Place. That makes it the most practical Christmas market weekend from the UK by rail, and an easy first stop on a longer European trip — Cologne, Amsterdam and Paris are all a short hop onward.

When to go

It runs 27 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, so unlike the German markets it is still going between Christmas and New Year. Weekend evenings around the Grand-Place are very crowded; the Sainte-Catherine end is always calmer.

Beyond the Grand-Place

The stretch around the Grand-Place is the most crowded and the most tourist-facing. Walk ten minutes down to the Sainte-Catherine end and the chalets thin out, the crowds ease, and the food and craft get noticeably better — this is where Bruxellois actually go. The ice rink and the big wheel are at this end too.

Making a weekend of it

Brussels is small and very walkable. The Musical Instruments Museum, the Magritte Museum and the comic-strip route are all within the centre, and Belgium’s other Christmas markets are close: Bruges is an hour by train and its market in the Markt, ringed by stepped gables, is arguably prettier than Brussels’. Ghent and Antwerp are equally easy. A Eurostar weekend can reasonably take in two or three cities.