Glasgow Christmas Market

Glasgow’s Christmas offering has moved, and if you are working from an older guide you will go to the wrong place. For years the centrepiece was George Square, but the square has been dug up for a full redevelopment, and the market has relocated. For 2026 it runs across two sites instead.

St Enoch Square is the market proper: festive stalls for gifts, food and drink, a carousel, a festive bar, and a solar-powered observation wheel. It runs from Friday 6 November to Sunday 27 December 2026.

Glasgow Green carries the bigger attractions — the ice rink, the funfair and a Big Top show tent — and runs later, from Friday 20 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.

What to expect

St Enoch Square sits at the bottom of Buchanan Street, so the market is embedded in the main shopping run rather than tucked away in a civic square. That makes it easy to fold into a day’s shopping and gives it a busier, more commercial feel than the cathedral-close markets in England. Entry to both sites is free; the rides, the wheel and the rink are paid separately.

Getting there

St Enoch subway station is on the square itself, and Glasgow Central is about five minutes’ walk. Glasgow Green is around twenty-five minutes on foot from the centre, or a short bus or taxi ride — worth planning as a separate trip rather than assuming you can stroll between the two.

When to go

Buchanan Street is heaving on December Saturdays, and St Enoch Square inherits that. Weekday evenings after the shops thin out are considerably better. The two sites have different closing dates, so if you are visiting between Christmas and New Year, it is Glasgow Green that is still running.

Worth knowing

The George Square lights switch-on, long a fixture of the Glasgow calendar, has also been disrupted by the redevelopment. Check the city’s festive listings for where events have moved to before planning around them.