Stratford-upon-Avon Christmas Market 2026: 28 Nov and 5 Dec

Stratford-upon-Avon’s Christmas Markets run over two weekends this year: Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November, then Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December. A third weekend, 12 and 13 December, is being held in reserve in case one of the two is cancelled for bad weather.

Those dates come straight from Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s markets page, last updated on 6 July 2026, which publishes them under the heading “hot off the press”.

The reserve weekend is unusual and worth knowing about. It means a washout does not simply cancel the market, it moves it.

Checked again on 4 October 2026: the dates above, the Friday 6pm road closures and the Park and Ride times below are all unchanged on the council’s page, and the council also states that none of the town centre’s public car parks will be affected. The one open question is still the Saturday opening time, covered below.

Stratford-upon-Avon Christmas Market 2026 dates

Weekend	Dates
Weekend 1	Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November
Weekend 2	Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December
Reserve, weather only	12 and 13 December

Entry is free. The market fills Bridge Street, Waterside and Henley Street, and it is run for the council by LSD Promotions, on 01384 877336. The 2026 footprint for the market itself has not been published street by street, unlike the operator’s footprint for the lights switch-on a fortnight earlier.

Opening times: two sources, and they disagree

The Sundays are agreed. The Saturdays are not.

Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council’s events list publishes each of the four days for 2026:

Day	Town council
Saturday 28 November	10am to 8pm
Sunday 29 November	10am to 5pm
Saturday 5 December	10am to 8pm
Sunday 6 December	10am to 5pm

The operator’s own trader page for Christmas 2026 gives trading times as “Saturday: 12pm - 8pm” and “Sunday: 10am - 5pm”. So on Saturdays the town council says the market is open from 10am and the operator tells its own traders it starts at noon.

Which is right matters if you are making a special trip on a Saturday morning. The 2025 hours, set out in the council’s accessibility statement for last year’s market, were 10am to 8pm on the Saturday and 10am to 5pm on the Sunday, which supports the town council’s version. Until the council or the operator publishes a public-facing 2026 timetable, treat a Saturday morning as uncertain and the afternoon as safe.

The market’s own consumer website, stratforduponavonchristmasmarkets.co.uk, is no help: it still carries last year’s sign-off, “Thank you for attending! We will be back in 2026 - Check back for updates!”, and its copyright line reads 2025. The 2026 detail is only on the trade side of the operator’s business.

Trader applications for the Stratford market are already marked “APPLICATIONS CLOSED” on that page. The council says over 250,000 people came over the two weekends in 2025, with some businesses reporting record sales.

Road closures, and when they actually start

This is the part the council has already published for 2026, and it is earlier than most people expect. Closures come into effect from 6pm on the Friday evening before each weekend, so from 6pm on Friday 27 November and 6pm on Friday 4 December, to allow hostile vehicle mitigation barriers to be installed.

What closes:

• Waterside, fully closed
• Bridge Street, fully closed in both directions
• High Street, one way system in operation
• Sheep Street, open, but no access onto Waterside

Security staff are stationed at each closure point to advise on routes. The council’s own warning is that there will be delays around the town centre and drivers should allow more time.

The Bridge Street taxi rank was suspended for the market last year. All other ranks stayed open.

Parking, buses and coaches

Car parks. All of them stay open. The district council’s market page states that “none of the public car parks within the town centre will be affected”, and the closure itself covers only Waterside, Bridge Street, High Street and Sheep Street. Getting into and out of the car parks nearest Bridge Street will be slower than usual, so the council’s advice is to allow more time. Tariffs are on our Stratford parking page.

Park and Ride. The council encourages visitors to use the Park and Ride at Bishopton and says normal charges apply, £3 before 8.59am and £1 from 9am, free for blue badge holders. Its published market-weekend service:

• Saturdays: buses until 20:30, waiting room and toilets open until 8pm
• Sundays: buses until 18:40, with one last bus at 19:30

Read that alongside the county council’s standing rule, which is that the dedicated Park and Ride bus does not run on Sundays between November and Easter except for selected special events advertised separately. The market Sundays are one of those exceptions, which is exactly why the council spells the Sunday times out. Do not assume the same on any other Sunday in December.

With Bridge Street shut, the Park and Ride bus and the number 19 town service leave from Windsor Street Coach Park. Every other bus goes from the stops in Guild Street behind Marks and Spencer.

Coaches park at the Riverside Coach and Lorry Park, CV37 6YY, on Bridgeway, first come first served with 70 spaces, and overspill at the Park and Ride once passengers have got off. Drop-off and pick-up are at Riverside only.

Trains. Stratford-upon-Avon station is about ten minutes’ walk from the market, on a route the council describes as having dropped kerbs and tactile paving at all the major junctions.

For anything else on the roads those weekends, see our roadworks and travel page.

Stratford or Birmingham? You do not have to choose

The nearest big alternative is Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market, and the useful thing for anyone planning a December weekend is that you can do both. Birmingham’s runs continuously from Thursday 5 November to Thursday 24 December 2026, on Victoria Square and New Street, so it is open on every one of Stratford’s four days and on the fifty-odd days around them. Stratford’s is four days in total, and if you miss them there is no second chance until 2027.

	Stratford-upon-Avon	Birmingham Frankfurt Market
2026 dates	28 and 29 November, 5 and 6 December	5 November to 24 December
Length	Four days over two weekends	Fifty days, continuously
Hours	Sun 10am to 5pm; Sat disputed, see above	Mon to Thu 11am to 9pm, Fri 11am to 9.30pm, Sat 10am to 9.30pm, Sun 10am to 9pm
Entry	Free	Free

One date to watch in Birmingham: Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2026, when the market opens late, at 1pm rather than 10am. Several listings sites have that exception attached to the wrong date, so check it against Central BID Birmingham rather than an aggregator.

Stratford’s advantage is the town rather than the market: four days of stalls in a closed-off town centre you can walk end to end, against a much longer run in a city centre. The trade-off is crowding. More than 250,000 people came to Stratford over four days in 2025.

Making a weekend of it: what else is on

The first market Saturday, 28 November, is also opening night of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Christmas show. The Three Musketeers, Paul Hunter’s comedy version of the Dumas novel made with the company Told by an Idiot, runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from 28 November 2026 to 9 January 2027, so it is on during both market weekends. Next door in the Swan Theatre, Middlemarch Part 2, adapted from George Eliot’s Warwickshire novel, runs from 10 October 2026 to 16 January 2027. At The Other Place, the touring Julius Caesar with Harriet Walter as Brutus finishes on 28 November, and The Bear and the Piano, a wordless puppet show for ages three and up, does not open until 11 December, after the market has gone. Those dates are from the RSC’s what’s on listing, read on 4 October 2026.

The Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres sit on Waterside, which is closed to traffic on market weekends, so anyone going to an evening show should plan to walk in from a car park or the Park and Ride stop rather than be dropped at the door.

For the rest of the season, see our pages on Charlecote Park at Christmas and Shakespeare’s Birthplace Christmas opening times.

Shops in the market area: trading outside your premises

Businesses inside the market footprint can trade from a stall outside their own premises over the two weekends. The council’s conditions are that you register with the market operator, sell only your normal stock or service, and bring your own licences, insurance, safety paperwork and equipment, because a doorstep stall is not covered by the permissions and insurance in place for the main event. Registration is with LSD Promotions (Market Place) Ltd on 01384 877336 or customerservice@lsdpromotions.com. Pitches in the main market itself are already marked “APPLICATIONS CLOSED” on the operator’s trader page.

Accessibility

From the council’s 2025 accessibility statement, prepared by Accessible Stratford:

• Blue badge parking is free and without a time limit in the council car parks at Arden Street, Bridgeway multi-storey, Church Street (after 4pm, plus all day Saturday and Sunday), Guild Street behind the library, the Leisure Centre, the Recreation Ground and Windsor Street. Other car parks charge.
• On-street blue badge bays outside the closure: Chapel Lane, Church Street, Sheep Street including the service yard, Southern Lane by The Other Place, Henley Street and Union Street.
• Changing Places toilets at Bell Court, Rother Street, CV37 6JP and at Stratford Leisure Centre, Bridgeway, CV37 6YY.
• Shopmobility on level 2 of the Bridgeway multi-storey, 01789 414534.
• Portable dropped kerbs are put out around the town centre, and the market itself is on level ground.

One local thing to note

The Waterside Upmarket, which normally takes Waterside every Sunday, is not on the council’s closure list for Sunday 29 November or Sunday 6 December. It runs on the other Sundays either side. The Christmas Market has those two weekends to itself.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Stratford-upon-Avon Christmas Market 2026?

Two weekends: Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November, then Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December 2026. A third weekend, 12 and 13 December, is held in reserve and is used only if one of the first two has to be cancelled for weather. Those dates are Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s own, published on its markets page.

Is the Stratford Christmas Market free?

Yes. Entry is free and there is no ticket. It is an open street market across Bridge Street, Waterside and Henley Street.

What time does it open?

The Sundays are agreed at 10am to 5pm. The Saturdays are not: Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council’s events list says 10am to 8pm, while the operator tells its own traders noon to 8pm. The 2025 hours were 10am to 8pm on the Saturday, which supports the town council. Treat a Saturday morning as uncertain until a public 2026 timetable appears.

Where is the Stratford Christmas Market held?

Bridge Street, Waterside and Henley Street in the town centre. Bridge Street and Waterside are fully closed to traffic, High Street runs one way, and Sheep Street stays open but with no access onto Waterside.

When do the roads close?

From 6pm on the Friday before each market weekend, so vehicle mitigation barriers can go in. That is earlier than most people expect, and it catches Friday evening journeys.

How do I get there without driving into town?

The park and ride at Bishopton, at normal charges. With Bridge Street shut, the park and ride bus and Town Service 19 run from Windsor Street Coach Park rather than their usual stop, and every other bus goes from Guild Street behind M&S. Park and ride buses run until 20:30 on the Saturdays, and until 18:40 on the Sundays with a final bus at 19:30.

Where do coaches park?

Riverside Coach and Lorry Park, CV37 6YY, on Bridgeway, first come first served, 70 spaces.

How busy does it get?

The council reports more than 250,000 people over the two weekends in 2025, with some businesses recording their best sales of the year.

Is there a bigger Christmas market near Stratford?

Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market, about 40 minutes away, runs from 5 November to 24 December 2026 on Victoria Square and New Street, and is also free. It opens late, at 1pm, on Remembrance Sunday, 8 November.

Are the car parks open during the Christmas Market?

Yes. The district council says none of the town centre’s public car parks will be affected. Only Waterside and Bridge Street close fully; High Street runs one way and Sheep Street has no access onto Waterside.

What is on at the RSC during the Christmas Market?

The Three Musketeers opens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on Saturday 28 November, the first market day, and runs to 9 January 2027. Middlemarch Part 2 is in the Swan Theatre until 16 January 2027.

Can my shop trade outside during the market?

Yes, if you are inside the market area. Register with LSD Promotions on 01384 877336, sell only your usual stock, and bring your own licences and insurance.

Is the Christmas Market the same as the lights switch-on?

No. The Christmas lights switch-on is a separate event a fortnight earlier, on Saturday 14 November 2026.

Still to come

Opening hours, the stall list and the entertainment programme for 2026 are all unpublished. Last year the operator’s site had the trader lists up by late November. Re-checked again on 24 September 2026: the district council’s markets page still carries its 6 July update and nothing more, and the market’s own consumer website is still the holding page, still signed off “Thank you for attending! We will be back in 2026” with a 2025 copyright line and no 2026 dates on it at all, nearly three months after the council published them. Re-checked on 4 October 2026: no change. The council page is still on its 6 July update, the consumer site is still the 2025 holding page, the operator still lists Saturdays from 12pm and the town council still lists them from 10am. This page will be updated when the 2026 detail appears.

The town’s Christmas lights switch-on is a separate event a fortnight earlier, on Saturday 14 November.