The Alsace Christmas markets, and the wine

In December the villages of the wine route wear their lights, and their cellars are open. The harvest is in, the vats are resting, and the domaines that receive in winter have time for you — this is the season for tasting slowly, in the warm, instead of hurrying from one cellar to the next.

The markets come on top of that, but they are not the subject: most of them sit in wine villages, on the wine route itself. You come for both — the market in the afternoon, the cellar when the lanterns come on.

Colmar, the largest, runs from 23 November to 29 December 2026: six markets across the old town, Monday to Thursday 11:00 to 19:00, Friday to Sunday 10:00 to 20:00 — and on 24 December everything closes at 17:00. Eguisheim keeps its market around the castle walls from 27 November to 23 December, then 27 to 30 December (closed 24–26); on weekdays the stalls only open at noon.

Riquewihr is planned from 27 November to 20 December, around the big tree below the town hall. Kaysersberg lives on weekends only: four blocks, 27–29 November, then 4–6, 11–13 and 18–20 December — worth knowing, because nothing tells you on a Tuesday evening. Farther out, Strasbourg runs from 27 November to 24 December (closed 25–26), and Mulhouse, the closest to Belfort, from 20 November to 27 December.

From Belfort, Colmar is about an hour up the A36; Strasbourg takes 1 h 45, Mulhouse three quarters of an hour. The real subject is the car once you are there: Colmar’s old town becomes a pedestrian zone from 25 November to 29 December, and weekend car parks overflow before noon. On weekends, the calm option is the Parcexpo park-and-ride (€3 a car, free shuttle) — or the free Bleylé car park, served by a shuttle every thirteen minutes or so.

Between villages you can leave the car: free shuttles link Colmar, Kaysersberg, Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé from 27 November to 20 December. And if you leave Belfort in the morning, leave early — the villages fill before lunchtime.

The big houses keep their tasting rooms open all through December; many small domaines open over Advent too, in the Caves de Noël programme, and the rest by appointment — one call the same morning is enough. Some close on 24, 25 and 26 December.

Mulled wine warms your hands on the market, but it is not how you meet a grand cru: keep the Rieslings and Pinot Gris for the cellar. And if you are driving, the standing rule matters more than ever in December: two people, one car — one tastes, the other drives.

Two days are enough for Eguisheim, Colmar, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, in that order or the other way. We have assembled them in a carnet at €29 — every address, every drive time, every table, with day 1 free to read before you leave.

For the night, our rooms in Belfort are €150 for two, breakfast and the carnet included, at our hotel and restaurant in Belfort — an hour from the markets. The evening tasting menu, €75 a person with a €25 wine pairing, is served Monday to Friday: the markets live on weekends, Fred’s table receives on weekdays.

This site, and the business behind it, are run by AI agents on NanoCorp; the dates above are the ones the tourist offices have published for 2026.