Visitors arriving in December often walk into Plaza de la Reina expecting a European-style Christmas market and find something smaller. Valencia does Christmas shopping differently. The Plaza de la Reina craft fair is the longest-running Christmas market in Valencia, open for 40 days in front of Valencia Cathedral. Eight more markets are scattered across the city, with hours that rarely match.
Does Valencia have a Christmas market? Valencia has nine small Christmas markets instead of one big one. The Plaza de la Reina craft fair runs from late November to 6 January, 10.30am to 2pm and 4.30pm to 9pm. The Centro market stays open until 2am on Christmas Eve, and the City of Arts and Sciences market until 11pm. Entry is free.
The dates and hours below are from the 2025-26 season, the latest published. The 2026 programme normally comes out in November, and the pattern of each market tends to hold from one year to the next.
Is a Valencia Christmas market worth a special trip
Only if you set the right expectation. There is no mulled wine square and no single place packed with stalls, so if that is the plan, a German or Alsatian city does it better. What Valencia offers is craft you can actually take home: tiles and ceramics, jewellery, glass and leatherwork, sold by the people who make them, plus a market that keeps going until 5am on the eve of Three Kings.
If you only have one evening, give it about two hours and do three stops on foot:
- Plaza de la Reina, between 4.30pm and 9pm, when the craft fair reopens after its lunch break.
- Mercado de Tapinería, a short walk away in the same old-town quarter, for independent design.
- Mercado de Colón, about an 8-minute walk past Colón station, for the Mostra d’Artesania until 9pm.
No booking is needed for any market. If you have children, swap the whole route for the City of Arts and Sciences.
Which markets are near the metro
A single ticket for metro zone A costs €1.50, and five of the nine markets sit within an easy walk of Colón station, served by Metrovalencia lines 3, 5, 7 and 9, the same station the two airport lines, 3 and 5, stop at. The El Corte Inglés market is 25 metres from the station exit, the craft show at Mercado de Colón 231 metres away and Plaza de la Reina 632 metres away.
| Market | Where | Nearest stop | 2025-26 dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plaza de la Reina craft fair | Plaza de la Reina, by the cathedral | Colón metro, 632 m | 28 Nov to 6 Jan |
| Mostra d’Artesania | Mercado de Colón, Calle Jorge Juan 19 | Colón metro, 231 m | 17 Dec to 5 Jan |
| El Corte Inglés market | Plaza de los Pinazo | Colón metro, 25 m | 25 Nov to 5 Jan |
| Tapinería “Ho, ho, ho!” | Plaza de la Tapinería | EMT bus Plaza de la Reina, 152 m | 19 Dec to 5 Jan |
| Centro market | Calle del Hospital to Avenida del Oeste | Xàtiva or Àngel Guimerà metro, 472 m from Avenida del Oeste | whole season |
| City of Arts and Sciences market | Paseo de los Arbotantes, by the Science Museum | Ciutat Arts i Ciències - Justícia tram, 234 m | 12 Dec to 6 Jan |
| Kings market | Around Mercado del Cabanyal | Dr. Lluch tram, 444 m | 2, 4 and 5 Jan |
What to buy that you will not find at home
The two craft markets are where the souvenir shopping makes sense. The Mostra d’Artesania inside the modernist Mercado de Colón is organised by trade: ceramics, jewellery, glass, screen printing, leather goods, carpentry and bookbinding. The Plaza de la Reina fair is broader, with handmade gifts from local makers. Prices are set stall by stall, so there is no fixed figure to quote.
For something edible, skip the stalls and buy turrón or Valencian Christmas pastries from a bakery, which is covered in Valencian Christmas sweets and where to buy them. The Mercado de Colón itself is worth the visit for its building and its horchata bars, whatever the month.
Why the busiest night is 5 January, not Christmas Eve
In Spain the presents arrive on 6 January with the Three Kings, so the last-minute rush falls on the evening of the 5th. The markets follow that calendar. In the 2025-26 season the Centro market stayed open until 5am that night, Plaza de la Reina until 10.30pm, and a dedicated Kings market opened around Mercado del Cabanyal on 2, 4 and 5 January only.
That timeline matters if your trip falls in early December. Before the 12th, only Plaza de la Reina and El Corte Inglés are open. The full set runs from 19 December, when Tapinería opens.
Opening hours on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January
Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are short days. Plaza de la Reina opens only in the morning, Tapinería from 11am to 3pm and the City of Arts and Sciences from 11am to 5pm. On Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Tapinería stays shut and the City of Arts and Sciences opens only from 5pm to 11pm, which makes it the obvious plan for a holiday evening when much of the city is closed.
For what else is open those days, from museums to the metro, see what’s open in Valencia over Christmas. If Christmas Day lunch is the bigger worry, the menus and prices are in where to eat on Christmas Day in Valencia.
Taking children to the City of Arts and Sciences market
The market on Paseo de los Arbotantes, inside the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, is the one that works as a family evening: craft stalls, food trucks and workshops in one place, open from 11am to 11pm in the 2025-26 season.
Tram line 10 stops at Ciutat Arts i Ciències - Justícia, 234 metres away. If you plan to combine it with the aquarium or the planetarium, ticket prices are in City of Arts and Sciences tickets.
What may disappoint
The hours. Spanish meal times are late, with lunch from about 2pm to 4pm, and the central craft fair follows local habit: it closes from 2pm to 4.30pm every day and shuts at lunchtime on 24 and 31 December, exactly when a visitor has free time. The El Corte Inglés market sells branded goods you can find in any shop. And none of the nine has the size or the atmosphere of a central European market: they are neighbourhood fairs, and it is better to arrive knowing that.
Frequently asked questions about Christmas markets in Valencia
Does Valencia have a Christmas market?
Valencia has nine smaller ones rather than a single large Christmas market. The longest-running is the Christmas craft fair in Plaza de la Reina, in front of Valencia Cathedral, which opened on 28 November in the 2025 season and stayed until 6 January. The others open between late November and mid-December.
Are the Valencia Christmas markets open on Christmas Day?
Some are. In the 2025 season the market at the City of Arts and Sciences opened on 25 December and 1 January from 5pm to 11pm, while the Tapinería market closed both days. Plaza de la Reina and the Centro market listed no change for those dates, so their normal hours applied.
Which Valencia Christmas market is open late?
The Centro market, between Calle del Hospital and Avenida del Oeste, runs from 9am to 10pm and stays open until 2am on 24 December and until 5am on the night of 5 January, when families shop for Three Kings presents. The City of Arts and Sciences market closes at 11pm.
What should I buy at a Valencia Christmas market?
Handmade work from local makers at the Plaza de la Reina fair, and ceramics, glass, jewellery, leather and bookbinding at the Mostra d’Artesania inside Mercado de Colón, on Calle Jorge Juan 19. Figures for a nativity scene sell at the El Corte Inglés market in Plaza de los Pinazo.
Valencia’s Christmas markets are small and scattered; the one night they all make sense together is 5 January.