Diesen Text gibt es hier auch in DeutschThe 2023 Christmas Market in Wroclaw
One of the most popular events of Wroclaw is certainly the Christmas Market. The fairytale atmosphere attracts not only a lot of foreign visitors from Germany, Czech Republic and Ukraine. Also the Polish people from all over the country love it and start their pilgrimage to Wroclaw in late November.
In this post, we will provide you an overview of the Christmas Market, including opening hours, the areas where it takes place, which local food you should try, where you will be able to buy nice souvenirs, where to stay and of course a lot of other important and useful insights.
And we have an initial update for the Christmas Market in 2023:
When will the Christmas Market open in 2023?
The dates for the Christmas Market 2023 in Wroclaw have been confirmed now. It will open from 24th November 2023 to 7th January 2024.
The opening hours are:
- On regular days from 10-21h
- On 24th and 25th Dec closed
- On 26th December from 13-21h
- On 31st December the shops will close on 17h and gastronomy at 2am
In the picture you can see how it normally looks on a weekend 🙂 This picture was taken on the opening weekend in 2022.
We honestly recommend you to visit the Christmas Market during weekdays as on the weekend it is super crowded! During the week it is much more fun.
If you plan to visit Wroclaw during the Christmas Market, we recommend you to book a stay that is refundable in case something unforeseen will happen, so you will be on the safe side.
Will there be Christmas lights in Wroclaw?
A question which we got quite frequently is, if the market will happen at all, given the high energy prices, and if so, if there will be the illuminations.
In 2022 last year, the city had made the decision to cut down the lights to the main market square only – in other parts of the town there was not as much as we were used to. In addition, bridges and some buildings only got illuminated up to 10pm in the evenings. The big Christmas Tree still got illuminated after the 6th December 2022.
As side note: the big New Years Party which used to happen every year at the Market Square, did NOT take place in 2022. We have not insights yet on how this will be in 2023.
We will let you be the judge if it feels really like less lights – here comes our drone overview picture from last year!
Evidence for the Wroclaw Christmas Market!
We went to visit the Christmas Market in 2022 during the opening weekend in November and share some impressions for you here! Come on, and the picture with the dog is cuter than every other picture could be, so we simply had to include it…
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Where will the Christmas Market take place?
The Christmas Market in Wroclaw will be taking place in four main areas:
- The Market Square (Rynek)
- The Salt Square (Plac Solny)
- Świdnicka Street
- Oławska Street
Believe us, it will be hard to miss it and all four areas are connected with each other. And needless to say that a lot of small businesses have their own special Christmas events, offers and products.
You cannot escape Christmas, don’t even try! 😉
What food and drinks should I try at the Wroclaw Christmas Market?
Of course you will have plenty of opportunities to try the local and regional cuisine.
We strongly recommend to try Oscypek. That is a special smoked cheese from the polish mountains you won’t find anywhere else than in Poland. It comes with cranberries and is super delicious! You see it on the picture.
You prefer the classics? No worries, you will be able to find plenty of sausages, bigos, skewers, potato pancakes and more typical dishes from Poland.
Or should it be international? Churros, Fries, Langos, Sweet chestnuts, Crêpes, Chimney Cake and much more will be waiting for you.
Did we mention the mulled wine already? How could we not! There will be many, many different flavours to try, so you better plan some more time! And do not miss the tasty honey based alcohol!
How are the prices this year and how did they change?
For 2023 of course we will update this post again immediately once the Christmas Market is open.
To give you an indication, during the last two years (2021 and 2022), the price for a mug of mulled wine was 15 PLN, plus a deposit of 15 PLN on top for the mug which will be returned if you manage to bring the mug back 🙂
To our surprise, the price for mulled wine was still the same in 2022 while the deposit for the mug has increased from 15 PLN to now 20 PLN. Let’s see what 2023 will bring here.
And a secret hint from us which actually is not secret: If you don’t fancy the special mugs in shoe design, you can get the mulled wine for around 9 PLN from most restaurants and bars around the Market Square… Or you get the shoe mugs and have them refilled elsewhere…
Be aware that the official stalls for the mulled wine only accept cash, it seems easier to handle with the deposit – but you can return them at any stall.
Don’t get scammed by the meat skewer stall
In the past years there always was one very special stall, selling meat skewers for only 11 PLN. But unfortunately they did not make very visible that it was 11 PLN per 100 grams! That meant for just one normal sized skewer they easily charged more than 50 PLN. Watch out for that one 🙂
What to do at the Christmas Market?
If you have not been in Wroclaw at all or want to explore more of it, we always recommend the free walking tours which have to be booked in advance here.
For kids there is a fairly tale forest where you can watch for example Pinocchio like in the picture here. But also some carousels, a roller coaster and some more fun attractions are waiting for you. Lots of opportunities to make pictures with dwarfs, mushrooms, christmas trees and other stuff 🙂
If you are more on the romantic side, try a ride on the horse carriage here.
And of course always worth to check are the guided tours which we recommend here (including free self-guided tours via our blog).
In case this is your first time in Wroclaw, we have to recommend you our blog post about the best things to do in Wroclaw here! That is a quite extensive collection of our top recommendations 🙂
If you don’t like crowds…
In the next two pictures you can see the crowds of a normal Saturday evening, as we already wrote, we recommend a visit during the weekdays.
But there is also a small, cosy “side” Christmas market at the Opera House, which last year was open from 3. to 23. December 2022 from 12-20h. It is of course smaller, but also much less crowded and should therefore not go unmentioned here.
We will update also here for 2023 once the information is available.
Hidden Gems: Illumination Parks in Wroclaw
We have two recommendations for real hidden gems, related to the Christmas Market in Wroclaw as well. If you like lasershows and illuminations, or are coming with kids, these are for you. Also in case you want to move a bit more off the crowds, these spots are quite off the track for regular visitors.
The first option are the illuminations at the Castle Topacz (Zamek Topacz), around 15-20 minutes by car south of Wroclaw. You will find trains, castles, animals and lots of other objects beautifully illuminated. Even a real travel around the world is waiting here to be taken…
The second recommendation is the Botanical Garden just next to the Cathedral island. During winter time it is beautifully illuminated and in addition on the weekends (Fri-Sun, after 16:30h, open after early December till mid-February, yet to be confirmed for 2023) there are laser shows and projections – great stuff! On our Instagram-Channel you can find a small video of the show here (yes, there is fire!), so follow us in case you don‘t yet.
Where to buy souvenirs in Wroclaw?
Good question! You need to be aware that the Christmas Market is probably one of the most expensive places to buy souvenirs.
The sellers need to pay a lot (really, a lot!) for their licence to sell on the market. You will pay that eventually! This was also the justification for the expensive meat skewer stall, confronted by the local newspaper, they just said that they have to pay so much rent and that is why they are so expensive…
We recommend to check out the Old Butcher’s Stalls (“Stare Jatki”) where you find local galleries which operate all year round from there. Well, on the picture they look closed because we got up early to make some pictures 😉
Of course the cold winter time is also always a great opportunity to buy some nice calendars – like the ones that we created here 😉
What about a risky investment?
If you like to invest and you look for some insider information… In 2019 the special mulled wine mugs (in shoe-form, with special edition every year) were traded very successfully. Many people did not return them despite the deposit and were able to sell them online for more than 100 PLN.
As the stalls were running out of them already very early, they had to take some leftover mugs from previous years. Quite grotesque and funny at the same time to drink from 2017 mugs in 2019 🙂
In 2022, there are even huge mugs where two people can step inside and take pictures. And it seems, that at least for now, there are still enough available to take back home… This year the deposit is 20 PLN.
We are waiting for the 2023 edition!
Where to stay during the Christmas Market?
Well, the question is if you want to stay directly in the middle of the city when it is hard to move around. We recommend to stay just north of the old town in vibrant Nadodrze or in the Four Denomination District.
You will find specific recommendations in our accommodation guide to Wroclaw where we compare hotels, hostels, apartments and camping.
If you prefer to have your own space in an apartment, you will be able to find our specific recommendations here. In this post we made a pre-selection of amazingly located apartments for couples, groups, budget travellers and luxury stays.
If you decided to stay in a hotel, we have our pre-selection here with some luxury hotels, budget hotels, wellness hotels, romantic hotels and many more: Here are our personal hotel recommendations for Wroclaw.
UPDATE from September 2023:
As last year we had some capacity issues with accomodation, we will keep you updated on the booking situation in Wroclaw here. For now there are enough rooms end of 2023 available, but some hotels already jumped to crazy prices of more than 5000 PLN per night! So book ahead to be on the safe side – currently there are enough regular priced hotels available. Click here to see which places to stay are actually still available on Booking.com.
And here we have an overview map of Hotels in Wroclaw for you where it is easy to find central and nice locations close to the Christmas Market:
Where to find more information about the Christmas Market in Wroclaw?
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Mehr erfahren
We recommend you the official page of the Wroclaw Christmas Market here. There you will find the latest updates and event schedules too.
On the left side you will find a nice video from a previous year which gives you a feeling about the amazing atmosphere. Just the smell of cinnamon and mulled wine is missing.
If you are interested in a guided tour of the city, also in winter the electric golf carts operate and bring you to the best places in the city – with heating 🙂 Here you can find the available schedules and latest online fares.
We hope that you will enjoy the Christmas Market in Wroclaw as much as we do! Don’t forget to check out our post about the best FREE things to do and see in Wroclaw!
You want to plan your trip to Wroclaw? Don’t miss out on our planning guides with the best places to stay, the best ways to travel to Wroclaw by car, train, bus and a lot of further useful information!
Do you have some comments on this article? Help us and also help other visitors by leaving your feedback in the comment section below!
16 Comments
annie
what time will the christmas marked open the 24.october
Ewa & Mirko
Hello, it will open on 24 November at 12:00.
Laura
Do you know when the Christmas Market in Wroclaw starts in 2023? We would like to visit it and book the hotel early.
Mirko
Hi Laura, the dates have not been officially published, but based on the past years, we can be 90% sure that it will be the 17 November as start date.
Stevie McPheators
I visited Wroclaw with my son in Auhust for the speedway and enjoyed the city so much I’m visiting again late November with my wife for the Xmas Market
CHRIS S
Hi My wife an i were thinking of spending christmas in Wroclaw and understand the importance of wigilia for families but was wondering if there were any restaurants/hotel retaurants open on the 24th ??
Mirko
Hi there, hotels are open but restaurants probably just a very few, it will be very quiet on the 24th…
Donnie Ashcraft
We visited the 2021 Christmas Market and was unable to find a souvenir Christmas market mug or two. Do you know where we can purchase some?
Ewa & Mirko
Hi Donnie,
There were no special mugs in 2021 and older ones got reused but instead of returning them, you just keep them and don’t get the deposit back, this is how most people do it. The other option is to order online from the Christmas Market but they only ship within Poland.
Pat Connolly
Hi
my wife has just returned from wroclaw and she loved the Christmas Market. unfortunately the ceramic mug she got broke in her luggage so I was wondering is it possible to get one shipped to Ireland ?. I’ll gladly pay the cost of postage and shipping if it could be here for Christmas. or if anyone is going to the market from Ireland if you could pick one up for me, I’ll pay for the postage when you get home.
Mirko
We still have two at home as the queue to return them was too long, will send you a mail…
Chuck Pelshaw
Wroclaw is a beautiful city…. I hope to see it this year during the Christmas season! It looks amazing in the pictures
Glynis Perkin
Dear Mirko,
Thanks for your response regarding purchasing mugs in the UK. I’m happy to pay shipping costs and it doesn’t matter when they arrive! Thanks for your response and the newsletter which I enjoy.
Best wishes,
Glynis
Glynis Perkin
Is it possible to purchase the Christmas hot wine mugs from the UK and have them posted to the UK ?
Mirko
Hey! It looks like the official shop only supports a delivery in Poland and as well Polish payment options. The shop is also designed in a quite strange way and you need to purchase packaging twice and then pay shipping on top. Two mugs are around 60 PLN. If you really, really want them, send us a message via contact form and we try to manage somehow, but also shipping to the UK might be expensive then (plus Brexit and customs risk if delivery is late)…
Ceci
Can’t wait! This website always has such wonderful information about Wroclaw and events, especially for foreigners 🙂
Keep up the good work! 🙂