Christmas in Berlin: What Is Open on 24, 25 and 26 December

You land in Berlin on the morning of 24 December, drop your bags, and walk out at three in the afternoon to buy a few things for the evening. The shop doors are locked, the museum on your list is dark, and the Christmas market you saw on Instagram has its shutters down. Nothing is wrong with your plan. It is just Christmas in Berlin, and the city keeps it in a very German way.

Here is the shape of it this year. On Thursday 24 December every shop closes at 14:00, and because the 25th and 26th are public holidays and the 27th is a Sunday, normal shops stay shut until Monday 28 December. Most of the big markets and every state museum are closed on Christmas Eve, then come back on the 25th. I checked the hours for this post on each place's own page and on berlin.de's list of markets open between the years on 25 October.

The tree and the cathedral dome on Gendarmenmarkt. Its market is the only big one in the centre that opens on Christmas Eve.

Christmas in Berlin: the four days that matter

Christmas in Berlin is not one day off. It is four days with four different rules, and in 2026 they fall like this:

• Thursday 24 December, Christmas Eve: a normal working day until the afternoon. Shops must close at 14:00 by law, most markets do not open at all, and the evening belongs to church and family.

• Friday 25 December, Christmas Day: a public holiday. Shops are shut, the state museums open with Sunday hours, and four big markets are back.

• Saturday 26 December, Boxing Day: the second public holiday, with the same pattern as the 25th.

• Sunday 27 December: an ordinary Berlin Sunday, which means the fourth day in a row without normal shopping.

My advice: plan the 24th as a short morning day and the 25th and 26th as museum and market days. I have watched visitors spend Christmas Eve afternoon walking from one locked door to the next, and the city gives you nothing for it.

What is open on Christmas Eve, 24 December

The list is short, so it is easy to plan around:

• WeihnachtsZauber on Gendarmenmarkt, 11:00 to 18:00. It is the one big market in Mitte that opens on the 24th. Entry is 2 euros, and the free weekday lunch window does not apply on 24, 25 and 26 December.

• DDR Museum, opposite the Berliner Dom, 9:00 to 16:00.

• Zoo Berlin, 9:00 to 14:00.

• Shops, supermarkets and malls, until 14:00 at the latest.

Closed all day on the 24th: the markets at the Rotes Rathaus, the Humboldt Forum and Schloss Charlottenburg, every museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Museum Island, the Gemäldegalerie, the Neue Nationalgalerie and the rest), the Jewish Museum, and the Reichstag dome and roof terrace.

Two places are still open questions. The TV Tower lists 09:00 to 23:00 with no Christmas change on its own page, while a ticket partner shows a short day on the 24th. The Berliner Dom turns into a church that evening: on 24 December 2025 it held five services, at 14:00, 16:00, 18:00, 22:00 and midnight, and no sightseeing. Its 2026 plan is not out yet.

Which Christmas markets stay open after the 24th

Some visitors assume the markets end on Christmas Eve. In Berlin the opposite is true: several of the best ones close on the 24th and open again for the holidays.

• Gendarmenmarkt: open every day to 31 December, 11:00 to 23:00 on Friday 25 and Saturday 26, 11:00 to 22:00 on Sunday 27.

• Rotes Rathaus, with the ice rink around the Neptunbrunnen: closed on the 24th, then daily until 3 January 2027, from 12:00 on weekdays and 11:00 at weekends, until 22:00.

• Wintermarkt at the Humboldt Forum on Schlossplatz: closed on the 24th, then 11:00 to 22:00 until 3 January, free entry.

• Schloss Charlottenburg: closed on the 24th, open 12:00 to 22:00 on the 25th, 26th and 27th, and the 27th is its last evening. Entry is free.

The market by the Rotes Rathaus on a December evening, with the Marienkirche spire and the Ferris wheel behind the stalls.

The Great Elector's statue in the forecourt of Schloss Charlottenburg, with the market around it. Its season ends on 27 December.

For the full market list with dates and prices, my guide to the best Christmas markets in Berlin and the Christmas markets map cover the whole season. If you want a market in a smaller town, the Christmas markets near Berlin post has the trains.

Museums and sights on the 25th and 26th

This is where the holidays work in your favour. According to the holiday hours of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, all museums of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin open on 25 and 26 December as on a Sunday, which on Museum Island means 10:00 to 18:00 at the Neues Museum, the Altes Museum, the Bode-Museum and the Alte Nationalgalerie. The Pergamonmuseum stays closed for its long building works, so do not build the day around it.

The colonnade on Museum Island along the Spree, with the Berliner Dom behind the bridge. The museums here open with Sunday hours on both holidays.

Outside the state museums:

• DDR Museum: 9:00 to 21:00 on the 25th, 26th and 27th, the latest museum evening in the centre.

• Jewish Museum in Kreuzberg: it lists 24 December as its only Christmas closing day and opens 10:00 to 18:00 otherwise. It is closed on Mondays, so Monday 28 December is out.

• Reichstag dome: 8:00 to midnight, last entry 21:45, on all three days after Christmas Eve. It is free, but you need a booked slot through the Bundestag visitor service, and holiday slots go early. My Reichstag dome guide explains the booking.

• Zoo Berlin: 9:00 to 16:30 in winter, last entry an hour before.

• TV Tower: 09:00 to 23:00.

The Reichstag from the Spree on a winter afternoon. The dome is closed on Christmas Eve and open late on the three days after it.

My advice for the 25th: start at Museum Island at 10:00, when the doors open and the halls are still quiet, and save the Reichstag dome or the TV Tower for after dark. The light goes before 16:00 in late December, and the city looks better from above at night anyway.

Every shop closes for almost four days

This is the part that catches people. Berlin's shop law says that on 24 December every shop must close at 14:00 when the day falls on a weekday. After that come two public holidays and a Sunday, so from Thursday afternoon until Monday 28 December there is no normal shopping at all.

What still works:

• Supermarkets in the big stations. Station shops may open on holidays. In 2025 the Rewe in Hauptbahnhof ran 08:00 to 22:00 and the Rewe in Ostbahnhof 06:00 to 22:00 on both holidays; their 2026 holiday hours are not published yet.

• Petrol station shops, for the basics at petrol station prices.

• Restaurants, but many close on the evening of the 24th or serve only a set Christmas menu. If a dinner matters to you, book it now. My post on what to book in advance in Berlin has the rest of that list.

The Christmas wreath in the glass hall of Hauptbahnhof. The supermarket on the station's lower level is the one most visitors end up using on the holidays.

My advice: do one proper shop on the morning of the 23rd or before noon on the 24th, and buy water, breakfast and snacks for four days. The station queue on the 25th is long, and it is not how you want to spend Christmas Day.

Buses and trains over Christmas

You will not be stranded. The BVG and S-Bahn Berlin usually publish the exact holiday timetable in December, so here is the pattern from last Christmas:

• 24 December ran on the Saturday timetable. The S-Bahn thinned out after about 17:00, to every 20 minutes on most lines.

• 25 and 26 December ran on the Sunday timetable.

• Nights: in 2025 every U-Bahn line except the U4 ran all night from the night of 23/24 December to 27/28 December, and the S-Bahn ran all night into the 25th and the 26th.

So a late Christmas Eve dinner across town is fine, but the trains get thinner in the afternoon and evening of the 24th. My Berlin night transport guide explains the night buses if you end up on the edge of the network.

The Christmas hours, hour by hour

The chart below puts all of this on one screen: the markets, sights, museums, shops and trains for 24, 25, 26 and 27 December. Pick a day, tap a time, and it shows what is open at that hour and what has already closed. You can also open the full Berlin Christmas opening chart on its own page.

My plan for Christmas in Berlin

If I had four days in Berlin over Christmas this year, this is how I would spend them:

• 24 December: shop before noon, walk the centre while it is quiet, take the market at Gendarmenmarkt in the late afternoon, then a booked dinner or a service at the Dom.

• 25 December: Museum Island at 10:00, the market at the Rotes Rathaus in the evening.

• 26 December: the Reichstag dome on a booked slot, then the Christmas tree at the Brandenburg Gate and a walk down Unter den Linden.

• 27 December: Schloss Charlottenburg, palace and market, on the market's last evening.

The Christmas tree at the Brandenburg Gate. Pariser Platz is open all night, so it works on every one of the four days.

If you arrive a few days before Christmas and want the old centre explained before the holidays shut it, my Berlin Then and Now walk starts at the World Clock on Alexanderplatz and ends at Hackescher Markt, about 2.5 hours and 11 stops covering 16 places, with the Rotes Rathaus and the Neptunbrunnen on the way. The booking page shows which days it runs.

Holiday hours still move a little each year, so before you go, check the one place your day depends on. If you are here for New Year as well, my New Year's Eve in Berlin post picks up where this one ends.

Image credits

Source and licence details for the 3 photographs used in this article.

The Christmas market by the Rotes Rathaus: Leonhard Lenz, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Christmas market at Schloss Charlottenburg: Leonhard Lenz, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Christmas wreath in Berlin Hauptbahnhof: Geoprofi Lars, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.