Kingston Christmas Market: 12 Nov to 3 January

Kingston Christmas Market opens on Thursday 12 November 2026 and runs to Sunday 3 January 2027 in the Ancient Market Place, KT1 1JS. Last year it finished on 28 December, so this season runs almost a week further into the new year. The dates come from the market’s own site, not from a listing site.

Two things to know before you plan around it. The market closes all day on 25 December. And there is no official Christmas lights switch-on event in Kingston town centre, which is the single most searched question about Christmas here and the one nobody answers. More on that below.

Opening hours

The market runs two sets of hours, because the gift cabins and the bar close at different times.

Market stalls, 12 November to 3 January

Bar, food and entertainment, 12 November to 3 January

One caveat worth flagging, because it will catch someone out on a Monday night. The market’s Plan Your Visit page gives Monday as 10am to 8pm. Its own home page gives “Monday to Wednesday, 10am to 9pm”. The two pages contradict each other. We have used the Visit page above because it is the more detailed of the two, but check on the night if you are making a late trip for a mulled wine.

Where it is, and what the cabins look like

The market fills the Ancient Market Place, between Clarence Street and the High Street, around the Market House. The organiser states the area is fully pedestrianised during opening hours.

What was there in 2025, per Kingston First’s own announcement: gift cabins, a bar serving mulled wine, cider and hot chocolate, a stage with live music, All Saints Church lit up, a giant reindeer installation, the light-up KINGSTON sign, the Christmas tree and a walk-through present. Kingston First has not published its 2026 plans yet, so treat that as the shape of the thing rather than a promise.

There is no admission charge. The council listed the 2025 market as Free, and the market’s own site sells nothing at the gate.

Is there a Christmas lights switch-on in Kingston?

Not in Kingston town centre, no. Kingston First, the business improvement district that pays for and organises the lights, the tree and the market, said so in as many words in its 2025 announcement. Its key dates list reads: “Christmas in Kingston begins: 13th November-28 December 2025 (No official light switch-on event).”

The lights simply go on. There is no countdown, no stage moment, no celebrity. If you have been searching for a Kingston switch-on date and finding nothing, that is why.

The borough does have a switch-on, and it is in New Malden. The New Malden Town Centre Partnership runs a Christmas Party on Jubilee Square, KT3 4TA, with food stalls, live music, street entertainers and Santa, and the lights switch-on at 5.30pm on the High Street. The partnership describes it as “our traditional Christmas event on the last Friday of November”. It ran on Friday 29 November 2024 and Friday 28 November 2025. On that rule the 2026 date would be Friday 27 November, but the partnership has not announced it: its site currently says “No events at the moment”. We will confirm the date when it is published.

Two stale sources to ignore

This trips people up every year, so here is where the wrong dates come from.

• The council’s own event page. Christmas Market in Kingston on kingston.gov.uk still gives “Sunday 16 November 2025, 10.00am to Sunday 28 December 2025, 6.00pm”. That is last year. The market’s own site is the one to trust.
• The market’s stage schedule. The stage schedule page lists a full line-up running 13 November to 28 December, with no January dates at all and no acts on 17 or 24 November or 1 December. Those were the Mondays in 2025. It is last year’s calendar, and the page still asks acts to fill in a “2025 Performer’s Enquiry Form”.

Kingston First’s visitor site, kingstonuponthames.info, had no Christmas page at all on 5 September 2026: the /christmas address it promoted last year now returns a 404.

Getting there, parking and the car park trap

Kingston station is a seven to eight minute walk from the Ancient Market Place. Go out of the station, cross the road, walk down Fife Road and turn left by Bentalls. The market’s site says the train from Waterloo takes 25 minutes, which is roughly right in one direction only: the Kingston loop means the same journey is around half an hour via Wimbledon and closer to fifty via Richmond. Our trains page has the detail.

The market lists eight town centre car parks: Ashdown KT1 2NH, Bittoms KT1 2AG, Canbury Place KT2 5AA, Cattle Market surface KT1 2QY, Guildhall Saturdays only KT1 1EU, Neville House KT1 1BW, Rose KT1 2NB and Thameside KT1 1PL.

Two warnings from our own parking guide. Five of the council’s car parks charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week, bank holidays included, which matters if you are shopping on Boxing Day. And Thameside is not on the council’s own list of its car parks and has no council page, even though it is priced in the statutory tariff notice, so do not plan your evening around finding it.

For roadworks and closures on the way in, check our roadworks and travel page.

Sources

• Kingston Christmas Market, home page and Plan Your Visit
• Kingston First, Christmas In Kingston 2025 announcement
• Royal Borough of Kingston, Christmas Market in Kingston event listing
• New Malden Town Centre Partnership, Christmas Party

All checked on 5 September 2026.