9 Things To Do This Winter in Baden-Baden

The Baden-Baden Christmas market 2025 is open from 27.11.2025 to 06.01.2026.

The Christmas market in Baden-Baden, located in the picturesque Kurgarten directly in front of the historic, festively illuminated Kurhaus, offers a magical winter backdrop. The Kurhaus, an architectural landmark with magnificent colonnades, dominates the cityscape and gives the Christmas market a unique atmosphere. The city center with its numerous shopping opportunities is in the immediate vicinity. And the Lichtentaler Allee invites you to take relaxing winter walks.

Winter in Baden-Baden is cool and misty (and a little magical❄️). Temperatures usually stay around 4–5 °C (39–41 °F) during the day and dip just below freezing at night. You’ll often see light rain or a dusting of snow, especially in December to February. While the town itself rarely gets deep snow, the nearby Black Forest hills turn beautifully white. Expect cozy, chilly days - perfect for hot springs and warm cafés.

The Baden-Baden Christmas market was first held in 1971 on the small Römerplatz in the spa district, initiated and organised by the Glattfelder family. At the start, the Christmas market had around 20 vendors. Until 1978, the Römerplatz was the home of the Christmas market before it expanded to the Jesuitenplatz in 1979.

From then on, the Christmas market was an event organised by the city of Baden-Baden, which in 1980 expanded even further to the flower fountain and in 1981 included the entire pedestrian zone of Lange Straße. Since the Christmas market huts required a relatively large amount of space in the pedestrian zone and thus distracted from the shop windows, especially during the high season, the Christmas market was moved to the market square in 1983.

Since the city had the right to hold markets and subsidised them, it was possible to keep the stall rental at a reasonable level. However, there were a few conditions: local applicants were to be given preference when allocating stands, pure food and drink was not to make up more than 25% of the stands (this rule still applies today) and there was to be a Christmas programme organised by local Baden-Baden clubs. With around 50 huts, the Christmas market attracted many locals and visitors from the region year after year. With a children's carousel and a Christmas tree market, it was one of the major events and achieved cult status. Two weeks before Christmas Eve, the heart of Baden-Baden was in the old town. Until 1999, the Christmas market was organised by the city and the Glattfelder family, until they retired and the interest group of retailers, restaurateurs and hoteliers organised a Christmas market on Augustaplatz.

In 2001, the city moved the Christmas market to the area around the Fieserbrücke bridge and in front of the shops in the Kurhaus colonnades, where it has attracted visitors and an increasing number of tourists from abroad every year since then as the "Baden-Baden Christmas market". The market now extends from the Fieser-Brücke bridge to the Trinkhalle. The majority of it is in front of the Kurhaus and in the Kurgarten.