The Edinburgh Tour Guide
- The markets cost nothing to walk into. The rides and shows around them do not, and they range from £12.00 to £59.00.
- Five of the six ticketed things cost more than advertised. Only the Star Flyer charges what its listing says.
- Three things close before the festival does. Santa's Stories on 24 December, the Botanics trail on 30 December and the Polar Ice Bar on 2 January.
- On 25 December nothing opens. Not the markets, not the attractions, and barely a bus.
- The sun sets at 15:39 just before Christmas. The whole programme is built for the dark, and it changes the order you do things in.
Festival dates
14 Nov 2026 – 3 Jan 2027
Markets
Free to enter
Open on 25 Dec
Nothing
Everything that is running, with what it costs
Two separate organisations put on most of what people mean by Christmas in Edinburgh. Edinburgh's Christmas, in and around East Princes Street Gardens, is run by Unique Assembly and holds the markets, the rides and the cabaret. Christmas at the Botanics is a separate illuminated trail at the Royal Botanic Garden, two miles north, run by the garden itself. They have different dates and different ticketing, which is where most of the confusion comes from.
One thing that was on this list in every previous edition is not on it now. The ice rink has been axed after nearly 30 years, confirmed by the organisers on 26 October 2026. Two attractions below still have the word Ice in the name and neither of them is skating.
| What | Adult | Runs | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Christmas Markets | Free | 14 Nov – 3 Jan | East Princes Street Gardens. No ticket at all. |
| LNER Big Wheel | £14.00confirmed in the booking flow | 14 Nov – 3 Jan | Advertised at £12, which is the concession and family rate. Pods seat six and are shared at busy times. |
| Around the World Star Flyer | £15.50confirmed in the booking flow | 14 Nov – 3 Jan | One price, no concession. 80 metres up. |
| Polar Ice Bar | £18.50confirmed in the booking flow | 19 Nov – 2 Jan | Includes one drink; £23.50 with two. Over-18s only, with Challenge 25 on the door. Advertised at £16.50. |
| The Coorie Inn | No ticket | 19 Nov – 3 Jan | A bar on George Street, so you pay for what you drink. Its own page says 12:00 to late; the programme listing says 16:00. |
| Christmas at the Botanics | Not published | 19 Nov – 30 Dec | Illuminated trail. Five ticket types, two of them chosen by which gate you use. |
| Santa's Stories | £19.50confirmed in the booking flow | 20 Nov – 24 Dec | Per child, with one adult included. Extra adults cost more. £15.90 for EH postcodes. Advertised at £14.30. Stops on Christmas Eve. |
| La Clique Noël | £46.50confirmed in the booking flow | 20 Nov – 3 Jan | General admission. Booths £51.50, ring side £59.00. Nudity and strong language. |
| Family Ice Experience | £16.00confirmed in the booking flow | 21 Nov – 3 Jan | £14.00 each on a family ticket, in multiples of four. Hand-carved ice sculptures. Advertised at £12. |
Every date and price read from the operators' own pages on 19 October 2026. Three were taken a step further and confirmed on the payment screen for Saturday 5 December 2026; those are marked. Booking fees of £1.50 per ticket are already inside these figures and are capped at £12 per transaction, so several tickets in one booking costs less than the same tickets booked separately.
The advertised price is not always the price
Each attraction carries a “Prices from” line on its own listing. Taking all six ticketed ones through to the payment screen on the same date, Saturday 5 December 2026, one of them charges what it advertises.
| What | Listing says | Checkout says | What the gap is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star Flyer | £15.50 | £15.50 | None. One ticket type, one price. |
| LNER Big Wheel | £12 | £14.00 | The £12 is the concession rate, not the adult one. |
| Family Ice Experience | £12 | £16.00 | The £12 is close to the £14.00 family rate, not the standard one. |
| Polar Ice Bar | £16.50 | £18.50 | The cheapest real ticket includes a drink token. |
| Santa's Stories | £14.30 | £19.50 | Sold per child with an adult included, not per person. |
| La Clique Noël | £1.50 | £46.50 | The £1.50 is the booking fee on its own. |
One listing out of six quotes the price you actually pay. The gaps run from two pounds on the Big Wheel to forty five on the cabaret, where the advertised £1.50 is the booking fee rather than a seat. A pair of general admission seats at La Clique comes to £93.00, and ring side is £59.00 each. There is no way to tell a reliable listing from an unreliable one without going through to payment.
Before you book
- Open the booking flow before you budget. Pick the date and the time, and read the figure on the payment screen rather than the one on the listing.
- Put everything through in one transaction. Booking fees are £1.50 a ticket but capped at £12, so from eight tickets onwards the extras stop counting.
- Check which gate your Botanics ticket is for. West Gate is for arriving by car and East Gate for arriving by public transport, and they are sold as different tickets.
- Tickets are locked to the date on them. On the rides the time shown is when the attraction opens rather than a slot, and the ticket is good for one go at any point that day.
It is also why the indoor hour is worth more here than it would be in June, and why the things that work best in an Edinburgh December are not the ones with the word Christmas in the title. The explicitly festive tours on sale are a private taxi ride at £369 rated 3.25 from four reviews, and a day tour at £350 with no rating at all. The one below costs £28 and has nearly five thousand.
The Chocolatarium Chocolate Tour Experience
Ninety minutes indoors with tasting, a ten minute walk from the gardens. The review count is the point: almost five thousand of them, against four on the festive taxi tour that costs thirteen times as much.
Three things close before the festival does
Edinburgh's Christmas runs to 3 January 2027, and it is easy to read that as the date everything stops. Three of the nine do not make it that far.
- Santa's Stories finishes on 24 December. It is the only one aimed squarely at small children, and it stops on Christmas Eve.
- Christmas at the Botanics finishes on 30 December. This is the one that catches people out, because it is the most photographed thing in an Edinburgh winter and anyone arriving for Hogmanay finds it already over.
- The Polar Ice Bar finishes on 2 January. One day short, which matters only if 3 January was your plan.
If you are coming for New Year, the Hogmanay programme has its own four nights and four separate tickets, and the markets are still running. The lights trail is not. The first of those nights, the Torchlight Procession on 29 December, is the one you can watch for nothing, and the only thing you are charged for is the torch.
On 25 December nothing opens
The markets close for the day, and so does nearly everything else: the attractions, most restaurants, and the buses for the bulk of it. Boxing Day restarts gradually rather than all at once.
It is not a lost day, but it is a walking day. Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill do not close, the Old Town is quieter than you will ever see it, and anywhere you intend to eat needs booking weeks ahead.
Guided walks are the exception to the shutdown: several operate on 25 December itself, when the ticketed attractions do not. If the plan is a walk anyway, a guided one costs about the same as the Big Wheel.
Edinburgh: Witches & Haunted History Walking Tour
Seventy minutes through the Old Town closes, ending at the Grassmarket. It runs on Christmas Day, which almost nothing ticketed does, and it costs four pounds more than the market's Big Wheel.
The sun sets at 15:39, and that decides the order
On 21 December Edinburgh gets 6 hours 57 minutes of daylight, from 08:42 to 15:39, against 17 hours 36 at midsummer. We put the month by month figures in the guide to when to visit.
The winter programme is built around it rather than despite it. The lights trail and the market lights are at their best from mid-afternoon onwards, and the practical consequence is that anything you want to see in daylight, a viewpoint or a walk, belongs before two o'clock, with the ticketed things after. One opening time to check on the day rather than in advance: the Coorie Inn bar is listed at 16:00 on the programme and 12:00 to late on its own page.
The age rules are not uniform
Edinburgh's Christmas reads as a family festival and most of it is, but two parts are not.
- The Polar Ice Bar is over-18s only, with a Challenge 25 policy on the door, so bring identification if you look anywhere near it.
- La Clique Noël is 16+ as a guideline, and front row and ring side seats are strictly 18+. The operator warns of nudity, strong language and flashing lights. It runs 100 minutes at 19:30, with some 16:30 matinees.
- The Big Wheel takes any age, with an adult alongside anyone 13 or under, and the operator's own line is that if a child can toddle, it needs a ticket.
The Botanics sells five tickets and prices none of them
The illuminated trail at the Royal Botanic Garden runs 19 November to 30 December 2026, and as of 19 October 2026 there is no price for it on the garden's own site, on the ticket agent's listing, or after choosing a ticket type. The wording mentions off-peak evenings and reduced family tickets without attaching a figure to either.
There are five different tickets, and two of them depend on how you arrive:
- West Gate, for arriving by car.
- East Gate, for arriving by public transport.
- Anytime, entry at any point on a chosen date.
- Anyday / Anytime, one entry on any date of the run.
- 18+ nights, which exist on two evenings only: 25 November and 7 December.
Pick the gate that matches your transport before anything else. It is the one part of the booking that cannot be fixed on the night.
Where the market itself fits
The traditional markets in East Princes Street Gardens are free to walk into and run the full 14 November to 3 January. We have the layout, the opening hours and the 31 December complication in the guide to the Christmas market, which is the page to read if the market is the main reason you are coming.
Quick answers
What is on in Edinburgh at Christmas 2026?
Edinburgh's Christmas runs from 14 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 in and around East Princes Street Gardens, with the traditional markets free to walk into, the LNER Big Wheel at £14.00, the 80-metre Star Flyer at £15.50, the over-18s Polar Ice Bar at £18.50 with a drink included, Santa's Stories at £19.50 per child with one adult included, the Family Ice Experience at £16.00 and the La Clique Noël cabaret at £46.50. Every one of those comes from the payment screen for 5 December 2026, because five of the six listings advertise a lower figure than they charge.
What is open in Edinburgh on Christmas Day?
Effectively nothing. The Christmas markets close on 25 December and so does almost everything else in the city, including the attractions, most restaurants and the bus network for most of the day. If you are in Edinburgh on 25 December, plan it as a walking day and book anywhere you intend to eat well in advance.
Is the Christmas at the Botanics trail open over Hogmanay?
No. The trail runs from 19 November to 30 December 2026, so it has finished before Hogmanay begins. This catches people out because Edinburgh’s Christmas itself continues to 3 January, and the two are run by different organisations with different closing dates.
How much is the Big Wheel in Edinburgh?
A standard adult ticket is £14.00 including the £1.50 booking fee, checked in the booking flow for Saturday 5 December 2026. The £12.00 figure advertised on the listing is the concession rate, which covers students, registered unemployed people, disabled visitors, over-65s and under-18s, and is also the per-person family rate when booked in multiples of four.
Is Edinburgh worth visiting in December?
It depends on how you feel about darkness. On 21 December the sun rises at 08:42 and sets at 15:39, which is 6 hours 57 minutes of daylight against 17 hours 36 on the longest day. The winter programme is built around that: the lights look their best from mid-afternoon, and The Coorie Inn does not open until 16:00.
Why do Edinburgh Christmas tickets cost more than the advertised price?
Because the "prices from" line on each listing is not always the cheapest ticket you can actually buy. Checked through to the payment screen for 5 December 2026, five of the six ticketed attractions charge more than they advertise: the Big Wheel advertises £12 and charges an adult £14.00, the Family Ice Experience advertises £12 and charges £16.00, the Polar Ice Bar advertises £16.50 and charges £18.50, Santa's Stories advertises £14.30 and charges £19.50 per child, and La Clique advertises £1.50, which is the booking fee, against a cheapest seat of £46.50. Only the Star Flyer charges its advertised £15.50.
Do you need to book Edinburgh Christmas attractions in advance?
For the markets themselves, no, because there is no ticket. For the rides and shows the tickets are date-locked and in some cases time-locked, so a ticket bought for one day cannot be used on another. Booking fees are £1.50 per ticket but capped at £12 per transaction, so putting several tickets through in one booking costs less than booking them separately.
About this guide
Written by Diego Fresno, Independent travel writer and researcher. Guides are based on first-hand research in Edinburgh and verified against operator and official sources for the 2026 season. Verified: August 2026. About the author →