Christmas Markets and Lights in Northumberland 2026: Dates and Parking

Hexham Lantern Parade

Not a switch-on, but the best warm-up for one. Bring a lantern to Hexham Bandstand at 6pm on Friday 13 November; it's free and you just turn up. No lantern? The Queen's Hall runs free workshops on 27 October and 7 November (booking needed).

Price

Free, no tickets

Parking

Council car parks; short-stay spaces need a £1 parking disc, long-stay car parks don't. Hexham station is on the Tyne Valley line

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The Queen's Hall page for workshop places and any weather changes

Morpeth Christmas Lights Switch-On

Saturday 14 November in the Market Place, and Morpeth goes early and goes big: an afternoon of stage acts, face painting, a snow globe you can stand inside for photos, little fairground rides, food stalls and the man in red. A child who wins the council's competition gets on stage to switch the lights on with him. No start time published yet. The Pavilion Tipi opens the same day and runs to New Year.

Price

Free to attend

Parking

Council car parks; short-stay spaces need a £1 parking disc, long-stay don't. Morpeth has a railway station

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Start time on the town council's events page nearer the day

Hexham Christmas Lights Switch-On

Hexham's is Friday 20 November, and that's genuinely all anyone knows: the town council says save the date, times to follow. It's one of the easier switch-ons to do by train, which saves the Friday-night hunt for a space.

Price

Free

Parking

Council car parks; short-stay spaces need a £1 parking disc, long-stay car parks don't. Hexham station is on the Tyne Valley line

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Times and venue, due from Hexham Town Council closer to the date

Blyth Christmas Lights On

Saturday 21 November, 10am to 6pm in the Market Place (NE24 1BW): live entertainment and panto performers all day, then the town tree is lit. Visit Northumberland still says 22 November, which was last year; the town council, which runs it, says the 21st. All-day suits small children: do the panto lot after lunch and decide at four whether anyone has the legs for the tree.

Price

Free

Parking

Town centre car parks; the council's event page gives no parking advice

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Blyth Town Council's page for the running order and tree-lighting time

Procession of the Yule Straw Goat

The oddest thing on this list and possibly the best. At 5.15pm on Friday 27 November a candlelit parade of locals, schoolchildren, choirs and pipers walks a six-metre straw goat from Wooler High Street to Ad Gefrin on South Road, where there's music, food and drink. A six-metre goat. In Wooler. What more do you want?

Price

No price on the event page

Parking

Not given on the event page; Ad Gefrin's own site has a parking section

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Ad Gefrin's event page for timings and weather

Bamburgh Christmas Lights Switch-On

Saturday 28 November: carols in St Aidan's Church at 5.30pm, village lights on at 6.15pm. Small and properly lovely, and with the castle's Christmas rooms in the afternoon it makes a very tidy day. Wrap up. The wind off the sea here in November has opinions.

Price

Free

Parking

£6 a day in the castle car park up the hill or the Glebe car park (the castle's figures)

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The village website's events page on the day

Belford lights switch-on and Christmas markets

Belford does Christmas in miniature: a Christmas Fayre at St Mary's Church on Saturday 21 November (10.30am to 1pm), then on Saturday 5 December the Bell View community Christmas market (10am to noon) and the lights on in the Market Square at 4pm. Done before teatime.

Price

Free to attend

Parking

Not stated by the organiser

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The parish events listing for any changes

Winter Lights at The Alnwick Garden

Friday 20 November to Sunday 3 January, 4.30pm to 9pm, timed entry, closed Christmas Day. A trail of light and sound installations through the Garden, and the same ticket gets you into Lilidorei lit up at night. Adults pay from £11.50 on saver dates (23 to 25 and 30 November, 1, 2 and 7 to 10 December, 2 and 3 January), from £18 on standard dates and from £20.50 on premium dates (11 to 13 and 18 to 24 December). Same trail, nearly double the price, so go on Tuesday 1 December if you can and spend the difference on hot chocolate.

It's all outdoors and standard tickets are non-refundable. By day, A Lilidorei Christmas runs from 16 November, 10am to 3pm (Thursday to Sunday until 18 December, then daily), with 1,500 Christmas trees and eight giant nutcrackers.

Price

Adults from £11.50 (saver) to from £20.50 (premium); timed tickets

Parking

£3.75 a day in the Garden's car park, open until last entry; Blue Badge holders free. The council's Greenwell Road car parks are listed as free

Toilets

Not covered in the Christmas FAQs

Dogs

Assistance dogs only

Check first

Which price tier your date falls in, and the Extreme Weather Promise if it's wild

Christmas at Cragside

The showpiece is a living giant redwood near the house, 44.7 metres tall with more than 1,300 lights, over twice the height of the Angel of the North. Christmas runs Saturday 28 November to Sunday 3 January, closed 24 to 26 December. The property page calls the house theme A Journey Through Fairyland, but the Trust's national round-up names a different one, so don't promise anyone fairies yet. There's a quest trail in the Formal Garden and a waymarked five-mile festive walk.

Entry 10am to 4pm, house 11am to 4pm, gardens to 5pm. See the tree in the last hour of daylight, which in late December is before four.

Price

Christmas admission £18 adult, £9 child (5 to 17), £45 family, before Gift Aid; under 5s and National Trust members free

Parking

Included once you've paid admission (seven car parks)

Toilets

Visitor centre, under the archway at the house, and Crozier car park

Buggy access

Not in the house; bring a front carrier (they can lend a Hippy Chick)

Check first

The 2026 house theme and any weather closures

A Christmas Carousel at Bamburgh Castle

Daily from Saturday 14 November to Sunday 3 January, 10am to 4pm, closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Each State Room is dressed around a well-known Christmas song or carol, included in normal admission (card or contactless only). The castle shuts 9 to 13 November while they put it all up, and goes to weekends only from 4 January. Pushchairs aren't allowed in the State Rooms, but you can borrow a Hippy Chick carrier.

Price

£21 adult, £10.50 child, £61.50 family, under 5s free

Parking

£6 a day in the castle car park up the hill, or £6 in the Glebe car park

Buggy access

Not in the State Rooms; carriers to borrow

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The Father Christmas sessions were showing sold out on 29 September

Walking with The Snowman at Belsay Hall

Saturday 7 November to Sunday 10 January, 10am to 4pm: twelve giant Snowman sculptures, one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, with hidden letters to collect. It's included in admission (members free; 15% off online), as is the Christmas craft fair of local makers on 21 and 22 November. The kindest daytime trail for small legs: flat paths, a café, a countable number of snowmen.

Price

Normal admission, shown when you pick a date on English Heritage's booking page; 15% off online

Parking

About 115 spaces on gravel, 200 metres from the entrance; free for members, a charge for everyone else. Sat nav NE20 0DU

Toilets

By the car park and at the Coach House café

Check first

The day's price on the booking page

Crafted Christmas at Wallington

Decorations made by visitors through the year, a 20ft tree in the Central Hall and a giant reindeer called Magnificence pulling the sleigh out front. The Christmas house opening runs from late November to 3 January, 11.30am to 3.30pm (4pm at weekends), closed most Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 24 to 26 December. The paid Father Christmas groups are sold out, but the free walkaround Father Christmas and Mrs Christmas storytelling (5, 6, 12, 13 and 19 to 22 December) need no booking.

Price

Normal admission; the winter price wasn't shown when we checked (autumn adult £22 before Gift Aid, National Trust members free)

Parking

Included in the ticket, free for members

Toilets

Yes, on site

Check first

Which days the house is open that week

Brocksbushes Christmas Fayre

Thursday 12 to Sunday 15 November at the farm shop near Stocksfield (NE43 7UB): 70-plus gift, craft and food stalls, from 9am according to Visit Northumberland. Tickets go on sale in early October, price not yet published. The first big one of the season, and you can do the Christmas shopping and the weekly shop in one car park, which I respect enormously.

Price

Ticketed; on sale from early October, price not published on 29 Sep

Parking

Free

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Ticket price and daily opening times

A Little Norham Christmas

An evening fair in Norham Village Hall on Friday 20 November, 6pm to 8.30pm: gifts, crafts, festive produce and a glass of prosecco or a soft drink with canapés, for Soul Kitchen and the Great North Air Ambulance. Tickets "on sale soon". Small and grown-up.

Price

Ticketed; price not announced yet

Parking

Not stated by the organiser

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Ticket release on the Norham Life page

The Alnwick Garden Christmas Fair and Festive Alnwick Markets

Yes, Alnwick has Christmas markets this year, just not in the town centre. The Alnwick Garden Christmas Fair fills The Pavilion on 21 and 22 November, 10.30am to 3.30pm. Then the Festive Alnwick Markets move in every December weekend (5 and 6, 12 and 13, 19 and 20 December), 10am to 3pm, because Bailiffgate Museum's £6.5 million refurbishment is about to start. Both are free with no Garden ticket needed, so you can browse, have a coffee in The Pavilion café and leave without paying for the Garden at all.

Price

Free, no Garden ticket needed

Parking

£3.75 a day in the Garden's car park; the council's Greenwell Road car parks are listed as free (the all-day sections need no disc)

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The Festive Alnwick Markets page for the stall list

Blanchland Artisan Christmas Makers Market

Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November from 11am in Blanchland (DH8 9PS), the stone village on the Durham border. Only Visit Northumberland lists it, so treat the times as likely rather than gospel. It's a winding drive from most places; make a day of it.

Price

Not listed

Parking

Car parking available, per Visit Northumberland

Toilets

Yes, per the listing

Check first

Times, as there's no organiser page

Alnwick Castle Christmas Fair

The castle is closed for the season by then but opens its Guest Hall for a fair of handmade gifts and seasonal food, for the charity Smile For Life. Its page gives market day as 25 November (a Wednesday) in a two-day fair; Visit Northumberland says 24 and 25 November. Prices "available soon". Nice if you're in Alnwick midweek, not one to build a trip round.

Price

Ticketed; price not announced

Parking

The castle shares a pay car park with The Alnwick Garden; council car parks in Alnwick are free

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Which days and times, on the castle's page

Ford and Etal Christmas Market

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November, 10am to 4pm, across Ford, Etal and Heatherslaw: more than 70 stalls in four hubs, entertainment, vintage buses, and Ford Castle opening its doors (it's normally closed to the public). Admission tickets, including the buses, are sold at information points; advance tickets and information sheets are promised on the estate's site in November. Dogs on leads welcome.

This is the one I'd drive for. It fills a day, the buses save shuffling the car between villages, and when else do you get inside Ford Castle?

Price

Admission ticket, including the vintage buses; price not published on 29 Sep

Parking

Details due in the November information sheets; Etal has a car park by the castle

Toilets

Due in the November information sheets

Check first

Ticket price and the bus route, on the estate's page in November

Errington Reay Festive Fair

Errington Reay's pottery in Bardon Mill opens up on Sunday 29 November, 11am to 3pm, with local makers, pottery demonstrations, food and drink and things for children to do. Free entry, dogs on leads welcome. Good if you're staying along Hadrian's Wall that weekend.

Price

Free

Parking

Free

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The pottery's event page for the maker list

Aln Valley Railway Christmas Fair

Sunday 29 November: Christmas stalls in the locomotive shed at Lionheart Station, Alnwick, with steam trains running. Times and prices not published yet. Stalls for you, steam engines for the bairns; everybody's happy for about an hour.

Price

Not published yet

Parking

Not stated on the railway's page

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Times and train fares on the tickets page

Ship Inn Christmas Fair

Wednesday 2 December, 11am to 7pm at The Ship Inn (NE66 3EL): the pub's annual charity fair of local makers, with a special food menu; details to be announced. A Christmas fair in a pub by a beach on a Wednesday is about as Northumberland as it gets.

Price

Not stated by the organiser

Parking

The council's pay and display car park at Low Newton

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The pub's fair page for details and the charity

Forage Christmas Market

The Rigg and Furrow brewery at Acomb, just north of Hexham, hosts local makers and food producers on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December from noon, per Visit Northumberland's listing. No organiser page, so check times first.

Price

Not listed

Parking

Not stated by the organiser

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Times, as the only source is the tourism listing

Hexham Christmas Market and Hexham Abbey Christmas Fair

Saturday 12 December is Hexham's big day. The Abbey's Christmas fair runs 9am to 3pm with, in its own words, hundreds of stalls indoors and out, plus hot chocolate, mince pies, carols and festive crafts for children. Visit Northumberland lists the Christmas market on Beaumont Street the same day, and the farmers' market is on in the Market Place from 9am.

If you only do one town market, make it this one. Get the train and skip the parking scrum.

Price

Free entry

Parking

Council car parks; short-stay spaces need a £1 parking disc, long-stay car parks don't. Hexham station is on the Tyne Valley line

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

The Abbey's event page the week before

Berwick Christmas Market

Berwick Rotary Club runs this one on Sunday 13 December, according to the Berwick Style listings; times will go on the Rotary's Facebook event. Last year it used part of Marygate, closed to traffic, and the Town Hall, with a Santa's grotto. The 2026 layout isn't confirmed.

Price

Not stated by the organiser

Parking

Free council car parks, such as Castlegate long stay (all day, no disc); short-stay spaces need a £1 disc

Toilets

Not stated by the organiser

Check first

Times and layout on Berwick Rotary's Facebook event