Advent 2026 in Switzerland: which weekend for what?

🎄 Markets on the 4th Sunday: more than half have already closed

On Saturday 19 December, the Christmas markets in Baar, Arbon, Davos, Arlesheim and Aarburg have been over for three weeks: each had a single day, on the first weekend of Advent. That is the fate of more than half of the Christmas markets: 41 close before the Saturday of the fourth Advent weekend.

If you want the feel of a small market, go early, not late. The big ones stay: that is the next section.

When the markets close, the lights come on: from 6 December, 9 light trails open on every Advent weekend day; on the Saturday of the 1st Advent weekend there were 4.

⏱️ How long a market lasts: 5 days, not a month

Zurich, Basel, Lausanne, Bern, Winterthur, Lucerne and St. Gallen hold their market on all four Advent weekends. In Baar, by contrast, it lasts a single day.

In between is the normal case: the median Christmas market lasts 5 days. The big market is long, the small one short.

🗓️ Busiest Advent weekend: number 2, not the 4th

The quietest Saturday of Advent is the last one: on 19 December, 61 events are on, fewer than on any other Advent Saturday.

"The closer to Christmas, the more is on": wrong, the busiest is weekend 2.

The 2nd weekend has the most markets open (46), and candle-dipping is still at its opening level (25 workshops on Saturday, 25 on the 1st).

🛍️ Sunday shopping Advent: 49 towns in the canton of Zurich

In the canton of Zurich, shops open in 49 towns and villages on Sunday 20 December: not just in Zurich and Winterthur, but from Adliswil to Zumikon. All dates and times: Sunday shopping in the canton of Zurich.

Why so many municipalities one by one? In the canton of Zurich, each municipality sets its own shopping Sundays, up to four, uniformly for its whole territory (Zurich act on public holidays and shop opening hours, § 5(3), based on Art. 19(6) of the federal Employment Act; no official English version exists, this is a description, not a quotation). 49 of the 53 Zurich municipalities with a shopping Sunday in Advent choose 20 December.

Outside the canton of Zurich, shops open that Sunday in places including Basel, Bern, Lucerne, Thun and Solothurn.

🕯️ Candle-dipping in Advent: 7 of 25 still open on the last Advent Saturday

On the Saturday before Christmas, only 7 of 25 candle-dipping workshops are still open. On the third Advent weekend 12 close; in St. Gallen, Chur, Dietikon and Wetzikon that is the end altogether.

So the candle is an early-Advent project: if you want it on the Christmas table, make it by the third weekend.

📍 Advent in your canton: all four weekends

Choose your canton: for every Saturday and Sunday of Advent you see what is open, what has its last day and which radar destination is open that day, in the ConvivaPlus Ausflugs-Report.

All 26 cantons

• Aargau→
• Appenzell Ausserrhoden→
• Appenzell Innerrhoden→
• Basel-Landschaft→
• Basel-Stadt→
• Bern→
• Fribourg→
• Geneva→
• Glarus→
• Graubünden→
• Jura→
• Lucerne→
• Neuchâtel→
• Nidwalden→
• Obwalden→
• Schaffhausen→
• Schwyz→
• Solothurn→
• St. Gallen→
• Thurgau→
• Ticino→
• Uri→
• Valais→
• Vaud→
• Zug→
• Zurich→

📊 The 4 Advent weekends in numbers

The busiest weekend is number 2, but the busiest single day is the fourth Sunday of Advent: 115 events, 54 of them shops with Sunday opening. Without the shops, that Sunday is no busier than the Saturday before it (61 to 61).

📥 Download the data: CSV, free with attribution

The whole Advent count in one file: every event for every Advent weekend day, with canton, municipality, venue, times where published, source and check date, in 720 rows. Licence CC BY 4.0, attribution "ConvivaPlus Ausflugs-Report".

🔍 How we count

All figures in this report apply to our calendar: 259 events in 26 cantons, including 78 Christmas markets. Only events whose organiser has published the date count; every line carries its source and check date. An event open on Saturday and Sunday counts as two event-days.

"Closed by the fourth Sunday of Advent" means the last published day falls before the Saturday of the 4th Advent weekend. Published opening days (e.g. weekends only) are respected.

• ✨ Christmas markets →
• 🕯️ Candle dipping →
• 🛍️ Sunday shopping →
• 🧭 Back to the Excursion Radar →