Noël des Montagnes: nine days, nine opening times – and four of them do not start until five
✓ Checked at the source · as of 15 September 2026
Plan the Wednesday like the Saturday and you are seven hours early on an empty square. This market does not have an opening time. It has nine.
📅 Dates 2026 — when and where
9 days in a row, 2 weekends included.
Noël des Montagnes
✓Saturday, 12 December 2026 – Sunday, 20 December 2026 · 9 days
- Organiser
- Noël des Montagnes
Nine days in a row, and on five of them the market opens only at 17:00. Anyone planning the weekdays like a weekend stands six hours early on an empty square – which is why the organiser lists every single day with its own hours.
Source: noeldesmontagnes.ch · checked on 15 September 2026
🕐 Opening hours 2026
Where stalls, food and bars close at different times, each window is listed separately.
Sat 12.12 10:00–21:00 · Sun 13.12 11:00–18:00 · Mon 14.12 17:00–21:00 · Tue 15.12 17:00–21:00 · Wed 16.12 14:00–21:00 · Thu 17.12 17:00–21:00 · Fri 18.12 17:00–21:00 · Sat 19.12 10:00–21:00 · Sun 20.12 11:00–18:00
🗓️ Open today?
9 days with something on, 4 of them on a Saturday or Sunday – enter your day and the check tells you what is open.
📅 Visit-day check
Pick the day you are free — the answer comes from the verified ConvivaPlus dataset, not from a run you have to work out in your head.
| Session | Run | Opening hours | Date set? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noël des Montagnes | Sat 12 Dec – Sun 20 Dec9 days | Sat 12.12 10:00–21:00 · Sun 13.12 11:00–18:00 · Mon 14.12 17:00–21:00 · Tue 15.12 17:00–21:00 · Wed 16.12 14:00–21:00 · Thu 17.12 17:00–21:00 · Fri 18.12 17:00–21:00 · Sat 19.12 10:00–21:00 · Sun 20.12 11:00–18:00 | confirmed |
Calculated from the ConvivaPlus dataset — every row with its own source above.
🚋 Transport & access with stop
The nearest stop is 18 metres away as the crow flies.
- Meeting point
- Place du Marché, La Chaux-de-Fonds
- Nearest stop
- La Chaux-de-Fonds, Marché (BUS) — 18 m as the crow flies
Coordinates © swisstopo · Stops: opentransportdata.swiss (FOT)
✨ Highlights on site
What sets this market apart from every other one is not in its run dates.
Most Christmas markets have one opening time and one exception. This one has nine times for nine days, and the gap between the earliest and the latest start is seven hours: Saturday 10:00, Monday 17:00.
The reason is a daily rhythm a market plan knows nothing about. On weekdays nobody comes before the end of work; on Wednesday afternoon the children have no school and the market opens at 14:00; at weekends it runs from the morning. The organiser does not smooth this over — every day is written out separately. We reproduce it exactly, instead of turning it into one convenient average: with four different start times, any simplification would be wrong on at least five of the nine days.
In practice: Saturday is the only day with a morning. With small children exactly two of the nine days are usable. In the evening you have all nine — but four of them only begin when elsewhere half the evening is already over.
Nine days, four start times – when would you go?
One click – anonymous, no sign-up required.
🎯 Practical tips for your visit
- 1Late in the seasonA date for late deciders: 61 of the season's 69 events have already started before.
- 22 weekendsThe period spans 2 weekends – miss one and there is still a second.
- 3Wednesday from 14:00 — the exception within the exceptionWednesday starts three hours earlier than the other weekdays but four hours later than Saturday. Plan the week as one block and this is exactly the day you get wrong.
- 4Sunday: 11:00–18:00, early finishBoth Sundays end at 18:00 rather than 21:00 — three hours earlier than any other day. Sunday evening does not exist here.
📊 Season comparison with nearby markets
Where this market sits in the season — and which neighbour has already closed when it opens.
Each bar is a documented run. Dark = this market, pale = the nearest ones. Read only a single date and you miss that a neighbouring market has already closed when this one opens.
- La Chaux-de-Fonds · Place du MarchéNoël des Montagnes
- MurtenFR
🗺️ Nearby markets
The ConvivaPlus Christmas market overview lists 69 markets with a documented run; the season goes from 18 November 2026 to 10 January 2027. The Noël des Montagnes takes nine days in December and is the only entry from the canton of Neuchâtel.
In French-speaking Switzerland the large neighbours sit on the lake: Bô Noël in Lausanne and Montreux Noël run for weeks, as does Noël au Quai in Geneva. In the Jura we record two markets, both still without a published date for 2026.
Markets nearby
❓ FAQ — answered
Answers from the verified dataset – nothing carried over from last year.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
Because they adapt to daily life rather than the other way round: on weekdays nobody comes before the end of work, on the school-free Wednesday afternoon they do, at weekends from the morning. The Noël des Montagnes therefore publishes nine separate times for nine days.
The town's central market square, which gives the Christmas market its location. La Chaux-de-Fonds is laid out on a grid — so the square is equally reachable from every side.
In this overview: Lausanne, Montreux, Geneva, Monthey, Sion and La Chaux-de-Fonds; Delémont and Bure in the Jura are added, both still without a published date for 2026.
The ConvivaPlus verdict
The window lasts 9 days – enough time, but not a standing offer. From the first day to Christmas Eve there are 12 days.
Freshness note: Run and the nine daily times come from noeldesmontagnes.ch, read on 15 September 2026. The organiser publishes neither a street address nor a postcode; both are absent here. The claim «only recorded market in the canton of Neuchâtel» is counted in our own survey and says nothing about every market in the canton.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus Christmas market dataset 2026 – La Chaux-de-Fonds · Place du Marché →
- ◆Nine times are more honest than one: an organiser who writes «daily from 17:00» makes life easier for everyone — except the visitors on the four days when that is untrue. The Noël des Montagnes publishes nine separate times instead. It looks untidy, and it is the only version in which nobody ends up on an empty square.
- ◆The Wednesday gives away the calendar behind it: it opens at 14:00, three hours earlier than the other weekdays. That is not chance, it is the region's school-free afternoon. Read opening hours like a timetable and you miss that they are a statement about the audience — and about which days this market exists for families at all.
How we check
Every date comes from the organiser's, the municipality's or the canton's own site — never from an aggregator, never copied over from last year. Next to each source is the date we last read it.
Something missing or changed? A note below is enough; we check it at the source.
ConvivaPlus Editor · Family & Day Trips
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All information without guarantee. Found an error? → support@conviva-plus.ch
From the La Chaux-de-Fonds, Marché stop it is 18 metres as the crow flies.
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✨ Christmas markets · 15 September 2026