Candle dipping on the Uetliberg: when everyone else has packed up
✓ Checked at the source · as of 8 September 2026
Between Christmas and New Year the Swiss candle-dipping season is over – tents down, wax cold. With exactly one exception: on the Uetliberg they keep dipping into the new year. That is what gives this place a special position in our calendar. And it is also why you will find it shut on a weekday.
📅 Dates 2026 — when and where
Kerzenziehen auf dem Uetliberg (UTO KULM)
✓Saturday, 7 November 2026 – Sunday, 3 January 2027 · 58 days
- Organiser
- UTO KULM AG
Source: utokulm.ch · checked on 8 September 2026
🕐 Opening hours 2026
Usually open until 20:00 – most events in the calendar close earlier.
SAT 12:00–20:00 · SUN 10:00–18:00 · Public holidays: 24 December 10:00–17:00, 25 December 10:00–17:00, 31 December 10:00–17:00, 1 January 12:00–20:00
Each bar is a documented run. Dark = this session, pale = the nearest ones. Read a single date and you miss that the neighbouring village has already packed up when the wax here is only just warming.
🗓️ Open today?
18 days fall on a Saturday or Sunday – enter your day and the check tells you what is open.
📅 Visit-Day Check by ConvivaPlus
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.
Calculated from the ConvivaPlus dataset — every date with its own source above.
🚋 Transport & access
- Meeting point
- Hotel UTO KULM, Uetliberg, Räume «Foresto» / «Legno», 8143 Uetliberg
📋 Good to know before you go
- Food and drink
- Das Kerzenziehen lässt sich als Gruppenanlass mit einem Weihnachtsessen im Hotel kombinieren.
- Open only at weekends (plus the public holidays listed) — anyone arriving on a weekday finds the door shut.
- The price is CHF 5.50 per 100 grams including the wick.
- Book a 45-minute slot via the online form; a candle typically takes 20 to 30 minutes.
- Groups of 31 or more go through the banqueting team, not the form.
✨ Highlights on site
What sets this candle-dipping session apart is not in its run dates.
The run is the real story of this place. Of the 52 documented Swiss sessions, the second-longest ends in December – this one carries on, past Christmas, past New Year's Eve, into January. Anyone who missed the candle for their own Christmas table has exactly this one address left in the whole country. And anyone who deliberately wants to lift candle dipping out of the Advent crush will find the only opportunity here.
Another point is about format: you do not simply step up to a wax pot here, you book a window.
When would you go up the Uetliberg to dip candles?
One click – anonymous, no sign-up required.
🎯 Practical tips for your visit
The Uetliberg is a good twenty minutes from Zurich main station on the S10, then a short walk.
- 1Weekend, not runThe run stretches over weeks, but the doors only open on Saturdays and Sundays plus the announced holidays. Going up midweek means standing in front of locked rooms with a train ticket in your pocket.
- 2Large groups do not go through the formFrom 31 people the hotel's banquet team takes over. That is not a detail: it is the difference between a refusal and a company outing with a Christmas dinner – a combination the organiser explicitly offers.
🗺️ Nearby sessions
The Uetliberg is the last to close – and one of the first to open. Between the end of the neighbourhood sessions in the city of Zurich and 3 January there is a window in which it stands alone nationwide. The canton of Zurich has 24 sessions.
Nationally the densest day of the season is 2 December 2026, with 28 sessions running at once. The Uetliberg is one of them that day – and two weeks later the only one left. The season spans 23 September 2026 to 3 January 2027.
More candle dipping in the canton of Zurich
All of the canton of Zurich →❓ FAQ — answered
Answers from the verified dataset – no date carried over from last year.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
The Zürcher Kerzenziehen on Hechtplatz: daily, Sunday to Thursday until 8pm, Fridays and Saturdays until 9pm.
Among the city of Zurich offerings the lowest published price is CHF 3.20 per 100 grams for coloured candles; nationally the range starts at CHF 3.–.
The earliest documented session in the calendar starts on 23 September 2026 – before a single Christmas market has been built.
The ConvivaPlus verdict
As a day out this is the strongest candle-dipping spot in the canton: mountain railway, view, hotel room, dinner – and a window in which nobody else in the country is dipping at all. Anyone who deliberately wants candle dipping out of the Advent rush can only do it here.
As spontaneous family entertainment it is the weakest: closed midweek, booked rather than open, and at the top of the price range. Anyone wanting to dip wax with two children on a Wednesday afternoon does better at a Zurich community centre. This place sells an excursion, not a workshop.
When we last checked: Holiday hours and slot availability change at short notice. We read them on 8 September 2026 directly from the hotel – check again before heading up, a locked door costs a train journey here. The basis is the ConvivaPlus-Kerzenzieh-Kalender 2026: every entry was read individually at its source for the ConvivaPlus calendar — this ConvivaPlus verdikt rests on nothing else.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus candle-dipping dataset 2026 – Zurich · Uetliberg →
- ◆The run does not lie, but it misleads: 58 calendar days sound like continuous operation.
- ◆The window after Christmas: between 27 December and 3 January this is the only place in our calendar where candles are still being dipped anywhere in Switzerland.
🗓️ At the same time in the canton of Zurich
- 🏊 Winter swimming in the canton of Zurichfrom Fri 9 Oct
- 🚂 Festive rides in the canton of ZurichSun 1 Nov – Sun 28 Feb
- ✨ Light trails in the canton of Zurichfrom Thu 5 Nov
- 🏮 Turnip lanterns in the canton of ZurichThu 5 Nov · Fri 6 Nov · Sat 7 Nov · Sat 14 Nov
- 🛍️ Sunday shopping in the canton of ZurichSun 15 Nov – Sun 27 Dec
- ✨ Christmas markets in the canton of ZurichWed 18 Nov – Thu 24 Dec
- 🎅 St Nicholas in the canton of ZurichSun 29 Nov
How we check
According to the ConvivaPlus calendar, 5 of the 52 confirmed events this season start earlier than this one and 44 later.
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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🕯️ Candle dipping · 8 September 2026