Christmas in Chicago

The temperatures drop fast, but December is when Chicago puts on its best show. The downtown season opens all at once in the week before Thanksgiving, and from then until Christmas Eve you can fill a weekend without spending much more than the cost of a mug of glühwein. Dates move a little every year, so check each event's own page before you plan around it.

Christkindlmarket

The Christkindlmarket is a German-style Christmas market modeled on Nuremberg's. It started on Pioneer Court in 1996 and moved to Daley Plaza in 1997, and it has grown into the largest Christmas market in the US, with well over a million visitors a year. We used to say it opened the day before Thanksgiving. It doesn't. It opens on the Friday before Thanksgiving and runs daily until Christmas Eve.

Entry is free. You pay for the food: bratwurst, giant soft pretzels, potato pancakes and gingerbread. Vendors from Germany, Austria, Ukraine and around Chicago sell ornaments, beer steins, candles and toys. The glühwein (hot mulled wine) comes in a collectible mug, and people take the collecting part seriously. In 2023 the market ran out of mugs. Go on a weekday morning if you can. On a Saturday afternoon in December, the Loop crowd moves through the stalls at a shuffle.

There's a second city market at Gallagher Way, the plaza next to Wrigley Field, which stays open through New Year's Eve, and one in suburban Aurora. The market's site has hours for each.

The city's Christmas tree

This page used to send you to Daley Plaza for the tree too. The city's official Christmas tree stood there, with one break in 1982, from 1966 until 2014, and in 2015 it moved to Millennium Park. Now it goes up near Michigan Avenue and Washington Street, and the mayor lights it at a free ceremony on the Friday before Thanksgiving, the same day the Christkindlmarket opens, with a show on a stage along Washington Street and fireworks after. The tree stays lit into early January. The city's tree page has this year's date, plus a small holiday market in the park that weekend and free sing-alongs on December Fridays. You can't bring your own alcohol to the lighting, even though you can to most other events in the park.

The McCormick Tribune Ice Rink is right there. Skating is free, rentals cost extra, and you need an online reservation. Our December page covers the rink, the Maggie Daley Park skating ribbon and the rest of the month.

Lights on Michigan Avenue

The day after the tree lighting, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival switches on more than a million lights in the trees along North Michigan Avenue. There's a daytime street fair, then an evening parade that heads south from Oak Street, led by Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and fireworks over the river at the end. It's free and it gets packed, so claim a piece of curb early and dress warmer than you think you need to. After that, the lights stay up for the season, and a walk down the Magnificent Mile after dark is one of the easiest holiday outings in the city.

Macy's on State Street

State Street still does Christmas the old way. The windows at Macy's, in the old Marshall Field's building at 111 N. State St., get a new holiday display every year, a tradition NBC Chicago dates back more than 50 years. Inside, the Walnut Room, which ABC7 calls the first restaurant ever opened inside a department store, is built around the Great Tree, a 45-foot tree hung with about 1,500 ornaments. It's lit in early November, and the store has held a tree lighting for more than 115 years. Lunch under the tree is a family ritual for a lot of Chicagoans, and tables in December go fast, so reserve well ahead. If you can't get a table, the windows are free.

The CTA Holiday Train

If you're riding the L in December, keep an eye out for the CTA Holiday Train. It started on the Blue Line in 1992 as an out-of-service train delivering food to charities, and it still makes those deliveries. The cars are wrapped in holiday art and outlined in thousands of lights, and Santa rides up front on an open flatcar with his reindeer, waving at people on the platforms. It runs on regular service, one line at a time, from late November through most of December, so it costs a normal fare. CTA posts the schedule for each line before the season starts, and there's a Holiday Bus too.

More holiday traditions

• ZooLights at Lincoln Park Zoo runs from late November into early January. It's ticketed now, and cheaper if you buy ahead. It's closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
• The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry's Christmas Around the World started in 1942 with one tree and now has more than 50, decorated by community volunteers. See our page on the museum.
• The Goodman Theatre in the Loop has staged A Christmas Carol every year since 1978, and the Joffrey Ballet dances The Nutcracker at the Civic Opera House. More in theatre in Chicago.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Plan Christmas Eve around the museums, because most of them are open, some with shorter hours, and then plan Christmas Day around the fact that most of them aren't. The Field Museum, the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium and the Art Institute all close on December 25, and Shedd Aquarium has closed on Christmas Day too. Check each one's holiday hours, since early closings on the 24th are common.

The one sure thing on Christmas Day is height. Skydeck at Willis Tower says it's open 365 days a year (see our Skydeck guide). Lincoln Park Zoo is open every day of the year too, and free, though ZooLights isn't running that night. The old tip on this page, a Christmas Eve drink at the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock, no longer works. The Signature Room and its lounge closed in September 2023. The observation deck below it, 360 CHICAGO, is still open, and its CloudBar will pour you a drink with the view, but check its holiday hours before you go.

For dinner, the neighborhood places you'd want to eat at mostly close for the day. Downtown, the hotel restaurants and bars are the most reliable bet for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and a lot of them do a set holiday menu that you'll need to book. The hotel restaurants this page used to recommend have nearly all closed or changed since it was written, so search for this year's openings, and remember the old rule that Chinese restaurants are the neighborhood places most likely to be open. Our nightlife page can help once dinner's done.

For the rest of the month, see things to do in Chicago in December, Chicago in December for weather and packing, and New Year's in Chicago. The full calendar is on our holidays and events page.

Photo by Chicago Man