Possibly my favourite month in Vienna. December is, of course, the Christmas season. The aroma of Glühwein and Punch courses through the streets, and the city glistens under thousands of seasonal (energy-saving) lights.
- Book a classical concert experience* for your trip
- See also:
Vienna in December 2025
We have all the usual museums, concerts, tours and similar. But let us explore December’s unique offerings…
My quick tip
The markets (see below) are the obvious attractions this time of year. But I know many visitors like to round off the day with an atmospheric light classical concert in some historical venue.
So try my suggestions for concerts featuring the best of Mozart and Strauss in baroque churches, aristocratic palaces and turn-of-the-century magnificence.
The Christmas season
(The lights on the pedestrianised Graben in the city centre)
So, yes, it’s that lovely time of year. May I first direct you to 9 things to do in Vienna at Christmas?
Those are my top tips for enjoying a truly Viennese advent experience: from the best places to see the lights to the joys of Christmas recitals, roast chestnuts and, um, sausages.
Alternatively, browse my big Christmas 2025 overview.
The markets
(The Schönbrunn Christmas market at the palace)
The Christmas markets dominate the Viennese December, of course, and may be why you’re visiting in the first place.
In 2025, I expect all the main ones to open in the second or third week of November, and then stay open until December 23rd or later. I keep a more detailed eye on market dates here.
Popular with locals, too, many markets are long-established traditional events: these are not gimmicks to keep tourists amused.
Colleagues, friends, and families collect together to share a mug of advent cheer and enjoy a bowl of goulash or a pair of frankfurters and then take home a chocolate-coated strawberry or two. Or three.
Or four.
(The lovely Art Advent market with the Karlskirche church behind)
I should mention that the markets deserve their reputation. Atmospheric, packed with local food and beverages, and stuffed with stalls selling arts, crafts and enough Lebkuchen to delight a hungry whale.
The markets also make a great evening when combined with one of those advent concerts mentioned earlier.
A couple of bonus markets and similar events tend to also pop up during December or late November. For example:
- An alternative to the traditional open-air markets for finding gifts and handicrafts is the Edelstoff X-MAS edition (December 6th to 7th): an indoor design fair in the Marx Halle
- The hugely-popular Advent market at the Heeresgeschichtliches museum of military history sells
plague cures,smock fashions(historical) crafts, wares, food and beverages (2025 dates TBA)
- The WAMP design market Christmas edition normally drops into the MuseumsQuartier (2025 dates TBA)
- Last time out, the Vienna Vintage Photo Fair had a special Xmas edition in cooperation with the Westlicht photography centre & camera museum (who hosted the market). Hopefully, this repeats in 2025
- Cream Vienna has arts, crafts, gourmet items and similar (2025 dates TBA)
- Parallel Editions addresses small-scale art: editions, prints, art books and similar (2025 dates TBA)
- The Winter Art Market hosted at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna offers the chance to buy items from several dozen academy artists (2025 dates TBA)
Art in December 2025
(The Kunsthistorisches Museum has a Michaelina Wautier exhibition in 2025)
The more prestigious art museums save up their best exhibitions for the later part of the year, presumably to catch the December crowds. It’s early days yet, but…
Highlights
- The Kunsthistorisches Museum blesses us with a major Michaelina Wautier exhibition. A rare chance to see the works of a female 17th-century artist among those of her male contemporaries like Rubens
- Two treats at Lower Belvedere. The likes of Cézanne, Monet, and Renoir pay a visit to Vienna with paintings from the Villa Langmatt collection. And we have an intriguing exhibition around the astonishing character busts of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
- The Albertina drops in with some presents. Gothic Modern shows how modernist masterpieces by Munch and co. took inspiration from late medieval works. We also have a retrospective for photographer Lisette Model, a cross-section of works by Leiko Ikemura, and an intriguing exhibition around paper as an artistic medium
- The Albertina Modern also has some gift-wrapped joys for us, including an exhibition with a focus on US artist KAWS and another around dynamic imagery found in the works of Victor Vasarely and Marc Adrian
- The Kunstforum Wien goes all performance art with a major exhibition for Marina Abramović
- A lovely Christmas bonus among the MAK Museum‘s many exhibitions: Dressed Up has a display of Christmas tree decorations from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. But the big exhibition is one on the ahead-of-its-time design and cultural vision of Helmut Lang (from December 10th)
- Modernist painting took its influence from various sources, including spiritual, philosophical and sociocultural movements, as the Hidden Modernism exhibition at the Leopold Museum reveals
- Discover the works of renowned Austrian sculptor Franz Wotruba in a predominately international context at Belvedere 21
- Take a trip back to the 1960s at mumok with a look at a selection of seminal art events and publications from the time, illustrated with appropriate works. They also, for example, offer an in-house retrospective around the 1980s
- The Weltmuseum explores the long sociocultural history of the mighty trousers
- The photos of Roger Cremers at the Jewish Museum trace the legacy of WWII and the Shoah in today’s world. The same institution also explores issues around Jewish identity and skin colour
See the main exhibition listings for more suggestions as schedules continue to expand.
The power of voice
Voice Mania (November 7th to December 7th) is an international A Capella festival that brings together vocal talents to brighten any December gloom with song. You might even encounter a few performances out and about in the pedestrianised centre.
New Year’s Eve
(A stop on the Silvesterpfad in a previous year)
A huge number of folk spend December 31st on the Silvesterpfad, which involves a trail of locations through the city centre with temporary stages and all sorts of entertainment: from public ballroom dancing lessons to DJs and funk bands.
No need to pack sandwiches, either: numerous food and drink stalls line the route.
The days leading up to the big night also feature the natural successor to the Christmas market as one or more New Year markets spring up (usually simply a continuation of their predecessors). You miss the Advent ambience a little, but the big ones still remain rather fine.
Catch the New Year’s concert(!)
(Christian Thielemann conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker at a recent New Year’s Concert; press photo © Wiener Philharmoniker / Dieter Nagl)
Yes, you read that right.
Should you wish to catch the prestigious and globally-recognised January 1st New Year’s Concert from the Wiener Philharmoniker orchestra, you can do so in December: the orchestra plays the full programme on December 30th and December 31st, too.
The only problem is you need to have applied for tickets via a lottery system much earlier in the year.
Dance on ice
(The ice skating association has a long and prestigious history)
The huge Vienna Ice World outdoor complex only opens in January. But we have other notable open-air ice rinks in Vienna. For example:
- The Eislaufverein holds a special place in the history of the city (and of ice skating), and the rink normally opens throughout December
- The Christmas on the Rathausplatz festivities include lighted ice trails through the park as a taster for that larger Ice World event
Seasonal tip(s)
Escape the cold
(One of our traditional coffee houses)
The bracing December weather means you may wish to take advantage of Vienna’s classic cafés, where coffee is an art form, and time stands still long enough for you to warm your toes on strudel and your hearts on sachertorte.
And, if you want to make a point of staying warm, Vienna has its own thermal spa. You can reach Therme Wien easily on the U1 subway.
Another less time-consuming and more central warm water option is the Schwerelos Floating Centre, where you float (and, more importantly, switch off and relax) in a broad tub of saltwater.
Dress warmly & time your market visit
(If we’re lucky enough to get snow at Christmas, it all looks beautiful)
December is winter time in Austria. And the Christmas markets look best at dusk and later, so you don’t even have the sun to keep you warm.
The markets are also popular (to say the least), particularly the nearer you get to December 24th. So consider going midweek in the late afternoon, when you probably get the best tradeoff between atmosphere and crowds. This also leaves additional time for evening activities.
Read some more tips for visiting the markets.
Book early
A final word of advice…December is typically one of the two most popular months for visitors in Vienna alongside August. So plan and book accommodation early, especially if you want to stay in the city over the Christmas and New Year public holidays.