Thun Christmas market 2026: dates, hours, getting there from Bern

When is the Thun Christmas market 2026?

From Friday 27 November to Wednesday 23 December 2026. The huts are open Monday to Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm and on Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. That is what the website of the Kommission Thuner Weihnachtsmarkt, which organises the market, says.

The food and drink area with the Märit-Beizli on Waisenhausplatz stays open longer: Monday to Saturday until 10 pm, Sunday until 8 pm. According to the organisers it is also open on 27 and 28 December, when the huts are already gone.

Where is the market?

In the middle of Thun's old town. It starts on Waisenhausplatz, crosses the Mühlebrücke and ends on Mühleplatz by the Aare. In 2026, according to the organisers, the Bälliz is part of it too. Together there are more than 50 wooden huts.

By train from Bern

There are many direct trains between Bern and Thun. According to the SBB timetable the Intercity takes 19 minutes and the RegioExpress 21. The S1 takes about half an hour. On a Saturday morning at the end of November, six direct trains leave Bern between 10 and 11 am.

From Thun station to Waisenhausplatz it is just under 400 metres, about five minutes on foot. To Mühleplatz it is a little over 500 metres.

Getting home in the evening is easy too. After 8 pm, when the huts close, the timetable shows an Intercity to Bern about every half hour, with the S1 in between. We checked the timetable for the end of November. Have a quick look in the SBB app before you travel.

What is on sale?

Lots of crafts and some food. The list of stallholders includes knives made of Damascus steel and ceramics. Others sell things made of llama and alpaca wool, or honey. If you are hungry there are roasted almonds and churros. At the Märit-Beizli there are gyros and Chnoblibrot (garlic bread), and to warm up mulled wine, hot cider (Glühmost) or orange punch.

Some of the huts are “Wechselhäuschen” (rotating huts). The people there change, and some stay only three or four days. So if you go twice, you will not see the same thing twice. At hut 49 you can dip your own candles.

Programme 2026

• Ice stock sport (Eisstockschiessen) on Mühleplatz, from 27 November to 28 December. At most eight people per lane.
• Chlouse-Schwümme on Saturday 5 December: more than 200 people dressed as Samichlaus (St Nicholas) jump into the Aare at Mühleplatz for a good cause. Tickets to take part have been on sale since 4 November.
• Samichlaus visits on Wednesday 9 December at 2 pm.
• Donkey rides on Sundays 13 and 20 December, from 2 pm on Rathausplatz.

Since 1988

In 1987 the Innenstadtgenossenschaft Thun (the old town traders' association) turned down a first request for a Christmas market. On 15 December 1988 it finally started, with 20 stalls on Rathausplatz. The market only moved to Waisenhausplatz in 2004, and only because the school next to the town hall was being renovated. After that nobody wanted to go back. The matching wooden huts have been there since 2009. Since 2022 there have also been huts on the bridge.

Thun and Bern in one day?

That works well, the trip is short. In Bern the Christmas markets start in November already; all dates and hours are in Christmas markets in Bern 2026. If you travel on a Sunday: on 13 and 20 December the shops in Bern's city centre are open too, more in Sunday shopping in Bern. And if after the ice stock you want to skate yourself: Ice skating in Bern.

Questions and answers

How long does the train from Bern to Thun take?
19 minutes by Intercity, about 30 minutes by S1. You do not need to change.

Is the market open on 24 December?
No. The last market day is Wednesday 23 December. After that, according to the organisers, only the food and drink area opens, on 27 and 28 December.

How long is it open on Sundays?
The huts from 11 am to 6 pm, the Märit-Beizli until 8 pm.

Sources: Kommission Thuner Weihnachtsmarkt, thuner-weihnachtsmarkt.ch: home page, programme, market huts, rotating huts and history (text from October 2025); SBB timetable Bern–Thun for 28 and 30 November 2026, queried via transport.opendata.ch; walking routes from Thun station calculated with OpenStreetMap (routing.openstreetmap.de). Read on 7 November 2026. The organiser's website always applies.